Learning to be Lefthanded

Wayne and Daniel have been playing softball this summer with the church team - a bunch of guys who have more fun than wins out on the field. This season seems to be plagued by injuries for my hubby - a torn thigh muscle that turned beautiful shades of green, a badly jammed finger etc. He has continued to play - limping around the bases if necessary. But last night's owie was his season ender :0(

After fielding a ball barehanded he noticed a lot of blood and discovered a nasty gash on his finger - yuck. He bandaged it and continued to play having two more at-bats and getting good line drives with both. After the game we decided he should head to the ER to get a few stitches.

After many hours there he finally returned home at about 1:00 am with a heavily bandaged hand and a referral to a hand surgeon. It seems he also broke three bones in two of his fingers!! He'll have to learn to be a leftie for a while. He sees the surgeon later this week.

So for the rest of the season we'll be cheering on Dan with Daddy on the sidelines. Poor sweetie!!!

I was having a good day....

until I got the mail....

I know I have a few gray hairs - mainly noticed by my children and maybe even one or two wrin..I mean laugh lines .... but still!!!!!! Senior Citizen Offer. Really!!!

Why couldn't I have won the Sweepstakes instead? That would have made my day!!!! :0)

Hope you get great stuff in the mail this weekend!!!

First Harvest

Gardening - an activity that has so many life lessons!! When I am in the garden I almost always feel there is a sermon waiting for me if I'm willing to listen. I always come away from my bit of earth refreshed and at peace having spent a good deal of the time in conversation with God. The rewards are immeasurable!!! (The time not spent in prayer usually has to do with me grossing out about the slugs and other various worms the eat my things!! Ewww - shiver!!!)

Then there are the practical rewards for digging in the dirt:

My first harvest this season - lots of yummy lettuce - three varieties here and radishes

This is what I made out of that bounty - yummy grilled chicken salad:

I so love feeding my family the homegrown foods - I know what's on them (nothing) and I know what's in the dirt (nothing but earthworms!). By gardening I know I'm doing something super healthy for them - not only feeding them good stuff but also teaching them a life long skill that will only benefit them in the future.

Now for some silly summer pictures:

Yummy:

I don't know - he never had a binky before (especially a pink one), doesn't normally wear pink baby sunglasses and out grew the bib stage long ago (yes - he's wearing a bib!) I think bigger sister had something to do with this!!

Rocks

We are rock hounds at our house. We collect them everywhere - from the beach, rivers and even walks down the street. We keep them in many places in our home - in boxes under collectors beds, in jars in the cupboard (I don't really know why :0)! ) on windowsills and jacket pockets. Some are shined up and others are left natural (some are even decorated with paint. Some are put in the garden and some live in the house. All are considered beautiful by the person who picked it up.

A pile of little rocks on one of my windowsills:

A big beautiful rock on another windowsill (this one given to us by another rock hound friend who has the ability to climb cliffs in our nearby mountains and bring these down) My homemade yard art created with more rocks:

Last evening I was tidying up the house and the big rock on the windowsill caught my attention because the lights were reflecting so prettily off the crystals. I thought how if no one had ever climbed that cliff, grabbed that rock and broken it open to see what was inside - no one would ever see that beauty or even know it existed. No one except God that is. How many more rocks are out there filled with beautiful crystals or gorgeous colors that no one will ever see. Yet God created them. Why? For His own Glory - of course!!! The Bible says: Even the rocks will praise His name - and they sure do!!! A very good reason to be a rock hound!!!

Gifts

On the last day of our homeschool co-op my gifted friend Simply Stork was busy with her needle and embroidery hoop. In an amazingly short time she handed me this wonderful "string drawing" as her children call it. She made this design because she knows my love of gardening. Isn't it beautiful - and isn't she sweet?!!! There are five tiny creatures in it - can you find them all?
I found a picture frame for just 25 cents at a garage sale the very next day - painted and sanded it and framed this pretty piece of art.

It's perfect for my little table!

Thank you Simply!! You are so talented! And such a sweet friend!!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to this man - the father of my eight children, a man of God, who works so hard every day to provide for his family!!! I could say so much more but there is not enough room to write all the things you bless this family with!!! I love you sweetheart!!!

And Happy Father's Day to this man - my Daddy, also a man of God who blessed me with the best upbringing ever!!! I love you, Dad!

Strawberry Picking

Strawberry season has arrived in Washington state. Before Washington berries ripen California berries are shipped here to satisfy the cravings of those too impatient to wait for our own fruit (that would be me). In my family, there is every year, a discussion among some as to whether California berries are even fit to touch the lips of a Washington native. So, since the time to pick berries has arrived I dutifully packed up the pickers (um, kids that is) and headed off to the fields to pick these red pieces of delight to freeze for smoothies in the dead of winter. Well, some picked:

And picked:

While others ate:

And ate:

And ate:

After several trips across the big field to the porta potty and picking tiny berries for a long time we called it quits - only 1 flat to our name!!! Seems our temperamental Washington berries didn't like our dry spring and didn't perform. Last year they didn't like our wet spring either!!

