A little of this . . a little of that . . .
Drew and I and Izzie went for a wander this evening before getting cleaned up and settling in for the night. I don’t have beautiful pristine flower beds. Although I love to see that kind of flower bed my wild beds work for me! I have lots of weeds and nothing is really planned out. I just let everything grow willy nilly and enjoy what blooms!
It’s always nice to get back into our routine after a long weekend. Although holiday weekends are lots and lots of fun, there’s something to be said for the regular day to day routine of living.
My peony bush has finally bloomed and it is beautiful! I’ve never seen so many blooms on this bush. I have four other bushes I planted last year. They came up this year but are small and aren’t blooming. I hope they do better next year. Five bushes blooming would be so pretty!
Drew had his first t-ball game. It was held in Parnell. The game was to start at 5:30 but after some kind of mix up they ended up not playing until 6:30. At least they didn’t just send us home. We were willing to wait an hour and get the game in and not have to come back some other time. They don’t keep score, everyone gets to bat and everyone goes out on the field. It was pretty comical to watch and the boys all had fun. We stopped in North English on the way home for ice cream. Next game is Friday in Williamsburg. We just might have to stop in North English again on our way home – they have great ice cream!
Wow – these last couple of weeks have seemed to just fly by. Starting with Eric’s Baccalaureate, Class Night, numerous graduation parties, including hosting Eric’s, then finally graduation. It’s been a lot of fun but I’m glad to see today and know that things will be slowing down now. I hope anyway!
These past few days were so cold, damp, windy and pretty much miserable. We sure didn’t feel we were missing out on not being able to be outside and getting things accomplished while were at all those grad parties! And we were thankful they were all held indoors! The flowers are persevering through the weather. It amazes me how they just keep growing and blooming!
And now, with Eric done with school and Drew soon to be done this coming Wednesday, we’ll have to get back into a new “normal”. Eric plans to put in a lot of hours at work to save up for college. Drew will be going to summer school in the mornings for three weeks in June and three weeks in July. We’ll have t-ball games in the evenings during the month of June. Other than that, I’m hoping for a nice quiet summer of working on projects around here and hopefully camping as much as possible and as much as the weather allows. No camping this coming weekend – looks like rain is scheduled. Maybe we can find some time to go on an adventure with Dad and Mom. We haven’t done that for so long and it’s something Drew just loves!
As for this week we’ll just work on relaxing and getting into a summer routine. And hopefully we’ll see the sun – at least for a day or two!
A quick post today. To take a quick breath and gather my thoughts I walked around the yard this morning. It’s a beautiful sunny cool day. The birds are chirping. There’s a breeze. Such a change from yesterday’s heavy rains. As I was walking around I noticed all the dandelions that have gone to seed. This spring we have lots and lots of dandelions. They don’t bother me. I love the cheerful yellow blooms. Joe on the other hand really doesn’t like them. In fact he bought some stuff for the yard to try and get rid of them but hasn’t put it on yet. I do have to say we have an overabundance of them right now and when they go to seed they aren’t very attractive but I keep telling him they are good for the bees and really, what do they hurt? Then I remembered what Drew said over the weekend. He said, “Mom we are so lucky. Look at all the wishes we get to make. We get to make a thousand wishes!” Why do kids see the bright side of things so often and we as adults just don’t?
I’m off to pick up all the toys in the living room, tidy up, vacuum and start loading up the graduation party stuff. Tomorrow we decorate and Saturday is the big day. Yeah! Oh, yeah, can’t forget the last soccer game of the season this evening. It will be a nice evening to spend outside!
It seems like yesterday went by in a blur. I am so ready for school to get out and for things to slow down. I don’t do busy well. Looking back I am amazed that I survived having the older three kids at home and involved in everything that they were involved in. I don’t know how some of those parents do it who have children involved in everything they can possibly be involved in. I find that it takes away from home and family time. Sitting on the sidelines is great and the kids learn so much being involved but there just needs to be home time too. Family time. Slow time. Joe left yesterday midmorning for California. He’ll be home sometime Friday afternoon. I have to remember to remind him to stop at Hy-Vee and pick up Eric’s graduation cake. It’s an extra in case we run out of cake balls. Drew had soccer practice after school. I’m thinking they have had plenty of practices for them being kindergartners but I guess that means the coaches were really involved so I can’t complain. He has his last soccer game this Thursday but starts t-ball practice on Wednesday. I’m already thinking maybe that’s too much but I guess one day of overlap isn’t too bad. He’s not sure he even wants to play t-ball. We’ll let him try it and see how it goes. Eric loved baseball, Aaron not so much. They’re all different. Our only rule is if you start it you finish it. But if you don’t like it, you don’t have to go out for it again the next year.
