this and that...

pumpkin pies...here there and everywhere...
esme pouring all sorts of things...
jack coloring an aztec calendar
and my "office" at the back of the house...looking onto the lake! how lovely!
the only bummer is my computer isn't working????
my dear little mac has decided it just won't turn on anymore...
i think i might need a new power cord...anyone out there happen to have an extra??

jack's fossil museum

complete with an area for trial digs =)
a movie about archaeology
a section of fossil books
and a stand with sure enough fossils on it!
dug from our filled in pool on the property...
=)
this is jack's new LOVE....fossils and lost cities =)

light brite, sewing machine and peach paper

have i ever mentioned my deep love and bond with thrift shops =)
i LOVE it....
this past week, we bought a light brite with a huge container of pegs and sheets to play on...plus a sewing machine...which is real!!! with bobbins and material and a foot pedal..real needle =) both for $9
and well spent....both of them went back and forth all day sewing and lighting =)

we also have been buying a LOT of peaches...they are so good this year....
jack's favorite way is when we blend them up and pour them out onto teflex sheets...pop in dehydrator and it turns into paper! =)
if you catch it early enough it will roll up and stays chewy...but if it goes too long it is still good....it is paper thin and crispy and so sweet!
makes me think of an asian dessert treat for some reason =)

summer

this summer we have done a lot of this...
resting and snuggling...the kids are at such a great age that we really can climb on the couch with a bunch of books and read for ages...
and swim...either with friends at their pools or at callaway...both jack and esme have gotten really good!
jack is a little fish...loves to dive off the diving board and swim the length of the pool...and esme too loves to dive off and swim to the ladder...
though she is a little bit more precarious =)
having friends over....we haven't done this as much as we usually do ...i suppose we are just getting ourselves sorted...but still, when we have it has been so lovely!
and gardened!
we've had lots of ripe watermelons yay! usually i check them (ie ruin them) too early...but this year has been good!

little of this and a little of that...

kelley and adam have kept the grass and garden looking so nice and lived in...
and "big dave" came over and mowed the road and the front field...it all was such the old hubbut with this and that going on...
i loved it!
in the evenings, i caught up with kelley and marybeth...2 dear friends who i miss a lot!
and read the book heaven which i love love love....
i woke up early and went into the woods trying to call our long lost rooster whom we've heard tale still pecks around the woods...
and i took multiple baths during the day to cut down on the plaster build up....
listened to chris thile...a FAVORITE musician....
it was a whirlwind but so good to be back there and to work a little on the cob...

o! the tomatoes are volunteers from last year..and the parsley seed to save...

lime plaster

i think i was in crawford for about 36 hours....
i came, i plastered, i had much help loading a piano...
and i drove home to my family =)
i do not have the best of luck with lime plasters...somehow i can't keep them off my skin even with long kitchen gloves...
i have a few scars on my wrists to proof my inabilities =(
and i added a few more small ones these past couple days...

but it was good to get it done...well, over half of it...a base coat of plaster so one could envision how i might begin to look it a finished house state =)

heaven by alcorn

the book Heaven by Alcorn...here is the link if you are interested!

the pool!

i forgot to comment on the blow up pool!
if we aren't at callaway in teh mornings at the lake, we are here in this little blow up pool...
my dad gave this to the kids at the first of the summer and they have LOVED it
the squishy sides allow for jumping and falling and sitting....and it has done amazingly well given me pop most things like this =)
here we see where the kids have added "diving boards" to their pool =)

sunflower shucking

here the kids are working hard removing the seeds from the dried sunflower heads...
we now have about 1000 seeds for next year....not counting the flowers still in the garden...

it is such a lesson for me of God's bounty...
how ONE seed gives rise to hundreds of seeds...
not to mention a beautiful plant and flower....
one seed ends up feeding a flock of birds as it becomes a flower....

just beautiful!

(or in our case, we scavenge the seeds first hahah! well, ok, we leave plenty for the birds too =))

pumpkin

a squash bug ate most of the pumpkin plants....and i didnt' catch it in time to save all the pumpkins...but the ones i did, i have been baking and then purreeing....
and drying seeds for next year....
there is so much meat in these!
this type is a volunteer from one that was thrown out last year at the farmhouse....
i transplanted some plants from the compost into the garden back in march...and voila! beautiful green pumpkins...

now to make some pie!

we had pumpkin soup a few nights ago but i added too much cayenne ....so alas, it was more a medicinal choice for josh and my sinuses (which weren't reporting troubles in the first place!)

picking beans....

the garden is so very overgrown....this is the time of year i usually give up on the garden alltogether until the fall bc it gets so hot!
but strangely i feel like we had that super hot time about a month ago and now everything afterwards is a relief....
even it is still crazy hot!

anywho...put up beans until Christmas it think =) might even have enough to get up to next season....
yay!

summer's bounty

we picked blueberries with jenny the other morning...still producing the most delicious little fruits...
here are some birdhouse gourds, amaranth and a smattering of other things from the garden...
this is the first year that watermelons have worked for me! (usually i pick them and they aren't ripe at all!)
but this summer has been great.....
to get through them all, i've been drinking watermelon parsley smoothies...(after refrigerating the watermelon) it is cold and soooooo refreshing!