I am LOVIN' this....

Clothes on the line on a HOT summer day...nothing better! I am really enjoying this perk of living here in the new house. Things come off a little crunchy, but once you move around in them awhile, they loosen up...I do, however, leave personals and bath towels to the conventional dryer...we don't like the crunchy EVERYWHERE if you get my drift. Saves on our energy bill too.

Now, if we could just get some sun EVERYDAY...overcast weather does nothing to dry your clothes!!

The BIG 13

Well, its official. We have a teenager...we just cannot say that too loud...he doesn't care for that word. :) I don't want him to grow up either!

Words and numbers aside...he is growing up into a great young man, and we are super proud of him.

He is getting a little hard to buy for these days, so we tried to get creative...and, we did buy him some things that he "needs", which fits Jared to a "T"! Always practical that kid is.

He did, however, really enjoy the tent we got him...and it should be fun to watch him set up his own space next time we go camping. We will plan to add to his camping collection, so that when he flys out of the nest, he will have a great start...lets just hope he doesn't need to use it for housing purposes. Tee Hee.

And, what is a holiday without some new Hardy Boys books to add to the collection??!?!?!

Happy Birthday first born...I can't believe that you are growing up so fast. Regardless of the growing pains that you are experiencing and that our relationship occasionally experiences, you mean the world to me and I am so proud of you. You are one of my greatest accomplishments. Thanks for making me smile everyday big guy. You are the bomb.

I found this little blurb about aprons the other day...It brings back memories of my Grandma and her aprons...always on, and ready for service. While I didn't see her use her apron for some of these things, she used it for some and her in her apron is forever imprinted in my memory. The ones I remember were never anything fancy, but just plain old multipurpose everyday farmwife aprons. I did discover some fancier ones when I was going through her things when she moved, and I LOVE them.

My kiddos look at me kind of funny when I put one on...I really need to change that. I love wearing them because I tend to be a little messy, hence the reason that MOST of my shirts have a one stain or more! I am not sure how many patterns I have collected, but when I get them all made...Watch out! I even have a whole book devoted to the history of aprons. Blissful.

Read on:

I don’t think our kids know what an apron is.

The principal use of Grandma’s apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children’s tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that ‘old-time apron’ that served so many purposes.

Don't you agree? Did your Grandma ever wear an apron?

How do you think this one would do for practicality sake????!!!!???!?!?
Just another day in the kitchen!

Arty Smarty's

This last week the kids had their Art & Literature Fair at school. Can I just say an AMEN that they all three seem to have inherited their Dad's artistic ability? This mama CANNOT draw worth a hoot. We were so impressed with the things that they did and it was lots of fun to see all of these projects come together. They have been working for weeks on their presentations. These paintings above are done by Jared. Wowza. Can't wait to have the bird picture framed so I can hang it on the wall. He is very talented!

Here are some of his other projects:

A map from his Robinson Crusoe project:

And here is his acting debut...they acted out a few of Aesop's fables...Jared was the pig in one of them...very FUNNY.


Justin did some great artwork and projects as well:

His class did a "Reader's Theatre" and read a story to us...LOTS of giggles involved.

Nice flowers!

A volcano:

Travis is pretty talented as well:

A painting of a buck...with REALLY BIG blue eye!

Here is his picture that he drew as part of his class quilt...a NINJA cat:

And here is his class reciting some of the many verses that they have learned this year:

Very proud of my guys. Nice work! I guess it is time to buy MORE storage for these projects..with talent like this, I can't throw any of it away!

Just the Good Ole Boys....

Recognize these folks?!?!?





YEP. I am stuck in Hazzard County....or my family room, whichever you want to call it. I have seen/heard every episode from Seasons 1 & 2 now at least...say a MILLION times?!?!?





Travis has been on a Dukes Of Hazzard kick the past week, and no Disney movie will change his mind. With watching the DVD comes dragging out our General Lee cars, Tow trucks and hay bales and barns so one can recreate what we see on the TV...nothin' like a good crash through the side of a barn to make ones day:

YYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWW!

I have to admit, there is a special place in my heart for the Duke boys...used to watch them all the time as a kid...wanted to marry Bo Duke at one time. My sister and I had nightgowns with their pictures on it, and funny thing...made like $60 bucks on eBay off of those things!! Apparently there are die hard Dukes fans out there still!!

And, the attraction still lives on...I was late getting on the bus in Gettysburg because on the way out the door I spotted a deck of cards with the confederate flag on them, and it reminded me of the Dukes, so I had to stop and buy them!! Oh. MY.

So, I guess this is one upside to having boys...they love this kind of action. And they don't even pay much attention at all to Miss Daisy...except for the fact that she drives a really cool Jeep. Phew.

Now, if I could just get this theme song OUT of my head.

ANOTHER idea...

What do you think of this? They call it a "floating" hutch. I think I LIKE it!

Grandpa and Grandma on a road trip

Today is the day that Grandpa and Grandma are headed to California for 2 1/2 months! They are going down to Loma Linda, so Grandpa can receive radiation therapy for his prostate cancer.

We will be busy while they are gone keeping up on all of the chores at their house, and eating their eggs and all of the meat in their freezer. It will be hard work. We will also have to get the garden in without Grandpa, which will really be hard work!

But most of all, we are praying that this treatment will be successful and that he will come home healthy and cured. Grandpas are a special thing to kids and we want him around for many, many, many, many years to come. He has been, is and will keep being a very instrumental part in the boys lives and we are grateful for that!

So, good luck Grandpa! We love you and will look forward to your return!