The Time has Come!

"NO WAY!" said Shekinah

She suddenly needed to sit on Ben's lap during supper.

...and practice her koala bear hug.

A far away country is in their future.

Creek Hike Sunday

You pick the hottest summer Sunday,

and find your old clothes or swimming stuff.

And you take a walk down the creek,

leave mom at home (it's tradition)

Unusual finds....a snake, harmless we think

telephone pole...sorta far from any road

Take the traditional group photo (the group changes from year to year)

Had to make sure he poses for at least one picture.

QOTD: "Mom I don't want Ben to go to Thailand."

No deary mom doesn't want Ben to go to Thailand either, really, but I think Ben should go to Thailand.  It's a little like those scary trips to China to add to our family, just think what we would have missed if we would have given in to the fear. 

Mama Day AKA Craft Day

For weeks Hope has been planning a "mama day", a day in which the girls

get all mom's attention AND do something fun.

Since we were saving SO much money by not sending the girls to camp this year, 

she thought we could spend some $$ on this "mama day".

We bought 12 rayon scarves (one free silk one) from Dharma Trading,

pulled out the dye from my years as a "fabric artist" and

got to work.

I had to read the instructions again, it's been so long!

They of course wanted chevrons.

That required "dye sticks" --expensive crayons and masking tape.

Took more patience than they thought.

Shekinah solved the glove problem (there were none her size) by

going in the house and getting her winter gloves.

I had warned her that I don't want to hear any more whining about gloves.

Squooshing the dye to all corners of the fabric.

At the end the girls gathered up the white "smalls"  around the house

and dyed them..."mom don't post that!"

It's not a close-up.

While the scarves brewed (below) I taped off a t-shirt for Shekinah. 

Finished product!  They were happy.

Sharpies on dishes should just be done on the non-eating surfaces...

even after they were baked at 350 degrees for 30 min.

Found that out later....

It's a shame, cause this one got neat.

Then they did sand art...found that sand when we cleaned off shelves 

in the garage on Wednesday. 

Gives new meaning to hand-dyed.

QOTD:  As we were driving down the road: S- "Are we going past the berry patch."

Me: "You mean where we get strawberries?"

S - quietly "No the place where people are that are killed."

me: " OH! you mean the grave yard." Guess I need to work on my vowels....

We apparently had a memorable conversation about a cemetery we passed the other day.

Thank You Lord

...for eggs. About four months ago we got baby chicks in the mail.

And now they are laying eggs.

So far there are four colors, dark brown, white, light brown, and a light green.

Then yesterday at lunch Shekinah offered the prayer

"Thank you Lord for the food, ...whatever mom did to it, and help us 

to use the energy for you. And help us to have a good day.

Eating Out

First a picture of supper the other night, Joe and I made it together. I gave instructions and he followed directions. And it worked! I'm still smiling at how amazing that actually was.

It was sausage, potato, bread filled summer squash.

Then supper out

with both sets of grandparents and the next generation too.

Sometimes you gotta just sit down to eat watermelon. He had been carrying it around 

chomping bites and finally sat down so he could concentrate.

Tuesday

Actually Monday hair. Faith tried out braids on Shekinah

Then of course Tuesday hair had to look like this.

Actually their hair looked pretty good by the end of the day,

 but I'm not sure I can do that many braids every day.

Ben, my adventurous, son who charges through life full force, has been 

working on replacing his truck engine. It has been ...let us say...a learning 

experience and he found out the power of rust and inertia.

Tonight after the combined effort of three people and a hoist the engine yielded.

Now all he has to do is put the new one in and pray that it works...I would like the garage back.

AND the end of August and Thailand is coming fast.

A Quick and Relaxing Vacation

Take 4 moms

10 kids

4 teen girls as sitters

A beautiful house on the Chesapeake Bay

"nice" weather (it rained Tuesday morning)

One mom who was willing to shop and plan all the meals

Some baby sitters who were willing to take my kids

who thought they'd be bored

and you have....

A beautiful two days!

And They're Off!

After two years of a silver mouth, he now has white teeth again.

Yesterday we spent hours at Shriners fitting his next pair of legs

and today it was over an hour at the orthodontist's office.

I think I'm tired of offices, but there are three dentist visits coming up for 

Shekinah and at least two more visits to Shriners for the legs.

And summer is more than half over!

The Day After

After a big weekend that is.

My whole family went to the cabin this weekend and the cousins had a blast,  stayed up too late, played in the mud and rain (huge game of capture the flag)

AND I didn't bring a camera.

I forgot a bunch of stuff, but we managed and no one starved.

I was a little concerned about today considering that one of my darlings said I shall give assignments and critique at will. But we finished the day with good spirits (mostly) and two very neatly organized cupboards. When this girl gets a notion...stay out of her way!

And I did assign and  added some mild tentative critiquing.

Passing It On

My girls are growing up and all little Mennonite girls (and some boys) 

should try their hand at needle work.

I dug around in my files and found an old set of iron-on cross stitch patches, bought from a store that went out of business when Kmart hit town about 30 years ago.

Gotta remember that while I'm trying to hold my tongue most of the day, I still need to pass good things on to the rest of my children.