Oh dear me ... the sun set tonight at 9:02 ... and I missed noting ~ and cheering about ~ the official beginning of summer yesterday ... when perhaps the sun set at 9:05??? I love these spring/summer evenings when there is so much daylight that it makes your day feel a little longer. Now, it's all downhill back to the winter solstice ;)
I was just pondering ... time. How time keeps flying by, slipping away, and seeming to gain momentum {if that were possible}.
Sunday is like the downbeat for me. The marker, so-to-speak, in each week. Sunday ... then the rest of the week ... and Sunday again. However it feels more like ... Sunday, three days, Sunday, three days, Sunday. I guess I'm in 4/4 time :) Anyone else have this rhythm???
A second is virtually nothing. And a minute? Tiny as well. An hour? Not terribly long.
A day ... often over before you know it. A month ... only about thirty fleeting days. I feel like I should still be twenty-something ... but I'm not ...
Psalm 90:12 "So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom."
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
a little this 'n' that
A journal entry for today ... a little something to note about each of my miracles ...
Halo's quote of the day actually begins with a story about me and a hat. Today, I mended this sweet, adorable, little, tan, babyGap hat for PoorLittleDudeWhoOftenHasToWearAPinkHat :) It has been one of my favorite hats for years ... I think it might have been Halo's at one time with a tiny ruffle on it that I removed for Buddy's use. Anyway, one side of the velcro was finally kaput. {Hey! I wasn't sure if I knew how to spell kaput ... but it must be right ... the computer didn't underline it in red.}
The teeth side of velcro might last forever ... but the more fuzzy, grabbing side has its limitations. So ... all I really did, mending-wise, was rip out the chunk of velcro ... cut a new piece of velcro {actually two, because the first one was too small} ... locate some close-enough-colored thread ... and sew it on. It was challenging, however, because it was very difficult to push through ... my needle bent to a near right angle quite early on ... and I was trying to sew in the existing holes from the discarded piece of velcro. All that to say, I succeeded ... but it took much longer than I expected. It was worth it though. I like the hat. So I was pleased :)
Of course I wanted someone else to be pleased and excited about the improved baby hat ... so I showed my handiwork to Halo and told her I was so pleased. Pleased with how it turned out ... but even more pleased that it was finished ... and pleased that it was now less likely to get yanked off and lost.
You'd never guess Halo's response ... "Are you so pleased that you want to go get a hot fudge malt???" she immediately asked with a cheeky grin. Yes, I like hot fudge malts ...
Here is the little piece of velcro that was such a big deal ... please notice the carefully stiched oval and not the cracker crumbs :)
"Boys get stung less than girls do." {Buddy's conclusion from looking at all of the female legs in our house.} Also ... he has been motivated to get more fit for soccer camp which is coming next week. He's been doing a combo of walking and running about two miles with me lately :) I'm just walking though ... and thinking about running ... and almost sort-of getting the itch to maybe do another race ...
Foofie was holding an antique doll with "hair" ... "She has a BANG. I don't want a bang." Then, running her hands through her own hair, "I like it just the way it is." Well good :) Please keep saying that for the next fifteen years ... "I like it just the way it is."
After watching the older kids kick the soccer ball around ... Little Buddy decided to try it too ... from his sitting crawl position, of course :) Also, he's at that age where he thinks he is hiding just by covering his eyes ... it cracks me up!
Voila ... here is the hat that better stay on now! Oh, and I should try to get a picture of Baby kicking the soccer ball ...
Halo's quote of the day actually begins with a story about me and a hat. Today, I mended this sweet, adorable, little, tan, babyGap hat for PoorLittleDudeWhoOftenHasToWearAPinkHat :) It has been one of my favorite hats for years ... I think it might have been Halo's at one time with a tiny ruffle on it that I removed for Buddy's use. Anyway, one side of the velcro was finally kaput. {Hey! I wasn't sure if I knew how to spell kaput ... but it must be right ... the computer didn't underline it in red.}
The teeth side of velcro might last forever ... but the more fuzzy, grabbing side has its limitations. So ... all I really did, mending-wise, was rip out the chunk of velcro ... cut a new piece of velcro {actually two, because the first one was too small} ... locate some close-enough-colored thread ... and sew it on. It was challenging, however, because it was very difficult to push through ... my needle bent to a near right angle quite early on ... and I was trying to sew in the existing holes from the discarded piece of velcro. All that to say, I succeeded ... but it took much longer than I expected. It was worth it though. I like the hat. So I was pleased :)
Of course I wanted someone else to be pleased and excited about the improved baby hat ... so I showed my handiwork to Halo and told her I was so pleased. Pleased with how it turned out ... but even more pleased that it was finished ... and pleased that it was now less likely to get yanked off and lost.
