Bad Blogging

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!! And Happy Birthday to my Aunt Pete!!!!!

Sweetheart told me I was a bad blogger! He may be right about that. I really do not have much to share. I sure hate to bore you all!!! We have been enjoying some beautiful weather. Lots of sunshine to soak up. We have gotten our yard looking pretty nice, too.
We had a company do some treatments, so the grass is much thicker and the weeds are under control. Sweetheart trimmed up the bushes, and he and Charlotte planted some flowers. I planted some pots of flowers for the porch and added some hanging baskets, which, by the way, if you wait til late in June, go on sale for like 70% off!!! My neighbor gifted me with this beautiful pot of yellow flowers. They are wonderful between the front porch rockers! I like this porch!It is a comfy place to sit in the morning sun, or the evening shade.In the back, we got the little garden planted. Just 2 tomato plants, 2 pepper plants, and a couple of rows of green beans. Enough for our dinner table. Everything else can come from the Farmer's Market.The pots on the back deck are filled with red and white petunias, just like in the front flower bed.My son had his children for the week. He was on vacation and had a wonderful time with them. They go home tomorrow. They will be back in 2 weeks and then every weekend after that for the rest of the summer. I got to enjoy them all on a few different occasions. They LOVED the CD's I got them. Remember....I couldn't share my Galena gift to them til they got them? I found CD's that I had made with their names in the songs. Emerson AND TJ have CD's in which the songs include their names like 90+ times in the CD. You can find them at Poopsies.com under Personalized CD's. Such a great gift!!! If they had Emerson's name, I am sure you can find just about any name!
My friend Sue's daughter was in town with her little ones. Our kids grew up together, and now TJ and Emily (Sue's granddaughter) and Emerson and Treavor (Sue's grandson) see each other once a year. TJ and Emily were smitten....it was cute but scary.They could not have a Popsicle without making sure they had the same color!!!

Emerson is such a Grandma's girl! I have so enjoyed her! She is always a joy to feed and eats with such determination!!! Really, she just loves a good Sloppy Joe!
And she is such a helper. Watering the garden and flowers is her new favorite thing to do!
She is too cute for her own good!!!
I have MANY more pictures to share, but this is enough for today. My great nephew, Dominic was here for a few days and just left today, so I have more pics to load, plus a wonderful quilty gift to share with you too.
There has been much more going on here in my own world than I thought when I started this post!!! Maybe Sweetheart is right and I really AM a bad blogger!!!
I will try to do better!! For now I leave you with a bit of hope from the Word.

"Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope"
Psalm 16:9
"Hope's Garden" in my backyard.

An Update Post

HOMEMAKING

The house is running smoothly. We have a nice routine here. My binder routines and schedules are memorized, so I rarely have to pull it out. Meals are simpler now with summer here. Lots of grilling out and salads and sandwiches.

QUILTINGThis update will be quite boring. I am still hand quilting the Hidden Star and NOT loving it. The fabrics are so busy that the stitches do not show. Like I said before, I think in the end the texture will be incredible. I want to get TJ's top done and in the hoop so I can switch back and forth....if I make myself quilt a block on the Hidden Star then I can reward myself with some sailboat quilting!! Emerson's quilt has been put on hold. If they reunite, there is no need to make her another quilt. 1 home, 1 quilt. 2 homes, 2 quilts. I am hoping for 1.

GARDENINGThe roses in Hope's Garden are blooming like crazy. I have to believe that is because she is there and God is blessing her spot! They are just gorgeous roses!

The vegetable garden is doing wonderfully also. The lettuce and onions are sprouting up and the pepper and tomato plants have blooms on them!Oops~there is a weed in there....I better get that!

SCHOOLWe are winding down our home school year. The kids have done well. Charlotte has an extra set of books to re-do. I won't go into that here, but suffice it to say, she is going to learn more than a social studies lesson! Zach wonders why he ever thought "add and carry was a drag". (can you tell he has "old" parents?) He passed his latest set of tests with flying colors. He starts in the Summer Day Camp once a week on the 9th. He will not be attending the private school next year...a decision Sweetheart and I made together....though Zach, Charlotte, and I will be very involved in the home school co-op next year.

KIDSThe shining light in our house came to me yesterday holding a fork above his head and asked, "What am I, Mom?" I guessed "The Statue of Liberty." "Nope", he said. "I am a fork lift!!!" That kid cracks me up!!!

FAMILYA HUGE congratulations to my niece Meghan! She graduated from Law School and will be taking her State Bar Exam very soon. This girl got a complete scholarship based on her academics. She was even given housing money. Her aspiration is to be a Judge. I know she will be a good one!!

SPIRITUALI have been in 1 Peter 1 for 3 days now. I read and meditate on it and will continue to until I feel released to move on. Words that pop out at me are, Mercy, Grace, Exile, Trials, Refining, Faith, Testing, and Holy. These 2 sections of scripture are especially meaningful for me right now:

"In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ" 1 Peter 1:6-7

and

"Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." 1 Peter 13-19

"preparing your minds for action".....wow. Powerful stuff!

SASSYSassafras continues to grow (more wide than anything) and loves to watch out the window for bugs and birds.She plays hard and sleeps hard also! I can not imagine life with out Sass!Thanks for reading through my Update post. I love your comments, so please come out of lurkdom and let me know you are there and where you are from!

Gardening?

Anyone who knows me a little bit, knows I am no gardener. I want to be one....desperately. In my zeal to be a gardener, Sweetheart gave me a piece of land behind the garage. It measures 14' 3" by 3' 10". Very long and narrow. A difficult plot to garden. I have repeatedly asked him to extend my garden. Imagine my thrill when he came home from his mom's house and had a rototiller in the back of the van. I was CERTAIN he was going to extend my garden out. No. Such. Luck. Why is he so hard on this? Well, because, like I said, I am not good at it. He did make me a deal. If I tend this little plot of land and do well at it, he will extend the garden NEXT year. You see, he ends up out there weeding and caring for it because, frankly, I lose interest. I know, I know...I've heard it all from him! So this year I am going to prove myself. I planted all my plants yesterday.

2 Better Boy Tomato plants, 1 Grape Tomato plant.....I thought I bought BIG boy, but read the tag wrong. Now I don't have a clue what a "Better Boy" is....

I also planted a cucumber plant. And 2 Bell Pepper plantsLet me say, when I started, that soil was so dry and hot, it was like sand. I gave it a really good soaking. I decided to wait until this morning to plant the seeds I bought, because the soaking may have washed the seeds away. I was glad I waited. This morning that moist soil was full of big fat earth worms. Perfect!! I let them know I was grateful they came to do their job! I planted 2 three foot long rows of lettuce..........and 2 rows of onions. I could not find onion sets ANYWHERE. I guess I was too late.So it is all in and ready to deliver some wonderful salads to our dinner table this summer.What will I get if I take care of it properly and become a REAL gardener???Sweetheart will extend the garden out to where the lattice ends.....that will make my garden 14' 3" by 10' 10". BIG difference. I am already planning it all out. I know I will want a raspberry bush in there!!!

Other than that, I am staying inside. It has been record breaking heat here the last couple of days. I am doing laundry and hand quilting this afternoon. I was able to sit out on the back deck and read my Bible with a cup of coffee before it got too bad out there. I love Proverbs....you just know God has some wit about Him. Sassy is staying cool too. She sits at the window when we are all outside and meows.....I am not sure any noise comes out, because she does her "silent cry" when she wants something. Full fledged meow, but no sound.She is such a dolly. For someone who is not a "cat person" I sure am crazy about her!

Thanks for visiting. I am off to switch the laundry around and grab my quilting!