3

Today was the last day of school!! They are free for the summer. It is an exciting day. :)

After dropping the big kids off this morning I went to the garden (where else). I chased a woodchuck out of a neighbor's garden and squashed potato bug eggs. Someone had thinned their onions and left them in a can and said they were free for the taking. Whoop!! I popped a few of those into the onion patch, hopefully they take. I didn't have to water because it was raining. Yay.

10 minutes in the garden and humidity made my hair kinda nuts. We went to Costco, picked up big kids, then made a couple more stops. I'm looking for fabric for a baby quilt but couldn't find anything just right. I guess I've got a few more months before it needs to be done but I don't want to wait until the last minute!

David's den had their end-of-year party tonight. They won't have regular den meetings again until school starts up this fall. It will be nice to have a bit of a break.

They were so ready for bed this evening. They fell asleep really quickly. I kept them at that pool probably longer than I should have, but it was so nice to spend time talking to other adults and let the kids play. I need to do that more often.

4

We got a late start this morning. Everyone was pretty beat after our late night last night.

After getting the bigs to school the little and I went to Milford Feed. It is a cute little building tucked back amongst a bunch of houses and you really wouldn't know it was there. I truly stumbled on it about a year ago and was intrigued but hadn't ever had a need for it. 

Well, I decided to stop in there first to see if they had straw. I didn't want to have to drive the 15 minutes out to Tractor Supply id I could find what I needed in town. Sure enough they had small bales of straw for sale and they were exactly what I needed.

So I took my new straw up to the garden and weeded two more plots and put the straw in around my potatoes. 

While weeding the potato patch I came across one potato bug and a number potato bug eggs. I'm glad I caught them. I'm going to go back tomorrow and inspect every single plant again. Potato bugs are the last thing I want in that side of the garden where all of my tomatoes and peppers (also nightshades and also preferred snacking plants for potato bugs) are all planted.

 

On our way to pick up the kids a turtle was trying to cross the road in front of us. Peter and I stopped and helped her across the road in the direction she was headed. Silly thing was fast but would not have made it past a car.

We all went to the library after pickup and got a few things printed and a couple books each. David picked up Artemis Fowl. I'm curious what he'll think of those books.

 The goofballs were being silly in front of the wavy mirrors and didn't know I was taking their picture. :)

We got home, had dinner, and the kids worked on something special for their teachers. Last day of school tomorrow!

5

Pete and I dropped the big kids off at school then spent a couple hours in the garden. It needed some weeding and it was a cool morning so it was the perfect chance to get it done.

I cleared out two plots in an hour and prepared one for more carrot seeds. My first attempt at carrots didn't take off. Neither did the beets for that matter, but I found 4 beets amongst the weeds yesterday. I should have had 50.

The corn is fragile. The ants are all over that patch and keep mounding around the corn and knocking it over. I'm trying to find some more organic ways to get rid of ants but I really just want to pour ant killer down their holes.

The potatoes are HUGE! The plants are all knee high. I really need to get some straw and lay it down. I'm going to start seeing green potatoes if I don't and I really don't want that.

The radishes are going nuts. I'm pretty sure I could probably harvest a number of them right now but I want them to be just a bit bigger.

My cucumbers and squashes are getting big. It will be a while before I see anything on their vines but we are getting there.

The tomatoes as putting out flowers. I pinch them off because I want the plants to be a little taller before I will let them start growing tomatoes. The leaves are rusting so I need to be careful watering them. Yet another reason to get them taller, splashing from rain won't effect them so much.

My pumpkins FINALLY sprouted this week. A few never took off, so I'm starting N some seedlings at home to put in the empty mounds. But I'm pleased to see the few that I do have up.

I've given up on the lettuce. At this point it is too late anyway, so I am looking for some sweet potato slips to put in. Potatoes seem to do pretty well out here. 

The onions are sparse. I was hoping for a good crop but only a third of what I planted sprouted. I might see if I can get a few already started at the store and fill in my poor onion plot.

David's sunflowers are struggling, although he has two that are getting pretty big. I need to have him weed out his row more, I think the sunflowers are competing too much with the other weeds.

My peppers are starting to flower. Peppers are tricky for me, and I really don't think these guys are big enough to start growing peppers, so I might pinch off those flowers for the moment too. 

After our time at the garden we headed home for a bit. I cleaned up and we went to the library.

I got the kids signed up for the summer reading program, picked up an audio set, and let Pete play on the computer for a bit.

Peter fell asleep on the way to pick up the kids after the library. That's always rough. He woke up peed and disoriented and cranky. He wouldn't eat dinner, which was really rushed, so on the way to Andrea's dance class I grabbed a McDonald's meal for him. I don't usually do that, but he was so out of sorts that I understood his plight and got him the meal. It didn't take long and he was totally happy. I think his blood sugar was just low and he had needed a quick pick-me-up to get right with the world. Poor kid.

Andrea loved her dance class. She showed me her hop-123s when we got home and is super excited to practice. I really hope she's a terrible dancer. Irish dance gets expensive the more advanced you get and I just don't think we would ever be able to give our kids the opportunity to really be stellar at these things they want to do. David is really interested in learning to play the bagpipes. 1) Where on earth would he practice??? 2) The pipes and lessons are expensive! Yeesh. As much as I'd love to see David in a kilt with a set of pipes I can't imagine the price tag! Ha! Luckily I managed to convince him to wait on that one. He has to play the piano first. That is free!! :D

So after dance class we used the last of a Cold Stone gift card my mom gave us and got ice cream. It was a good treat to end the day. We got home and everyone was super happy to go to bed. I got some laundry finished and got to bed myself.

