Shifting Gears

Now that school is over the kids have shifted into their summer mode. They spent their first night of summer with friends so we had a quiet night at home.  Both kids had a wonderful school year which ended with numerous academic awards.  They give us so much to celebrate and to be thankful for. Here are photos of them on their last day, taken June 21.

Elliott was inducted into the junior national honor society in early June. I went to the ceremony.  It was the largest induction the middle school has ever had.  Elliott was excited about the ceremony and perhaps nervous because on Wednesday night he said they hadn’t gotten together to practice what they were going to have to do.  I told him they would probably gather everyone the day before so they would not forget what they had to do. I was right and he was relaxed.  The ceremony they have is really nice but short. They don’t waste much time getting down to the inductions. It was a nice way to start a Friday.  Many of the boys Elliott plays football and basketball with were inducted.  He has a large and intelligent class.  

Olivia is loving sleeping in late every day.  I get a little upset when she doesn’t do her chores and am trying to get her to understand that the world doesn’t work on her watch.  I expect her to do her chores before I get home, not after.  Sometimes it doesn’t make for a peaceful evening. She is strong-willed and wants to do things when she feels like it. It will be a tough summer this year.  One that I am not looking forward to in some aspects.  Growing pains but we’ll survive.

Our weekends are usually busy this time of year with mowing and gardening; however, due to the drought conditions, we just mowed after three weeks of waiting for rain.  We are still waiting and the grass continued to brown daily. We have been hauling water to the garden a couple of times a week and it looks good so far.  We did not plant much just potatoes, onions, green beans, beets (selfishly for me) and squash.  Our blueberry bushes are loaded this year so I hope to get some before the birds eat them all.  We are also watching the elderberries so I can make a pie for the family to try. My mom always made at least one elderberry pie each year.  I love them and they are so healthy.

One weekend when we did not mow, we removed some honeysuckle bushes from the upper pond bank.  John and I worked all afternoon together. It was nice to work beside him and help with the lawn. I love being outside and improving our living space.  We’ll be getting back up there soon to pull a few more bushes out and then I get to start trimming, raking and mowing.  Yes, I am excited about that.  It’s always nice to stand back and see the improvements from our hard work. If we let the honeysuckle continue to grow, they will take over the field and the upper pond bank.  We can’t let that happen, even though they smell so nice in the spring, the wild roses grow in them and then wander and they are painful to remove.

We have purchased some trail cameras and are enjoying checking the photos every other night.  We have seen three different buck and one doe and baby, along with our dog Ruddie.  He loves to roam the property and has been very good at staying on his property.  We have new neighbors and they have two dogs. One dog, the younger one, comes over quite often, almost every night and they play.  It is good for Ruddie to have a friend.  Often he’ll go up and sit on the back hill to wait for her to come play.  Down from our house, across the road, a family has moved in. They have two horses, two dogs and motorcycles, four-wheelers and 6 kids.  It’s a bit noisier now but it is nice to have a family in that house.  The other night, their horses were up on our upper pond bank. It was getting dark as it was almost 9:00 pm and they were not home. I called his work number and he answered. After telling him about the horses, he said he was on his way.  Apparently they have now fixed the fence as this was not the first time they got out. It didn’t bother us, they were happy eating dried grass, but I did not want something bad happen to them.  

It rained a little this morning. So I am ending this on a happy note and praying more rain is headed our way. I want my flowers and garden to survive.  Below is a photo of my clematis that John thought died last year - surprise!