You'd never guess Halo's response ... "Are you so pleased that you want to go get a hot fudge malt???" she immediately asked with a cheeky grin. Yes, I like hot fudge malts ...
Here is the little piece of velcro that was such a big deal ... please notice the carefully stiched oval and not the cracker crumbs :) "Boys get stung less than girls do." {Buddy's conclusion from looking at all of the female legs in our house.} Also ... he has been motivated to get more fit for soccer camp which is coming next week. He's been doing a combo of walking and running about two miles with me lately :) I'm just walking though ... and thinking about running ... and almost sort-of getting the itch to maybe do another race ...
Foofie was holding an antique doll with "hair" ... "She has a BANG. I don't want a bang." Then, running her hands through her own hair, "I like it just the way it is." Well good :) Please keep saying that for the next fifteen years ... "I like it just the way it is."
After watching the older kids kick the soccer ball around ... Little Buddy decided to try it too ... from his sitting crawl position, of course :) Also, he's at that age where he thinks he is hiding just by covering his eyes ... it cracks me up!
Voila ... here is the hat that better stay on now! Oh, and I should try to get a picture of Baby kicking the soccer ball ...Thursday, June 17, 2010
a little cappuccino
See what the UPS fellow heaved onto our doorstep??? Three BIG boxes of ... imagine a drum roll please ... french vanilla cappuccino coolers!!!!! Each of these boxes is filled with many small boxes like the little red/white/blue one ... and {side note} each of these small boxes contains six packets to mix up six yummy iced coffee delights.So why did I order sooo many cappuccino coolers??? Well ... a little over a week ago ... we stopped at the local grocery {the only one in our area that sells this product} ... and the shelf was empty. We had a few remaining at home ... so we were set for the following morning nonetheless. Then, the next evening while we were out and about ... we drove out of our way to a different one of these stores to stock up on our can't-live-without-most-favorite drink mix. We went down the coffee aisle straight to the cappuccino spot ... and lo and behold ... it was barren. Yes ... empty again. All gone. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Can you believe it?
"What are we going to do?" asked Dr. Edge with more than a little concern in his voice. "I'm never been so sad about a food item in my life," he continued. Are we pathetic or what??? You can choose the "or what" option ... thank you kindly :)
"Let's call your Mom," I suggested. "Maybe she has a stockpile." {She is a fellow
So ... we called Mom and she said come on over :) She shared a few boxes with us ... and then told us that the last time she bought cappuccinos she received a little slip at the checkout saying that General Foods had been bought by Maxwell House.
Back at home ... I googled cappuccino coolers and found that Amazon sells them. Yeah! So ... I ordered
So ... now for the fun part ;)
WHO can guess how many boxes I ordered? {the small red/white/blue box}
Here's the rules/guidelines ... pay close attention ;)
1. Leave your guess in the comments section.
2. The winner will be the one with the closest guess ... regardless of whether the guess is over or under the actual amount.
3. Also, for your information, there were a few air packets tossed in each box too.
Friday, June 11, 2010
a little egg-laying
Today's excitement was viewing a snapping turtle laying a whole slew of eggs. They sure do lay a LOT of eggs! Several eggs were already in her hole when we arrived on the scene ... and then we witnessed Mrs. Turtle plop out egg after egg after egg after egg. Lots of eggs! Can I say anymore about the eggs? I don't think so :) Thursday, June 10, 2010
a little blanket
On Mother's Day, my mother-in-law presented us with some photo gifts ... mugs for Jeffster and myself ... and aluminum water-bottles for the oldest three kids. Little Buddy's gift, my mother-in-law said, wasn't ready to be picked up from the store yet. So ... she ended up bringing it up to the cabin and draped it over a few dining chairs. See the big baby face during the middle of the video??? I thought I had taken pictures of it ... but no ... I only found it in this video. So ... you get to see his crawling technique again :) Anyway, Little Buddy had fun poking and pointing at his enlarged features on the blanket :) Quite the baby blanket!
