Day off?

Back in probably February, or maybe March, the librarian at Carbondale contacted me to see if the 4-H kids could set up a petting zoo for one of their summer story time sessions.  I told her of course we could.  And then hung up the phone, and promptly set it on the back burner.  When I brought it up to the club, and told them that they were going to get community service time in, they all stared at me blankly.  Panicked, I called the county agent, who found me some people in other clubs to bring a few things over, and I decided this was on me, so I better figure how to get as many things there as I could.  I conned Mallory into helping.  Harper, Saige and I loaded up some baby chickens, a rabbit, a turtle, Chizzy the goat who never grows, and of course, Maude, the sweet Bassett hound.  A couple of other families from other clubs did show up with more rabbits, some baby goats, a bearded dragon and some hissing cockroaches!  It was quite a petting zoo!  

A little off topic, but the Carbondale Library has a wonderful summer reading/story time program.  Their librarian sets up cool activities and has a lot of great ideas and the energy to pull them off.  There were 175 kids who showed up for a petting zoo yesterday.  Some of the kids were from neighboring towns, as Scranton doesn't have a public library, and Overbrook's library is wonderful, but the librarian seems to really cater more toward the older people in town - with puzzle swaps, trivia nights, crossword puzzle clubs and book reading clubs.  I guess they each have a niche.  

Maude can be a little bit of a turd, likes to nip and jump.  Yesterday, she was an absolute angel!  I had to steal the photos off of the Carbondale Library page, as I was a bit busy controlling baby chickens and Randy the turtle.  Mallory held Maude, and said that she was very sweet with all the kids, and even though towards the end she was sort of petted out, she stayed sweet.  She did come home and crash on the living room floor for about 3 hours!  

Chizzy didn't care who petted her, as long as she could eat the library lawn.  She also might have helped herself to one of the tomato plants in their community garden (sorry Heather).  

Evie and Wrenley were there - they love the library!  I am so glad that their mom has taken the time to make sure the girls get to do fun stuff and that she encourages them to read!

Since the reading program meets in the morning I took the day off from work.  When I got home, I finished painting my patio chairs, helped Jim with a couple of projects, worked on the garden and cleaned the pool.  Then I put a bunch of strawberries I bought in the freezer, made dinner out of produce from our garden, and did laundry.  I was just sitting down, and joking with Jim that I needed to rethink how I spend days "off" when Mallory showed up at the house.  She said that Evelyn asked her to go to Sonic, but that seemed expensive, so she told her they would do night swim at Grammy's instead.  :)  

Since I had already spent quite a lot of time in the pool, I spent time starting on the next project - which is sanding down the tables I got from Grace (project 3).  When they were done swimming, Wrenley was fascinated with the sandpaper - so I gave her a piece and put her to work.  She sanded for quite a while! 

I love that the come to hang out.  I love that when they were done swimming, they help me with my projects, and come inside to eat snacks.  I love that they live close by and keep us busy!  I am very blessed!

Also, I had to share a picture of my little finished project - the free chairs I got from Grace and James and the bistro table that Jim bought for me that I painted to match!  I need to find some time now to sit down there and enjoy it!  I also repainted the lawn chair that my sister gave me, and an old school chair that I believe came from Jim's dad, to match!  Things in the oasis are coming together!  

I am a bit alarmed at how fast June is flying by!  I love me some summertime and I don't want it to go by too quickly!