Monday, May 6, 2013

Grasshopper Days


Grasshopper Days

For today, Monday, May 6, 2013

Outside my window...  in shocking news, yesterday's weather forecast:



I'm tempted to just cancel school for the whole week and add another week on in June, when it will be raining again.  May is such a tease here in the PNW!  May tricks you into thinking summer is here, and then... Junuary comes back with a vengeance.

*sigh*

Gotta get our Vitamin D while we can, you know!

Hearing...  a very persistent robin.

Pondering...  once again, a very busy week with lots to keep organized, lots of guests, and many mouths to feed!

Praying...  to keep my head on straight this week!

Thanking...  one of my four pregnant friends delivered a girl on Saturday evening, and Mom and Baby are doing fine.  We take that for granted in this day of modern medicine, and we shouldn't.

Also thankful that after finally burning the Old Lumpy Futon (seen here in *ahem* better days...)


... we had a nice, if empty, guest room (aka family room.)  I borrowed an airbed from my folks for our wedding guests last week.  (Aren't they cute?  They've only been married about five months.)


Kerry seemed to think I was crazy to burn the old futon before we had a replacement, but it made the room so much nicer (ie more spacious) for guests.

And so much less comfortable for TV watching....  (ulterior motive?)

Either way, I knew that with a little patience, craigslist would come through for me.  And VOILA!  (Or, in Grasshopper-speak, WA-WAH!)  Our "new" fifty buck couch.  It has a few scratched spots (cat, maybe?) but it passed the smell test.  Literally.  I'm kind of picky about odors.  And by "kind of" I mean extremely.


Don't know and don't care if it's real leather.  Probably not.  The important thing is that it's "wipe-clean-able."  If it smells faintly of baby shampoo, well, that's a good thing, and the result of my efforts in the driveway before it came inside. ;D

Wearing... capris and a tank top!

Creating...  not this, but isn't it gorgeous?!  Amazing effect, and it's a perfectly flat quilt, made by women in Romania.  I got the photo from the blog of the woman named Geta who designed it,  HERE.  She's a genius.


Going...  to take the boys out to the church to mow the lawn there.  Another job :D

Reading... about to start Standing in the Rainbow, by Fannie Flagg.  Kerry picked it up for me from the free table at the library.

Learning...  more about Proverbs!

Looking forward to...  the boys being away for a few days NEXT WEEK!  It's like a vacation at home!  I have great plans to get the next school year mapped out and a bunch of other organizational tasks done.  Woo-hoo!  Fun for them (Disneyland!) and fun for me (beat back entropy!)

In the kitchen...  I'm cheating tonight.  I told the boys we'd go mow at the church late in the afternoon and I'd treat them to a dollar-menu dinner out :D

In the learning rooms...  counting down the days...

Around the house...  light, light, light.  The days are getting long and the sun is shining and I am loving all the LIGHT!

The Mother Load... oh boy.  Don't ask.  It's merciless.

Noticing that...  the $%^&* deer are at it again.  Time to start stinking up the yard before bed... (Liquid Fence).

Something to remember for later...  a visit from Naomi, and her first bite of ice cream.  She liked it.  A LOT.  She did that open-mouth-little-bird thing, accompanied by some impressive vocalization (FEED ME, SEYMOUR!)  to get the message across to her dad ;D


Something fun to share...  though we see her so rarely, she seemed to recognize Gunnar.  She always lights up when she sees him.

A favorite quote for today... 
There cannot be a crisis next week.
My schedule is already full.
Henry Kissinger

One of my favorite things...  Gunnar gets her grinning, and Grandpa takes great pictures :D


A few plans for the rest of the week...
* Monday - we'll head out to the church to mow (and it'll be a real job the first time, as the grass is pretty high)
* Tuesday - the boys have CAP, and my sister and I are taking my mom to a musical - Beauty and the Beast - for Mother's Day.  And Mom, being the gracious mom she is, is taking us to dinner first :D
* Wednesday - we're hosting the youth-group here for dinner and the evening, but I have Bible Study, so I'll be making all the food ahead, and then leaving it to Kerry to manage the group (he agreed to this ahead of time...)  And they're a GREAT group of kids.  Young adults.  Whatever. :D
* Thursday - Wyatt works
* Friday and Saturday, prep for...
* Sunday - Mother's Day lunch here (12 of us) and celebrating my cousin's daughter's b'day.  I almost said "my niece" because that's really the way the relationship functions.

A peek into my world yard...  my pink dogwood is blooming :D


6 comments:

melanie said...

Wow! $50 couch. {ahem - Tim & I were just at the furniture stores again on Saturday. I think you can buy a throw pillow for $50.}

Cool quilt!

And sweet, sweet Naomi! I'll guess that Gunnar's face lights up when he sees her too :)

Yes! Take the Gorgeous Days off from school!

The dB family said...

I have so much to say! See again with the I wish we were neighbours.

Hooray on the Craigslist couch!

Naomi is beautiful!

Is it really Mother's Day this weekend? How did that happen!?

Oh and the Motherload? I was feeling very overwhelmed by it this morning, but I made a list and made a dent. Hopefully the rest of the week will be as successful.

Blessings!
Deborah

Choate Family said...

How nice to be close to your mom AND your sister and to be able to celebrate Mother's Day together :-)

Jena Webber said...

Yes, take the week off!!! By all means!!

Anonymous said...

Uh, Julie? HELL YES take the week off! When we had snow a few years ago one January afternoon the books were abandoned for catching snowflakes on tongues, snowball fights, followed by a hot lunch to warm up with, back out side, and ending with hot chocolate and rosy noses. Gads yes, DITCH STUDIES!

The Hibbard Family said...

Oh my - your forecast was warmer than ours right up until today! We'll hit the 80's today, but it was downright chilly Sunday and Monday!

I LOVE that quilt! That's amazing! Almost makes me want to take up quilting. Almost. :-)

Naomi is so gorgeous! Love that smile!

Oh, and our futon looks a whole lot like yours! Right now the frame is mattress-less because the mattress has been put on Steven's bottom bunk as a play zone (too flattened to actually sleep on without cushions underneath it!).

Congrats on the new couch!!!