June Birthdays and Coffee Drinks

It's been awhile since I posted. I 'm not sure where the summer is going.

The well-planned summer schedule just ain't happenin'.

This parenting thing is harder than it looks.

Anyway...

Between making a few weighted blankets with my helper who was weighing beads.

And having the grand kids over... (we're having a lot of fun)

You know, poor Parker has a meaner grandma than he would probably have if there weren't such young aunties. I find myself saying "no" to the "can we watch something?" question more often than I believe I would if I was just watching the grand kids.

But we would miss productions like the above photo if they had their faces glued to a screen.

I started the summer figuring that I would allow 30 min of screen time per person, per day.

Then I read a book.

Then I changed my mind and said "no".

It's a struggle and the summer is not over yet... Shekinah is reading over my shoulder as I type, hoping I give her a clue how long this ban will last. 

One day they decide that ironing looked like a lot of fun.

"Please mom, we want to iron all the laundry"

Uh-huh, that lasted about 30 minutes.

But there were some nicely pressed "smalls".

When your sister bribes you into helping hang up the laundry, 

ya make sure your hair doesn't fall into your eyes.

Coffee drinks are a hit, that is unless I add chia seeds.

I boiled a cup of water, added 3 heaping teaspoons of instant coffee,

threw in a handful of chocolate chips and stirred that mixture till chips were melted.

Cool off that syrup

Put 3 cups of ice in your blender

3 Tablespoons sugar

1 cup of milk

add most of the syrup--you can adjust to your taste.

Blend

pour in cups and top with whipped cream.

and "twalla" (Shekinah's translation) you have coffee drink.

You can use decaf coffee,"healthier" sugar, and other kinds of milk to make this better for you.

Way back in April we attended a quilt show and the girls were given some fabric, 

Faith made a cosmetics bag with hers. She was very happy how it turned out.

I still need to work with Shekinah on her sewing skills ...it's on the list.

She really doesn't think she needs to wait on me though.

Here is her start of a quilt. 

It's good there are two sewing machines in this sewing room.

Then she had a birthday! Grandma decided to share a trick that her sisters played on her on HER 70th birthday...Ten $1 bills taped to toilet paper and rolled up.

Birthdays are best if you can snag dad to play Uno before breakfast.

And shopping and Pizza Hut for lunch.

Shekinah decided that Faith can come with her.

Faith returned the favor on her birthday, ten days later.

We ate at McDonald's but somehow I didn't take a picture.

Guess what we are hearing about these days?

Umbrellas are great fun when shared with friends.