This week...

Pleasant surprise: I was able to re-connect with a blog friend.  Not-so-pleasant: I have had my patience tested.  And tested.  I am constantly reminding myself that being the grown-up means acting like the grown-up--not like a bigger kid.

Pleasant: Multiple knitting projects!  Not-so: close deadlines (a.k.a. birthdays)

Pleasant: watching the light dance across the front of the house.  Not so much: discovering some deferred maintenance that needs to be resolved.

Pleasant: knitting sweater fronts at the same time.  Not so much: must pay careful attention; can't travel with this one (but this is what multiple projects are for--one to travel with!)

Pleasant: sunflowers.  It's all good around here.

Pleasant: planting broccoli for fall harvest.  Not so much: watering them daily

Pleasant: surprises on the memory card when uploading pictures!

We're going away for the weekend--a quick, semi-distant trip.  When we get back, it will be August.  And school starts August 30.  Time for this mama to re-boot the summer and stop all the fighting!

Hello, friends

Another week gone by.  Another heat wave on its way.

A big thanks to SouleMama for inspiring this meal (from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food).  Homemade pasta without a pasta maker will wear out a knitter's wrists!

Look what popped up this week!  Time to look up squash recipes.

More sunflowers is always good.

The pole beans are climbing up just about everything.

And the Black-eyed Susans are threatening to take over.

And I'm just so tickled with the zinnias.  I'm so glad I sprinkled these seeds around this spring.

See you next week!

Happy Friday

Friday again?  These lazy days of summer are just blending together, aren't they?

Things are blooming.

Recipes are being tried.  This one was good, but it's not "the one."  Nobody minds much.

And the knitting is slow, but there is knitting nonetheless!

Hot!

It is too hot to play outside.  Unless you're in the pool.

I am waiting on my vegetables.

I am poring over the 4-H fair guide.  I think I will be entering in many more categories this year.

I'm thinking about entering the cake contest.  This means I'll need to practice.

And...this is my 400th post!

Summer

Lots of growing and making.  And some ice cream eating, too!

Businessperson's Special

When we went to the beach on Tuesday, I came home with a head of garlic, seventeen farm-fresh eggs, and four tickets and a parking pass to today's Phillies game.  I made out like a bandit!

Seems my brother-in-law had been given the tickets, and he couldn't go to the game. 

I told my comfort zone that I'd be back next week--I had seats behind the dugout, and I couldn't pass up this opportunity.

Caroline stayed in New Jersey to visit with her cousins, so I took Caitlin and Bobby today.

Some of it was about what you'd expect when you take young children to a baseball game and it's about 100 degrees. 

Some of it was freakin' awesome--we were in Row 19 behind the Indians' dugout.  We left after the sixth inning--and the score was 12--2 Phillies, so we got to see a lot of action.  Charlie Manuel (the Phillies' manager) was ejected in the second inning, so that brought additional excitement.

The severe thunderstorm on the drive home was scary for some of my companions.  The temperature dropped 25 degrees.  I really didn't mind going 35 on the interstate (more in my comfort zone than going 70 in pouring rain). 

I am a salty, sweaty mess.  I am so looking forward to a shower, but the kids and I had a blast.  It's been a pretty good first week of summer.  Maybe my Comfort Zone and I are going to have a sit-down soon--it may be time to renegotiate the terms.

Beach Day

Today I did something pretty out of character for me.  I packed up the kids and drove them an hour away to the beach.

We met my mother-in-law and one of my sisters-in-law and three cousins.

The kids said this was the best day ever.

I'll definitely be doing this again.

And hopefully, I'll get to do a little more knitting than this!