Grasshopper Days

Grasshopper Days

For today, Monday, August 26, 2013

Outside my window...  the boys are in denial, but the leaves are just starting to show some fall color.  (*Happy squeal* but I have to keep my excitement under cover.)

Hearing...  nasty crows, cawing their heads off above the garage.  What could they want???  And why don't they go annoy someone else?

Pondering...  if I trust the weather enough to hang laundry on the line today... mmmm, probably.  (I know, I know, first-world problems.)

Praying...  work.  More work for Kerry would be great.  Also, for my mom's recovery (going well), for the preemie baby (growing well), and for the school year we're about to begin.

Thankful...  everyone is healthy, the sun is shining, the boys have work to do, and there is ice cream in the freezer :D

Wearing...  blue capris, black t-shirt, faaaaanceeeee.

Creating...  a plan.  I hope.  Because I could use one.

Going...  to take Gunnar out to get a birthday present for a friend.  Every year this boy has a birthday camp-out at a KOA.  Gunnar loves it.  They swim in the pool, play putt-putt golf, canoe around the TINY pond, and sleep all mashed together with the other boys in a big tent.  But this year Gunnar is in CAP and it's the same night, so he'll have to miss part of the evening.  Life changes as you get older...

Looking forward to...  school.  But don't tell the boys.

In the kitchen...  leftovers!  We had company for lunch yesterday - a young couple from our church.  You know what the boys always want to know when we invite someone over?  If you have kids of your own I probably don't have to tell you...  Do they have kids?

And no, they don't.  The boys visited through lunch (and oh my word, they were on a roll with goofiness... our friends were cracking up at them, but not sure if we scared them off from having kids of their own.)

But the funny thing was that after they left the boys figured out that this couple is actually closer to THEM in age than to US.  So there you go.  They don't HAVE kids.  They ARE kids.  

In the learning rooms...  ooooh, the anticipation!  (But that's just me....)

Around the house...  

So, here's a little visual for you.

I get up and I make the bed.

Okay, that's not exactly true, because when I get up Kerry is still IN the bed.  (No photo.)  But by the time I have a shower and get dressed he's usually getting up.  Close enough.

This is on the top of my dresser.

I think Gunnar was three, Tate was five, and Wyatt was eight.  And that's Kerry at about eight.  Aren't he and Wyatt two peas in a pod?

In the kitchen I find a pile of dishes and this - reminders for the day.  Because I'm not sure I trust my short-term memory skills.

And in case you're as baffled as the boys were (knowing that I shower in the morning and why would I bring fruit?), I'm going to a BABY SHOWER this evening.

I chilled a treat for later.  (The Coke.)  Maybe a little caffeine will jump start my sleepy brain cells.

I moved the furniture around a bit in the living room and tried to get all the houseplants where they'll get enough light.  See the vine-y plant?

It's a hoya.  It's a cutting from my grandma's hoya.  She had it trained on a trellis in her living room for years and I was fascinated by it.  Hoyas produce tiny, waxy flowers in clusters (umbels).  They also give off a powerful scent, and sometimes drip nectar.

Photo shamelessly kyped form wikipedia.  Thanks!

My grandparents down-sized when I was still a kid, and the hoya dropped off the radar.  Somehow it came up in conversation with my aunt after I was married, and then one day it showed up on my back porch, in a huge, tangled mass.  My cousin had had it... and boy had he HAD it.  I think the smell was too overwhelming.  So the hoya came to me.

I had it trained around our breakfast nook in our first house, with little white lights twined in the leaves - loved it!  But when we moved here ten years ago I trimmed it way back, rooted several cuttings, and started over.  And I've got three or four of them growing, but none of them have bloomed in ten years.   

I think it needs more light, so maybe this is the year!

In the meantime, I resort to artificial flowers :D

See, sunflowers still seem like summer, but they're kind of leading into fall.  Won't they look nice with some red maple leaves in a few weeks?

And a close-up of the photos of my niece and the boys.  Which reminds me that they (the boybarians) are over-due for portraits.  Waaaaay overdue.

The Mother Load...  oh boy.  Let's not think about that today, okay?

Noticing that...  they grow so fast.  I know, that's not exactly a fresh thought, but it still hits me.  Especially when Wyatt came home Saturday afternoon bubbling over with plans to buy...

... an airplane.  And no, I'm not kidding.

Something to remember for later...  check pockets before washing.  What on earth did Wyatt have in the pocket of his khaki shorts that was PURPLE???

A favorite quote for today...  Too many people have houses; not enough people have homes.  - Patrice Lewis.  A good reminder to make sure my house is a home.

One of my favorite things...  the new beginnings in every September.

A few plans for the rest of the week...  a baby shower, dinner with my folks, hunting for jeans for the boys, dentist appointments for all three boys (fun times!), shopping for a gift with Gunnar, and wringing every drop of summer out of this week.

A peek into my world...  yah.  Did that.