It was a good day. :)

6

Today was a busy sabbath. We got up quickly, drank our smoothies and changed, then were out the door at 7:45. I wanted to stop in and water at the garden because it had been a couple days and they REALLY needed the water after that 91* day. Everything looked good! I'm hoping that Tuesday actually provides some rain so it will make weeding easier. I think I'm going to just make a day of it at the garden on Tuesday either way. It needs the attention.

I subbed on the organ today. I decided that right now I just can't do that when Jonathan is not home. Peter and David BOTH marched up to the stand with me during the opening song. Peter was running around the stand during the sacrament hymn. It was a nightmare. A wonderful sister sat with them and tried to keep everyone in check but they just refused to listen. So that sister ended up on the stand during the sacrament, and then when Peter ran down to our seat during the water another young man went and sat with him. Christian managed to keep Peter under better control so he sat with me through the rest of the meeting and managed the kids very well through the remaining hymns and prayers. But I need to do something about keeping them I their dern seats!! Yeesh. Jonathan won't always be around and I play the organ, it is a skill few possess and thus one which is in high demand. The kids need to learn to listen to me and sit still after I've told them to, even if I'm not there with them.  Ugh.

We had dinner tonight with our friends, the Bacons. I love them! They are a cute little family expecting another baby Bacon in September. They said they wanted to give me a break while Jonathan was gone and so they invited us over. Everything was delicious and I really enjoyed the company.

It was a good Sabbath.

7

I never really look forward to Saturday mornings. I usually reserve a couple hours in the morning to do chores. It is usually a process that involves a lot of moaning and complaining and a lot more of feet dragging. It makes me dread the morning. So I thought about it last night and got some inspiration. I made up a little list of the chores that needed to be done and a gauge that had as many lines as chores. The idea was to have the kids pick a chore and, when completed, color in a line of the gauge.

It worked quite well. What usually gets dragged out past lunch time took just under two hours. I am going to do this again next week and maybe we can have this down to an hour.

After finishing our chores I made a quick lunch and we all changed into suits and made for the lake.

We stayed for a couple hours. It was perfect. It was really warm today, 91*, but we couldn't tell out there. The water was pretty cold so the breeze that came across the water was cool and refreshing. We enjoyed the cool and pleasant air and the chilly water was a welcome relief. 

We got home, showered up, then started for the car. I made a wrong turn and forgot where we parked, so we had to trudge up the parking lot to get to the car. Just as the kids started grumbling a woman asked to use my phone. Hers was not working and she had locked her keys and her toddler in her car. It was running, it was an automatic start car, but it locked after she's buckled her son in. It had only been seconds but the car was warm and her son was already sweating. She called 911 and we anxiously awaited the arrival of a police officer. I sent David back up to the house for a bottle of water and a Popsicle. Just as the officer arrived the car turned off! After struggling a few minutes he finally got the car open! I was so relieved! We filled up one of the lady's bottle and gave her boy the Popsicle. I was so glad we took a wrong turn at that moment. No one else walked by in those six minutes that we were there!!

After that we went to a graduation party for one of the kids' favorite sitters. It was a great chance to have some yummy food, let the kids run through a yard, and talk to other adults. Peter fell twice on the exact same spot of sidewalk and skinned one knee and the opposite elbow the second time. Crazy kid.

We got home later and were happily tucked in by 9:00. It was a long, good, busy day. 

So we made it through the week with no more than the scratches that Pete got at that party.

Oh! I also got this fabulous picture from a friend from Field Day. David has such a wonderful group of friends here.

8

Peter was still a little warm this morning but he started sweating mid-afternoon so I think we are done with this fever. Yay.

Peter and I went to Andrea's kindergarten celebration. They sang us a bunch of songs and we all watched a slideshow of their year in kindergarten. I can't believe this school year is already finished!

Andrea had the best teacher, very camp and patient and just what Andi needed to do her best this year. I'm so grateful for Mrs. L and so proud of Andrea and all her hard work. 

So now we have the weekend and then two and a half more days of school. I am really looking forward to the summer. 

We got David and I signed them out of school early. The kids have been wanting to run a lemonade or sno-cone stand this summer so we went to the city offices to find out what the city ordinances were   We don't want to be shut down for not following the rules. So now we are all set! David is taking his birthday money and investing in supplies. They are planning it pretty well, I think they will have a lot of success.

9

After the raging fever yesterday Peter and I stayed home to rest. His fever was 99.2 this morning, 98.0 by this afternoon. I celebrated his broken fever! It was a premature celebration because at about 5:30 it came back just as bad as yesterday.

While he had no fever (or so I thought) we went and waited for the big kids and then all went to the farmer's market. After the market we grabbed pizza and prepared to settle in at the garden for a while so I could weed while the kids were watering. And then Peter started feeling terrible so I abandoned the weeding and watered super fast.

Plants look great. The pumpkins are being slow. I really want to find some sweet potato slips, and I might need to start some corn to supplement some seeds that were either stolen by the birds or didn't take. 

I need to figure out an organic way to get rid of the ants. They are eating at all of my plants. And I also need to lay some straw down on the potatoes. And I need to weed. But that will have to wait for another day. A day when Peter doesn't start falling apart because he isn't feeling well. Poor little guy. :(

We got home and Peter showered and then decided to put himself into bed. Again. I really hope he gets feeling better soon.