BBQ

Wednesday night, we went to a church barbeque at our friends place. They have their own park down by the creek behind their house. There were good eats, lots of good visiting, and music around the firepit. We went home smelling like campfire, funtimes.

Blue Skies

Nothing but blue skies.
music by the talented Halie Loren.
Close your eyes and think Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Eva Cassidy.....Grilled chicken strip ranch salad and iced tea.

Date night: picnic supper and concert in a park. Some smooth jazz and people watching, a nice way to end a busy work day.

Happy Pinterest Birthday, Sarah!

We took a birthday celebration lunch to Sarah's on Saturday. A crisp summer salad.
I made a slightly altered version of a potato casserole, she had pinned on Pinterest.

Another beer can chicken.

Sarah loves salty/sweet treats. She had pinned some buttery popcorn cupcakes which required popcorn flour. I made the flour, and the cupcakes, which TOTALLY flopped. They fell so bad, you could fit a second cupcake inside them. I think it was due to lots of butter, and not enough gluten. So......I pulled out a yellow cake mix, added the leftover 1/4th of the popcorn batter, and adjusted the amount of water, eggs, and less oil (used butter.) This was the result. The topping was a homemade caramel glaze, with a sea salt rim, buttercream frosting that includes some of the caramel glaze, and topped with caramel dipped buttered kettle popcorn. Sarah had pinned a gift card giving presentation that was a Starbucks cup, with brown paper, and white tissue. It was fun surprising her with it.

I'm so proud of how my little girl has grown into such a lovely woman, and wonderful mother to children of her own. She is an easy going, laid back, funny, resilient, creative, talented,wonderful friend.

Wild Dogwood Blossom

This past fall , we went through all of our paints. I had put tape labels on them, writing with marker, what future needed project they might be used for. Tuesday, I started painting the craft studio. On the phone with Dot at the time, she asked if I was "painting up and over?" Nope....the ceiling was going to be white, and the walls were going to be "baked honey" again. Her idea sounded like a good one, so the ceiling paint and wall paint got mixed together for a new color that reminds me of wild dogwood blossoms. There was a "do-over" where i had already painted, this time.... up and over, and I luuuuuuuve it. Hugs, Dot!

Wha' Happen?

I blocked out a week on the calendar to work on the craft studio. Monday's schedule was to clear out everything. (This is part of the stuff moved into the guest room) That night as a reward; we were supposed to have a date night, with a picnic and concert. The weather was "blech", and I was beat, so we stayed home and had pizza and a movie. Each day I seem to be getting further behind on this project. Yesterday, I took some time out to clean up the rest of the house, because the maid was on holiday, and it was driving me cuhhraaazy!
Anna called me Monday night and asked me what happened over here...what kind of sweat shop was I running?...... It seems as though the little farmgirl was having a bad evening, acting out and falling apart. She got disciplined, and when she calmed down, they were talking about her behavior... She cried "I had a hard day at work!" Anna asked her, "What did you do?" She replied with a dramatic, shaky, voice; "I had to pick up buttons!" (It was a cup or less, of her own volition...which I'm sure is not going to find me in too much violation of the child labor laws.)
In the meantime, perhaps the reason I'm getting behind is from having to limbo under the crime scene tape, pending investigation.......

Love

1 Corinthians 13. The love from the wedding Friday night, overflowed and continued to bless all of us through the Sunday service. God's anointing and presence was so sweet. Our church family, and our Pastor and his wife are so precious to us. Pastor spoke from Galatians about bearing one another's burdens. I just love how the Holy Spirit confirms things that we've been praying about, through other brothers and sisters, and the Word of God.

Saturday

Surprisingly, we beat the birds to the cherries, since we didn't net them this year. Saturday, Jim and I picked all of the pie cherries. They were larger this year, and we got a good crop.

Then we had a Saturday night supper of smoked, pulled pork sandwiches topped with coleslaw, and homemade applesauce from the freezer. It was all sooooo good.

When God Made You

Friday was busy. I gave Jim a haircut, and we primed the barn for painting. The little girls helped us until they lost interest....after 10 minutes or so. ;) We were blessed by attending a beautiful wedding that evening. I took photos, and got better acquainted with members of the family, which proved to be such a joy. They're so much fun, and all of them are sweethearts. I'm sharing this particular photo of the couple, since I didn't remember to get permission to blog them. There was a music solo of "When God made you", sung by our friend Joni. I've known Joni since he was in kindergarten, and he's in college now. He has such an awesome voice and style, and brought tears to a lot of guests. This wedding blended two families, and there was so much love there.

Gettin' There

These are the barn doors Jim and I built recently. We were going to have a "painting day" today, but there were lots of odds and ends that needed to be finished first. As usual, there were plenty of time consuming glitches that put everything behind schedule. Shimming and trimming, caulking.... We'll try again tomorrow, and plan on getting an early start. We're pretty tired. Yesterday we loaded, hauled, and unloaded lumber from Kates. The rental trailer had to go back today. I had a wedding rehearsal to go to, and Jim mowed.

Baby Shower

Whirlwind Nadia

Kate and little Violet Emily

Hey guys! Come see my new little cousin, 'Clark!

Down by the Creek Bank

A birthday picnic for Bob.

It was a short but sweet time.

Girl time

Josie came and spent a few days with us while brother was gone to camp. The girls came and spent time with her. They had a lot of fun with the dress up trunk of clothes, and playing pioneers. We loaded everyone's bikes into the back of the pickup and went to a park. There was a picnic lunch, biking, wading, and skipping rocks in the river. When we got home they got completely soaked with the hose, which is totally Bella's kind of fun. That night we made home-made individual pizzas, movie night (The Retrievers), and a sleepover.

Yard Crashers

Last week we worked for several days on the front yard. More digging up of plants and weeds, prepping and laying landscape cloth, and barkdust. We dismantled the old water garden and used the rocks for edging to discourage runoff on the sidewalk. Monday, another beer can chicken went on the grill. That and a Texas peach cobbler fed us for the next few days, since I had no further inclination to cook when I came in from carting rock.