Today is the only day that we don’t have anything going on. I’m going to try to get the housework caught up and the laundry done because I won’t have much time until after the weekend now. Tomorrow is Drew’s class trip and I’ve volunteered to go along. Out to Belva Deer for a picnic lunch, then bowling at the local bowling alley and ice cream at Walker’s. Should be a fun day. Then t-ball practice. Drew will be exhausted. Thursday is soccer. Friday will see us at the church decorating for Eric’s graduation party. I’m hoping to get everything set up Friday afternoon and evening so Saturday we can focus on cooking. I’m looking forward to the party. We have friends we haven’t seen in ages coming and family members all getting together. It will be fun. With Eric’s party and all that entails, we haven’t made any plans for Mother’s Day. We’ll just wing it I guess. I think we’ll all be ready for a nice quiet day. Maybe a picnic later in the day out at Belva Deer. That would be the perfect Mother’s Day for me!
Another busy weekend in the books. Friday I got my hair cut then picked Drew up from school. From there we ran out to the new greenhouse. We have some Amish families that have moved into our community and one of the famlies opened up a greenhouse this spring. Very nice family and lots of pretty flowers. It’s so nice to have a greenhouse so close to home! After that Drew had soccer practice then we ran out to Dad and Mom’s where Joe already was to help them with a project. Supper at their house and some relaxing outside. It was a beautiful evening.
Saturday saw Drew’s soccer game then the boys and I ran to Ottumwa to get Eric some clothes to wear for Baccalaureate, Class Night and Graduation. We ate at the new Chinese restaurant and boy was it good. Then back home. Checked out Joe’s lean to to see how much him and Dad got done on it while we were gone. Later we went for a drive and got ice cream at the local ice cream shop. A summertime weekend pastime of ours. Ice cream and a quick trip out to our county park, Lake Belva Deer for a drive around the lake.
Today Drew and I got all of our pretty flowers planted along with our tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. Can’t wait for those to start producing – yum! Then we had the Baccalaureate Service this evening at the high school. A very nice service and cake and lemonade afterwards. I’m glad they have Baccalaureate again. They had stopped having it for a few years but they’ve held it the last few years. It was very nice and a lot of the kids attended. Then Eric went out to supper with his classmates and it was back home for us. We had a movie night with Drew. We popped popcorn and he chose to watch The Life of Pets.
The weather has been miserable here. I’ve even turned the furnace back on. I don’t ever remember running the furnace in April and especially not in May. The poor chickens have been cooped up since Thursday. Joe opened their door up for them yesterday and they refused to go outside. Drew tries to go out but comes right back in. It is cold, windy, muddy, miserable out there. On the bright side – it looks like after today things might be turning around. Warmer and sunshine – yeah! I will definitely appreciate it when it comes! The sun is even trying to shine right now – yeah!
Last Thursday I painted. And painted and painted and painted. I almost got the dining room done. I decided I like the color so much, I’m going to paint the living room, hallway, our bedroom, the kitchen and maybe even the bathroom in the same color. It will take me awhile to get it all accomplished, especially with graduation coming and hopefully with the weather turning for the better here I’ll need to be working outside. But I will get it done. These walls haven’t been touched for years and it’s definitely time.
Friday I subbed at the elementary school. That was an experience. I worked with a very challenging boy for sure. I was in an old friend’s classroom, someone I hadn’t seen in a long time and we had a nice visit. All in all it was an enjoyable yet very tiring day. We should all appreciate the associates out there who dedicated their time working with special needs kids. It is an extremely rewarding job yet one of the hardest jobs I can ever imagine.
Saturday was spent finishing up painting the dining room and getting the room put back in order. Then off to Jeremy and Abby’s in the afternoon. They invited us over for supper so we went a little early to have time to play with Braxton. He was mad at us when we got there because we took so long! It’s fun to watch him and Drew – they play together so well.
On Sunday we ended up running to Ottumwa to Menards. Joe needed more boards to finish his lean to and Drew needed a package of toys to put in a piñata at school. We picked up a few groceries too while we were there but since it wasn’t a planned trip I didn’t get everything I needed. I’ll have to sit down this week and figure out what I need for graduation food wise. It’s hard to believe it’s only two weeks away.