Time to go:

After several traumatizing mishaps (one involving the back end of my van jarring the back end of another vehicle - no damage to the cars, thank goodness - just severe damage to my mental state, the other involving the many already chewed strawberries making their way back up the throat of a certain 4 year old into his lap and all over the car seat. - yuck and double yuck!!!) we made it home with our few puny berries.

We had this for dinner - the day we pick berries we get to have dessert for dinner - yum! Although this year that's all we got to do with the berries - none for the freezer.

Licking of plates is allowed this night of dessert for dinner!!
This year California berries win hands down!! And after all the drama I'm thinking as nice as it sounds to pick our own berries and preserve them myself - we're buying our berries at Costco!!!!!

Holely Love

There are many ways a man can show his wife he loves her. He can bring her flowers. He can say sweet words. He can take her out on the town. Or...He can dig holes.

My hubby showed me lots of love this weekend by digging lots of holes. And because of him we transformed our yard from this:

Into this:

I love gardening and this is truly love - for my hubby who is not enamored with yard work like I am to spend the day shoveling, hauling and generally doing whatever I asked.

We did have lots of help:

When she wasn't eating dirt that is:

I'm so happy with how my gardens have turned out and as they grow and fill in and bloom I will remember how my husband spent the day loving me!!!

Irish Dance

Ruthie did so well in her dance recital!! I am constantly amazed by her!! It is such joy to watch our children do what they love!! Here's a couple of video clips of a few of the sets the girls did (Remember to turn off the music at the bottom of my page - the music they dance to is so beautiful!!)

The music man put on the wrong music for this next dance and all the girls danced like champs in spite of the confusion - I would never have been so poised!! Ruthie also let me know after it was all over that her ghillies are too small and her toes hurt a bunch the entire dance (I checked and indeed her feet grew far more than I realized this year - off to find bigger ghillies!!)

Relaxing with best friends after it's all over. They all did so well and needless to say I'm so proud of them all!!!

Cute and not so cute

Yes, this is a picture of a picture of a big old slug hanging upside down from my hose the other day. It looked so funny I just had to snap its picture. It didn't turn out - not that slug pictures ever look good anyway :0)! I am convinced that slugs came after Man sinned in the garden of Eden. They serve no purpose (other than once in a while being mildly amusing early in the morning to an overtired Mom) All they do is eat tender veggie and flower starts - not even weeds! Have you ever seen a weed with slug bites - I haven't!!! Plus they are slimey - anything with slime had to come after!! Anything with slime or eight legs - they both are creepy!! I know some things with eight legs do good - like eat things with six legs - but still - creepy!!!

Okay, to counteract the picture of the slug:

Baby in a basket:

Esther loved being carried around this way - and Ruthie loved doing it!

Ruthie has a dance recital tonight. The tradition for Irish dance is for the girls to have curly hair. This presents a big challenge for my daughter (no hair straightening products will ever be needed by her :0)!!!) We have to begin the hair curling process at least 24 hours ahead of time.

Dance pictures will come soon!!

Baby News!!!

We have news!!! Baby news!!! No, not me. Remember our new neighbors?

Well, they made their home nearby and the other day they came visiting our next door neighbor's pond - with 11 new babies!!! Of course I had to sneak into their backyard with my camera and take a few pictures:

Aren't they just so sweet?!!! Almost as cute as my own kids - almost but not quite!!

Tomorrow I will share a picture of the acrobatic slug that lives in my backyard!!

An Excuse

Yesterday while Daddy entertained the young'uns:

I got to spend the whole day doing this (after church of course):

Now I know Sunday's are to be a day of rest - but oddly enough I find digging restful. Looking for worms, pulling up weeds, enjoying the smell of the soil - ahhh wonderful! My garden ended up ready to put in all the new plants I was able to get at Flower World (isn't that name just heaven for a gardener?!). I can't wait to plant!

Today in spite of amazingly sore muscles (better get back to the exercise DVDs!!) I was energized by my day of "rest" and I got a lot done:

Fed kids (they must be growing - they keep wanting to eat :0):

Made yogurt:
Weeded the veggie garden (I'm not going to let those weeds get the upper-hand this year - I hope):

Washed and hung several loads of laundry:

And for Mom - yes I wore sunblock and a hat (even though the hat was hard to keep on while hanging clothes):

And while I did do all those things the real reason for this post was an excuse to play with my new camera (do I really need an excuse?)