My little joke that I say when I pick up one of the bottles or find one in the stroller pouch or somewhere is ... "How can I tell whose bottle this is???" I know ... not-so-funny :)
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
a little vintage
In my ongoing organizing and purging of junk in our insane basement, I came across three pairs of my old shorts, vintage shorts if you will ;) They're really, really old. For example, I remember wearing the navy pair in high school ... and I recall buying the denim {Gap} pair the spring of my freshman year in college (age 18 1/2) ... and the khaki {Gap} pair probably the next spring. So ... if I'm 34 and 1/2 ... the shorts are really old shorts. Okay ... I did the math ... and these shorts are between 15 and 17 years old!!! Anyone else have vintage clothing hiding out in their basement {or closet}???
Generally speaking, vintage stuff is good and desirable. Vintage Gap shorts, however, are not ... good or desirable. Out of curiousity, I tried the shorts on and I felt like I was in maternity clothing! The waists on these babies ~ no pun planned ~ was close to 3 inches ABOVE my bellybutton! Seriously! Downright crazy! Now I know why all of my older shirts are sooo short and square/boxy ... versus more long and rectangular.
Sorry ... no pictures ;) Maybe later ... maybe. {The denim pair is already in the trash though.}
Generally speaking, vintage stuff is good and desirable. Vintage Gap shorts, however, are not ... good or desirable. Out of curiousity, I tried the shorts on and I felt like I was in maternity clothing! The waists on these babies ~ no pun planned ~ was close to 3 inches ABOVE my bellybutton! Seriously! Downright crazy! Now I know why all of my older shirts are sooo short and square/boxy ... versus more long and rectangular.
Sorry ... no pictures ;) Maybe later ... maybe. {The denim pair is already in the trash though.}
Thursday, June 3, 2010
a little growl
Baby and the Beam! I love how Foofie says something and then it sounds as though he is answering back to her :)
And one more pix of Little Sweetheart from our "little getaway" ...
And one more pix of Little Sweetheart from our "little getaway" ...
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
a little playpen
Okay friends. Get ready ... I am about to reveal my newest brainstorm. It happened yesterday.
Helpful Background Info: Little Dude would not be interested in hanging out in a pack'n'play type of playpen for more than a few minutes ... I mean seconds ... and I can't say I blame him. On the other hand, we {the parents} are not interested in fencing in our yard. So ... the question was ... how can we let LittleDUDEWhoRarelyTakesADecentNap play safely outside while Halo or Buddy is watching him for a little while??? Initially, this spring, when Halo was helping she would quickly just buckle him somewhere ... the stroller, the swing, the carseat. LittleDUDEWhoRarelyTakesADecentNap wasn't so keen on all of this buckling ... obviously!
Enter giant playpen. Once again, this post title is deceiving ... because it is not a little playpen. It is a giant playpen ~ or could perhaps be called a play-yard?
How, you ask, does one accomplish this most wonderful thing??? {Notice I did not say beautiful.} Well ... first you need three {or four} trees that are fairly close together. Thankfully we still had all three of these pine trees. My husband and I had talked about him sneaking out under the cover of darkness {so as not to alert our neighbors who might get sad or mad} and fell one of these three trees of ours ... since they're a bit too close together. Plus, we could enlarge our space for frisbee tossing and other fun in the backyard.
Anyway, yes, you need at least three trees ... it wouldn't work very swell with only two. Then, you go scout in the basement for that big green roll of snow fence or silt fence or whatever it is that you almost pitched a few times ... but kept hanging onto it because "it might come in handy" ... for such a time as this! Next, you tightly wrap those trees with the fence and secure the two ends together with a long pole and maybe some other doo-dads. The ends can be opened to function as a gate ... but we found that it's faster for all of us just to jump the fence. Finally, if one enjoys the shrub clippers ~ and I do ~ one can just start randomly trimming the trees to enlarge the inside play area and also to relieve stress ;) Oh la la!
And the best part??? All four kiddos think it's neat :) You know ... there's something novel about smaller spaces. It's not foolproof ... LittleDUDEWhoRarelyTakesADecentNap has gotten out ... but it does slow him down some, keep him fairly contained for a short period, and prevents us from losing him to the long grasses growing in our yonder meadow. He has only tried to escape when everyone has jumped the fence and left him momentarily by himself. If someone is playing in there with him ... he's happy as a clam ... until he needs his Mama, of course :)
Oh ... and much of the time there is built-in shade to boot!
Helpful Background Info: Little Dude would not be interested in hanging out in a pack'n'play type of playpen for more than a few minutes ... I mean seconds ... and I can't say I blame him. On the other hand, we {the parents} are not interested in fencing in our yard. So ... the question was ... how can we let LittleDUDEWhoRarelyTakesADecentNap play safely outside while Halo or Buddy is watching him for a little while??? Initially, this spring, when Halo was helping she would quickly just buckle him somewhere ... the stroller, the swing, the carseat. LittleDUDEWhoRarelyTakesADecentNap wasn't so keen on all of this buckling ... obviously!
