Zee Pool

Love that place.   Glad it isn't mine and I just get to show up and set my kids loose  My three oldest did not grow up when they were little people with a pool.   They were pretty timid with the water etc and one would scream her head off at the prospect of my taking her beyond the wall,.    The short people in the family who have grown up with summers at the pool are fish.   Stefan, five, is jumping of the diving board now and has little fear in going a little deeper in the water and sticking their head under the water.   It is not even the end of June and all kids have given up the kiddie pool in favor of toying with more adventure in the 'big pool'.   It is something we all love to do together and I know I will cry come September when they close the pool for the year.  

Today's Joy

It is precious to me to spend time with the kids.   The kids from 21 to going on 2 are all amazing to me.   I find joy watching their antics and in the little things.   Today's joy included watching my 16 year old run across the field to his turkeys with the same childlike enthusiasm as he always has had.   Joyfully bouncing off to do his thing. 

Ingrid, 3, went to the store with Matthew and I after church this evening and she too was walk/skipping along as we went.   This sweetness just simply gives me a THRILL!    She was wearing a Christmas looking dress with pink sandals and jabbering away about how she fell asleep on the way to church and that now she was awake!   Cool!

Evan, almost 2, reveled in morning kisses this morning.   I was gone for nearly a week so feeling his little arms hugging my neck was mommy bliss.   Taking pause to let him just stay there and hold on tight instead of my running off to get something done was definitely the right choice.

Stefan this evening paid attention throughout the whole service.   He sang with the familiar parts of Evening Prayer and his little face kept beaming at me the whole time.   He asked me his serious questions and one of them was inquiring if we were at church for Confession and Absolution.   Love that kid.   No dear......not today. 

Then when I give them all a close look I think about how in a few years they will all be older and older and how much I try to hang onto these moments.   Tomorrow is a new day to revel so I will go with that and enjoy each memory as it comes.   There is much to be thankful for. 

Annoying and cranky.

My new philosophy of the day is......everyone basically has the capacity to be annoying so.......just smile and wave or something.   I am tired in the extreme so I am not sure anything could happen that could get much of a rise out of me.   Humans, ranging from toddlers to eighty somethings,  all have that sin thing in common.   Me too.   I was driving home from Minnesota yesterday and at times my form of stress relief was making odd observations to change the current subject of the moment (lots of moments).   I probably was making my mother nuts.   Silence is a nice alternative at times if given the option to not respond.   I need to work on that option a bit more as usually my odd observations are lost on the hearer.   Sigh.  

Everyone does annoying things.   If you walk through any store you can overhear someone complaining about someone else having been annoying.   It is constant.   Sometimes though I do see and hear young couples and old calmly discussing things or enjoying their time out together.   Observing people actually getting along is nice and sweet to behold.   Observing funny teasing between the couples I visited on my trip was refreshing too.  

So then.....how to deal with the crankiness which might happen.....forgive them.   I sometimes want to say, "Forgive them already!!!" to others but that is me whining at them.   So.....trying to remember that for myself.   Sigh.   I suppose I could be driven to say that to some random person in the supermarket, but that would be sort of obnoxious.....I think.   Or maybe not......

So that is my deep little thought of the day.  I guess I would call it a little study on bearing with one another in love.  Smile!  

Bike trails and health reform?

It seems to me that if the government wanted to help health reform, they could step up the rails to trails program.   Martin and I spent the morning biking on the trails in Rochester, Minnesota and there are trails EVERYWHERE!!!!    They are well done, safe and fun.   Indiana seems to have so few bike trails and I believe is around fifth in the nation in obesity.   Hmmmm.......how about making walking and biking more accessible?  There were people of all sizes and ages on those trails.   They all looked pretty happy to me.  

I love contemplating the people I see on these trails.   My favorite people this morning were busy doing what they loved.   The young lady who was stopped on the trail to take pictures of the birds.   She looked very happy.   I saw some orioles and they made me happy so sure, I see why she stopped.  

There was the older couple, holding hands and walking down the trail together.    I wanted to get a picture as those are my favorite pictures, but hadn't mastered biking and picture taking yet.   They weren't talking much but were just enjoying each others company.   Nice.  

There was our biking pal who we crossed paths with several times.   He admired my bike lights.  Lol!   Martin and I passed him once and he magically passed us in return a little later.   Probably was hard on his ego.  

I especially liked the dad walking with his little fivish year old boy and clearly having good father/son time.   Sweet.

