sights of summer...

Our family is taking care of this little garden at our church this year.

She is a really good little weeder.She had hours and hours of fun from this little box, which was among other things, a car.

Who needs Toys R US?

Fishing at Grandma's (and Grandpa's) house. They live just down the block from us, truly a blessing.
She caught several of these sunnies and wants to do it all by herself, cutting the worms, putting them on the hook, taking the fish off etc...but not quite yet, maybe next year...
This is a weekly sighting on our street. Hubby and little one driving the tractor back and forth from Grandma and Grandpa's house.
As you can see, nothing too exciting going on here but I sure don't know where the days and weeks are going.
Hope you have the time to enjoy the simple things in life this summer

I have one word for you...

yummy!

I made this panzenella recipe from The Family Kitchen by Debra Ponzek. Made with fresh tomatoes, basil, red onion, garlic, italian bread, olive oil, vinegar and salt and pepper-how could you really go wrong?

I really like this cookbook. There are lots of recipes in this book that I can't wait to make with the little one. I borrowed it from our local library.

life...

Precious in every form...

Have a great Monday!

birthdays and beach days...

We celebrated our daughter's sweet sixteen birthday last Saturday. We are so proud of her and we think she is turning out to be quite an incredible young lady.

It seems to me her interests are very different from other girls her age. She is a relatively low maintenance kind of girl. She doesn't require a name brand wardrobe, quite the opposite, if she sees that "everyone is wearing it" she wants nothing to do with it. She doesn't wear make-up. She is a very beautiful girl inside and out, yet she is completely unaware of her beauty.

She really does make decisions in accordance to what her faith teaches.

Thank you Lord, so far so good.

Oh, and about that haircut I gave her last week. She asked me to give her a layered haircut. I am not a hairdresser! We did a minimal amount of research and went at it. I took a good bit off and we were unsure of how it would turn out, but all is well, it turned out just fine. She was even able to laugh during the haircut when we weren't quite sure how it would turn out.

Curly hair is forgiving...

For her birthday she requested that the family go on a picnic for lunch. We went to a park with a duck pond and had a lovely picnic. I picked up a mini birthday cake to bring along.

That evening, we went to play miniature golf and out for ice cream.

It was a really nice day!

On Monday we left for the Cape May Marianist's Retreat House for a family retreat. I highly recommend it, most families call it the best vacation they ever had. The week was so full, I wouldn't know where to start. Although it is a retreat, everyday from after lunch until dinner we were free to do whatever we wanted. Most of the families chose to go to the beach together. The kids had a ball.

One afternoon a school of dolphins, put a show on for us, they were unusually close to the shore. This was the view for our 3rd floor bedroom, we could hear the waves crashing...
I even got to spend some time by myself down on the beach in the early morning...

On the way home yesterday afternoon , we were stopped by a terrible accident. we don't know what happened but several cars were involved and a helicopter came down just about 15 cars in front of us. We were stopped at that spot with many many others for about an hour, we shut the car off and went to the side of the road to sit in the shade. It was very disturbing, for a moment I just cried and prayed for the people involved, it was obviously serious.
It served as yet another very powerful reminder that life is precious, and nobody knows the day or the hour...
Lord, help us to live our lives well. So that when that day comes, we have no regrets.

What a great day we had yesterday.

We started with the best blueberry pancakes I have ever tasted-it was because those blueberries we picked up were really, really good.

Then, my friend Susanne came over with her three sweet children and brought me some very thoughtful presents. She knows how I love all things vintage and she picked up two very pretty milk glass planters, some pretty lace doilies and a very "Brady" vintage sheet-which is now down on the table in the "studio". One day not too long ago her family sat in front of our family at church and I could not help but notice how good she smelled, so of course I told her. She went out and found a little spray bottle (which is so unusual-I don't know how she found it) and brought me over some of the very same perfume that I had admired. All so incredibly thoughtful! It was so moving to me that she paid attention to my interests and what I like and blessed me like that. Thank you so much Susanne! (This is where it would be nice if you had a blog so I could highlight your name and link to you!)