Enter giant playpen. Once again, this post title is deceiving ... because it is not a little playpen. It is a giant playpen ~ or could perhaps be called a play-yard?
How, you ask, does one accomplish this most wonderful thing??? {Notice I did not say beautiful.} Well ... first you need three {or four} trees that are fairly close together. Thankfully we still had all three of these pine trees. My husband and I had talked about him sneaking out under the cover of darkness {so as not to alert our neighbors who might get sad or mad} and fell one of these three trees of ours ... since they're a bit too close together. Plus, we could enlarge our space for frisbee tossing and other fun in the backyard.
Anyway, yes, you need at least three trees ... it wouldn't work very swell with only two. Then, you go scout in the basement for that big green roll of snow fence or silt fence or whatever it is that you almost pitched a few times ... but kept hanging onto it because "it might come in handy" ... for such a time as this! Next, you tightly wrap those trees with the fence and secure the two ends together with a long pole and maybe some other doo-dads. The ends can be opened to function as a gate ... but we found that it's faster for all of us just to jump the fence. Finally, if one enjoys the shrub clippers ~ and I do ~ one can just start randomly trimming the trees to enlarge the inside play area and also to relieve stress ;) Oh la la!
And the best part??? All four kiddos think it's neat :) You know ... there's something novel about smaller spaces. It's not foolproof ... LittleDUDEWhoRarelyTakesADecentNap has gotten out ... but it does slow him down some, keep him fairly contained for a short period, and prevents us from losing him to the long grasses growing in our yonder meadow. He has only tried to escape when everyone has jumped the fence and left him momentarily by himself. If someone is playing in there with him ... he's happy as a clam ... until he needs his Mama, of course :)
Oh ... and much of the time there is built-in shade to boot!
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
a little getaway
A little cookout ...
Dr. Edge is roasting some dogs or franks or whatever you call 'em ... while sitting on this wonderful glider Father-in-law recently purchased. Can anyone guess what it is made of???
And what was Little Blondie doing during all of this fun??? Why he was peacefully napping amidst the trees, of course!
In the kitchen ... playing and helping and making messes ...
The hot tub is always a hit ... 
Recognize these colored rectangles of paper??? All told, we ended up playing several hours of Monopoly here and there. The kids love it! Notice that Buddy must play Monopoly standing up and wearing his helmet! No ... I'm just kidding about the helmet part ... I don't even know if he realized he had it on ... but he did play most of the game standing up. Halo stood up much of the time also. It's just too exciting to stay seated, I guess.
Foofie was my team-mate ... and here she is wheeling and dealing with Grandpa ... successfully too, I might add :) She's pretty persuasive!
Kind-of lame picture quality ... but had to include this photo anyway ... a glorious moment for Halo ... winning the money pile that had accumulated for the FREE PARKING spot!!! She was, as they say, cheering to beat the band ... what does that really mean anyway?
Some nature shots ... JFF ... {just for fun} ...
Pinwheeling ... Tubing ... Shooting ... Fishing ...
FUN fun FUN for everyone!!! Happy June :)
Dr. Edge is roasting some dogs or franks or whatever you call 'em ... while sitting on this wonderful glider Father-in-law recently purchased. Can anyone guess what it is made of???
And what was Little Blondie doing during all of this fun??? Why he was peacefully napping amidst the trees, of course!
In the kitchen ... playing and helping and making messes ...
The hot tub is always a hit ... 
Recognize these colored rectangles of paper??? All told, we ended up playing several hours of Monopoly here and there. The kids love it! Notice that Buddy must play Monopoly standing up and wearing his helmet! No ... I'm just kidding about the helmet part ... I don't even know if he realized he had it on ... but he did play most of the game standing up. Halo stood up much of the time also. It's just too exciting to stay seated, I guess.
Foofie was my team-mate ... and here she is wheeling and dealing with Grandpa ... successfully too, I might add :) She's pretty persuasive!
Kind-of lame picture quality ... but had to include this photo anyway ... a glorious moment for Halo ... winning the money pile that had accumulated for the FREE PARKING spot!!! She was, as they say, cheering to beat the band ... what does that really mean anyway?
Some nature shots ... JFF ... {just for fun} ...
Pinwheeling ... Tubing ... Shooting ... Fishing ...
FUN fun FUN for everyone!!! Happy June :)
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