So anyway, good quality bike and walk ways seem to me to be a better solution than socking more government money into drugs and theories of why we Americans are so fat.   Give us something to do if you have to do something Mr. Government!   I would much rather see my tax dollars go into using the old rails to make trails and family fun.   It probably would have a bigger effect on the obesity problem too.  

Sunflowers

Since we are now late enough in the month of June, I have mostly given up on getting annual seeds in the ground.   The seeds which work the best for me are nasturtiums, marigolds and zinnias.   There are still spaces which I can fill in with marigolds and zinnias as they are cheap seeds and easy to grow but the other seed of choice which I don't feel are too late to plant are sunflower seeds.   We have ten acres so I could not BEGIN to afford to buy already started annuals in all of that space but sunflowers do work for accents etc.   

The VERY cheapest way to grow sunflowers is to just go to my bird seed supply can and use those seeds for planting.   It works fine.   My favorite feed store lady pointed that out to me several years ago.   Feed stores are awesome places to get bulk seed anyway.   That is where I get my marigold and zinnia seeds for the most part.   Just shove seeds in the ground in clusters and voila!   Flower gardens.  

I may put in some last minute morning glory seeds from the same place but most likely will forget this year.   I am leaving for a week and have been living on panic gardening so I do not come home to a mess.   Since the lawn mower has been broken for a month, I am sure I will be coming home to plenty of exercise in the lawn and garden center around here.    It will be a jungle out there. 

Okay......just made myself tired.   Not an eloquent post but would call this my post of thrift.   It would be even thriftier if I remembered to gather the seeds from year to year and buy nothing for seeds.   We shall see what sort of energy I have left come this fall.  

Actual Garden talk

I am STILL going through the gardens around here and getting some final annuals and such  planted.   I add a few perennials every year and have begun dabbling in miniatures.    If I manage it, I will at least have my fairy garden set up by the time the snow flies.   I have much rock to carry to build the area up and then fill with dirt.   Of course it will have to have a miniature water fall or something like that.  

I can see where some of the perennials I purchased years ago have grown into monsters, such as the Joe Pie Weed and the bee balm.    My favorite nursery lady told me how to handle splitting them when they are done blooming or in the fall so will tackle that later.   My mother-in-law had not noticed how these monsters magically appeared in the last few months until we had a conversation about them in the back yard.   She was amazed at their size.    They really need to have a moving day down to flower gardens near my bee hives.   They will be much happier there and I can find something tamer to replace them.

I  should post pictures.   My gardens are pretty humble and not weed free.     I am the sole gardener and chasing the number of beds around here is daunting.   We also have fence rows to clean up every year and then there is of course the lawn to mow.   Mowing the lawn is another addiction I have so farming that out is not happening either.   Well......maybe once in a while but the mower is broken now anyway so it doesn't matter.  

 This past week I have spent slowly taming other monsters like our rhododendron which was reaching for the roof.   It got a good whacking and we can see out the window again and it also doesn't look as bad as I thought it would.   My brother is a horticulturist and it was his suggestion.   We once had a Rose of Sharon in that area and that bush seems to want to be remembered forever as it comes up everywhere.  

If I keep up at this rate, I hope to get our monster hostas under control as well.   They are HUGE and very jungle like.   I hope to move most of them to put around places like the barn and other outbuildings to make them a bit more attractive.    The sun is coming up and it is raining so I am going out anyway with rain coat and my goofy hat to tackle before the little ones wake up and it is time to get ready for church.    

Summer so far

I haven't blogged in awhile.   I've been planting and weeding the garden, going to the pool with the kiddos and trying to catch up on everyone's doctor appointments.   That about sums it up.   Our lawn mower has been out of commission for weeks, our 15 passenger van has been out of commission for weeks and we bought a little old Toyota for the kids whenever they need a car.   This car I think has been adopted by Charley as it gets awesome mileage and the only kid with a license seems to be spending her summer in Bloomington.   Every day seems non-stop.   So......is this a blog post?   I guess it is more a report of why I rarely get online anymore.   I forgot to mention my bees.   The bees are doing fantastic.   I should post a picture of the stack of supers on the one.   Happy bees, happy we.   I have been able to clean up and organize my bee equipment after years of having no time at all to even face that mess.   It is so much easier to add a super when you know what you have.  And.....the pool is open of course so I will be spending as many afternoons as possible with the kids there soaking in summer. 

If anyone wants me......I'm in the yard, at the pool or running people around on errands etc.   Phew.