Anyway the kids had a great time making mud puddles, I wish I had taken some pictures...

It was so nice out last night, my two little bathing beauties took a late evening dip.

After I got little one tucked in, I gave dd 15 a haircut. She has super duper thick, very curly hair. She wanted it layered. I googled the technique and off we went. She didn't blow it out because it was late, I can't wait to see what it's like after she does it today. I'm a little scared...

I'll let you know how it all turned out...

I wanted to let you in on a giveaway over at one of my very favorite fabric designers, stop by, leave a comment and get in on the fun.

Lastly, I read about this very tragic event, please say a prayer for this family.

whatever is lovely...

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable,

whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,

whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there

is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard

and seen in me. Then the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:8-9

Sometimes I ask myself why I blog...

My intention is certainly never to brag about the things that I make, or cook or do, or gag anyone with how much I love my kids and my husband. I guess I just want this to be a place to share the good things in my life, I save the complaining and worrying for off line. I love this scripture from Philipians. My sister calls it her "life verse"-words to live by.

This scripture reminds me of what I want to do with this blog. Focus on what is truly good in my life. Believe me, we all have "stuff" in our lives that is not as we would choose it to be or could be better, and I am no exception.

So that is what you'll find here. Mostly just the good stuff...

whatever is lovely...

Here are a few pictures from while we were out and about doing errands today. I had no intention of taking pictures of all this-but is was all just so darn, well....lovely!

I don't always let her get her own cart, but daddy was with us so he was able to watch out and protect my heels.

A stop at the "Corn Wagon" 13 ears for $2.25-not bad.

We picked up some very yummy blueberries, since the birds have been feasting on ours. These were a great buy, it's a quart!
This is where we get our milk-also great prices as well as no bht hormone.

July is ice cream month-woohoo!

I can honestly say, that so far this month I have been doing my part to support this occasion.

Is next month carrot and celery sticks month?!

this and that...

What a great evening I had last night. My friend Beth came over for coffee and chit chat and boy did I need some of that.

Here are some of sachets made from some of that homegrown lavender and rose petals.

I made this hotpad for the kitchen, I need to do a couple more. In the last week we have two new circles on the counter and table from hot stuff-oops! I also wanted to try a quilt binding on a mini project. Beth gave me a quick lesson. I learn so much better by watching rather than reading instructions. Thanks Beth!
This was going to be a prototype for this project since I didn't want to experiment on good fabric. But I think it's good enough...
My oldest daughter is away this week on a type of Missions Trip with our youth group, so it is just these two home. We had trouble settling on how we should spend our day given the varied interests of a 17 year old young man and a 4 year old little girl, so we agreed on a mini hike through the county park.

My son is hearing impaired, his loss is significant yet he is not profoundly deaf. I often equate it him hearing like an"old man". He turns things up , we speak louder and repeat ourselves often and it's fine. He wore hearing aids up until a few years ago and stopped because it was "a pain". The plan has always been that he would get the in-the-ear hearing aids when he was fully grown, which time is almost upon us it appears, so we have begun that process. Anyway, as we walked through the woods I just stopped to listen to all the birds and "woodsy sounds" I quickly remembered/realized he couldn't hear any of it. I think it bothers him a little once in a while-but he really is fine with it. But every now and then, I get a little motherly sting in my gut when he misses out on something because of his hearing loss that we can't turn up or "fix" or fill him in on. I can't explain what the woods sounded like yesterday...

Yes, it stings for a moment, but we know in the grand scheme of things it's just not that big of a deal. He is an amazing young man. He loves the Lord, he shares his faith, he is a natural counselor to his friends, a hard worker and wonderful son and we are so proud!

God is good!

I'll end this sappy post with our little tree hugger. Have a great day friends!

this week from the garden...