Just Your Typical Day

Our very tight school schedule has every day kinda looking the same around here.  Friends have asked why my blogging has slowed down and this post will explain!  Since I don't have as many extraordinary things to write about, here are some pictures I pulled off my camera showing the very common scenes of ordinary life in our house:

Dragged out of bed and grabbing those last few precious minutes of sleep while Mom makes breakfast.

Being creative with letters.

Perfecting the Disney karaoke.

Being goofy.

Jumping off the bed in superhero capes.

Painting giraffes.

Completing the nightly homework.

Am I so hard-up for stories about our life that I just posted pictures of the kids sleeping on the couch?  Yep.  Time for an outing...or maybe a family visitor! :)

Delia Wanted to Type Her Name:

delllllia

Now uppercase:
DELIA

Now purple:
delia

(Thank you for indulging us! :)

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 Feeling run-down?  Exhausted and discouraged in your daily endeavors?  Then I suggest my family's Queen for the Day remedy!  Simply have a birthday in my house and you will enjoy this Royal Treatment:

-Being roused from bed with a serenade

-Breakfast with your girlfriends

-A parade of sweet email and Facebook messages

-Phone conversations with loved ones

-Thoughtful gifts that are all your favorite things (gift cards to your favorite stores, clothes, accessories, books, home decor)

-A fun restaurant dinner

-Candles in your dessert Tiramisu

 -Lots and lots of hugs and kisses!

Thanks to everyone who gave me The Royal Treatment for my birthday.  Thanks especially to Dave, Ella and Delia whose spoils, love and very presence in my life is the best gift!

I Saw a Tree

 I saw a tree by the Riverside

one day as I walked along. 

Straight as an arrow and pointing to the sky, growing tall and strong.

"How do you grow so tall and strong?" I said to the Riverside Tree.

 
This is the song that my tree friend sang to me:

"I've got roots growing down to the water.

I've got leaves growing up to the sunshine.

And the fruit that I bear is a sign of the life in me.

I am shade from the hot summer sundown.

I am nest for the birds of the heavens.

I'm becoming what the Maker of trees has blessed me to be-- a strong young tree!"

-- Tree Song by Ken Medema

Puzzled

Last week on Labor Day we bought a box of puzzles.  An 8 pack, to be exact, with puzzles ranging in size from 150 pieces to 500.  While I've had a large puzzle spread across my dining room table every day this week and we've all taken our turn chipping away at it, this was mostly Dave and Ella's project.  It's been sweet to watch how Ella revels in spending hours searching for pieces and persevering side by side with her Daddy.

Just seven days later and all the puzzles are done-- 2,200 pieces collectively!  The two medium sized ones (300 pieces) were done almost entirely by Ella this weekend.

Writing about our puzzle enthusiasm makes me feel a bit like an old retired couple.  Hopefully I won't be reporting next week that we've bought and RV and taken up bird watching!

Friday, Friend Day

This Friday, I set up our day so it was full of friends for everyone.  Delia and I spent the morning at Jetta's.  With the twins, Delia climbed the pasture fences and ran through the sprinkler in her undies, while Jetta and I got a good 3 hours to talk and munch on zucchini bread. 

Because Delia and I do try to keep busy with fun activities and little outings, Ella tends to feel a little left out when she gets home.  Her time to be home is short and, honestly, the adjustment to full days of school has been harder than we expected.  To give Ella a special treat, yesterday I also picked her and Chloe up from school and brought them to the tea shop we found this summer.  What a fun tea party we girls had!  Ella and Chloe giggled and chatted over their china cups of hot chocolate and then spent half the time trying on and modeling all the different dress up clothes. 

Hooray for good friends!  This quality time with our friends was the highlight of the week for me, Ella and Delia.

Another Peach Post

What do you get when you spend a whole day opening, pitting and slicing peaches?  Yes, a pantry full of canned peaches for the winter, but also some pretty sore muscles!  Apparently twisting open and digging pits out of peaches work muscles in your shoulders you didn't even know existed and I am feelin' it today!

 

But it's worth it to see our 50 jars all lined up, having completed the final step of cooking in the canner.  It's also worth it to spend the day with Anna Jean, who's been doing canned peaches all her life and who continues to teach me, still a novice to canning. 

Some other things that are fun about canning with Anna Jean on the dairy are:
-Finding ways to include Delia in the process (a lot of the work is knife work, so she was the bucket filler and peach mover).
-Walking over to the pen of mama cows to see if any babies have been born whenever we get backed up or need a break.
-Hearing the cows moo while we eat lunch.
-Driving the golf cart out the pasture to feed the cows our buckets of peels and scraps.
-Watching Delia stay entertained for hours by Buddy, the pony-sized St. Bernard.
-Concluding a hot day and rewarding our hard work with a good long swim in the pool.

Work and Play

Make a pretty good Saturday.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane

In the past we've enjoyed attending the sunrise launch of hot air balloons at a local festival.  However, this school year, getting our already tired family there before 6:00 am to see those balloons take the sky just seemed like mission impossible.  By going to the festival three hours later we were able to see all new stuff this year!  

The coolest thing we saw was the skydiving show!  We watched the 12 skydivers from when they were just dots in the sky, 12,000 feet up, to their whirling touch-down right in front of us.  

When each of the divers on the team landed, they hung out a bit to chat with the spectators.  Ella really wanted to talk to one and tell them "how great they did!"  Dave the skydiver, who's taken 2,300 leaps, was super nice and interesting to talk to.  Delia informed him that she will "NEVER EVER jump out of an airplane."  Mommy is okay with that. :)

We've always been too exhausted to stroll around the festival after the hot air balloons take off.  Today it was fun to explore the booths, see the kite fliers and watch a really neat wild animal expert give a show with live animals.  And we didn't miss the balloons completely, a few stuck around to give rides.  The girls were totally taken with this panda bear balloon! 

Inspiration

Usually Ella's imagination is inspired by a box.  With her sketchpad and markers, I had to smile when I saw her finding creative inspiration from inside a box!