The Prose and Cons

So.

I've been neglecting this little bloggy space because I've been feeling a bit scrambled lately.  Probably has a lot to do with it being summer, and the lack of routine, and all that.  I know, I know, I'm the queen of organization around this house (not that there are any other contenders for the title) but when my thoughts start feeling disorderly, well, it's like a having a messy house.  You don't exactly want to invite anyone in, y'know?  But I will anyway.

It'll be sort of a stream-of-consciousness peak at my day.  Don't be scared ;D

*  Yesterday's puzzle (how to get one vehicle, one husband, and two boys to three different places bright and early this morning) resolved itself, with Kerry's waffly-ness working in his favor.  Sort of.  (Long story.  You'll thank me no to tell it.)  I only had to get two boys to one place, which is usually simple.  However this morning, even accomplishing that reminded me of the early years...

*  So now I'm home with one husband (working) and one boy (watching something on Netflix) and I'm trying to decide what to tackle next.  The Mother Load - as always - is threatening to suck me under.  Also, I think we're having friends over for lunch on Sunday.  Oh, AND a potluck dinner Sunday evening.  So there's food prep to do.  So glad I sent the boys out berry picking again.  Blackberries are still going strong and I have so many in the freezer I could make pies every couple of weeks.

However.  the kitchen floor is waaaaay overdue for a waxing.  (Fun times!)  And I still have a few things to prepare for the start of you-know-what (I'm not allowed to say school around here) in a week and a half.  And Mt. Laundry is growing, the irises need dividing, and the family room is frightening.  But not as scary as the garage.  I'd say it's time to put the boybarians to work, but 2/3 of them are gone for the day, working an airshow.

Moving on...

*  Remember this?

Yah.  I decided to make one like it, only big enough for my queen-size bed, which would be a first.  And.... I got the top about half-way pieced and there it sits, with the fabric staring at me reproachfully from the chair where I folded it.  All year I'm busy with homeschooling and home-keeping, and I have all the time in the world during the summer, but no motivation.  Well, lots of motivation to go to the beach, but not so much to quilt.  Does anyone else have this seasonal thing?  I mean, if it's sunny we Must Be Outside.  It's the PNW talking.  (Pacific Northwest, land of rain.)

Of course, I still see things that catch my eye.  Like this quilt.

I don't have the book, but I think I could figure this one out on my own.  Doesn't that look wintery?  Maybe kind of Scandinavian?  Like a sweater?

Ah... it's always so much more fun to plan the next one than to keep plodding through the one in progress.  Anyone else?

But okay, that can wait...

*  My brother sent me this.  Isn't she cute?  Actually, I think they're both cute.

But this boggles my mind.  The girl is 14 months old and they have NEVER had a portrait taken.  They only take cel phone pictures.  I mean, I love the spontaneity and all, but am I the only one who thinks they may regret not having some better quality pics of her childhood?

I mean, she's so cute!  I took these in July, at our house.  This one is framed :D

I love the joy here!

And then she discovered the flowers on her dress, and that was the end of picture time ;D

*  I just figured something out.  I was gong to complain about blogger, but no - it's Safari.  I used to use Firefox but Kerry talked me into switching to Safari, but when I load photos to a post I'm already working on if I'm in Safari the photos always load to the top of the post.  Not in Firefox.  The photos get inserted right where I left the cursor, in Firefox, and I don't have to drag them down across all the rest of the post, which for some reason screws up the formatting.  Hurray for Firefox.  Because I wanted to add photos of....


*  Kerry's 50th.  Yes.  I'm married to an OLD MAN.  Half a century old.  I mean, it's all perspective, right?  His birthday (well, and mine too, but we're not talking about me! ;D ) is much closer to WWII than the present.  That feels old!

All right, joking aside, we had a great time.  I'd asked my folks if we could have the party at their house (which is awesome) and they were happy to oblige.  Then my mom was scheduled for surgery on her dominant hand right before the party.  No problem!  I only asked for a venue, not a caterer, and my parents were both VERY helpful anyway.  We decorated...

... and put Wyatt on the grill, with Tate and Gunnar assisting.  Hurray for Wyatt, he did great!  We joke a lot about BBQing around the grasshopper house because Kerry has had his share of woes with out BBQ, as in, he burned EVERYTHING.  Well, you have to pay Really Close Attention when your BBQ was a wedding gift (ie nearly 20 years old) and really only has two settings: Off and Temperature-of-the-Sun.  So Wyatt went into this cautiously, and he did great.  Of course, this is Grandpa and Grandma's grill ;D

We asked Aunt Tami to serve cake.  Because if I served it, well... it would still taste good, but it wouldn't be pretty.

Kerry enjoyed his cards and gifts...

... but we put the really big bucks for some high quality atmosphere and entertainment...

*  And, just for the record, there is a big difference between talking about something, and actually planning it.  You can talk about something until the cows come home, but planning involves details and commitment.  Because let me tell you, if you grew up with Grandpa Grasshopper and you planned a hike, you'd be on the trail with a pack on your back as soon as it was daylight.  In other families, planning a hike results in people showing up at your house after noon and heading out for a walk at 1:30 in the afternoon.  Your results may vary ;D


*  I troll Craigslist, watching for a couple of things.  And I saw this,

Now, I'm not looking for a couch, but I kind of like it.  No, I'm not calling about it.  I'm not looking for a couch.  I almost said I'd never buy a couch off craigslist, but *ahem* clearly I did.

A leather couch.  A fake leather couch.  Whatever.  A couch you can wipe off, that doesn't have odors in it.

But I kind of like the other couch and I put the picture here to remind me, when I'm looking for something, not to settle for whatever just happens to be there.

(I told you my brain was scrambled, I mean, I warned you.)


*  My sister had the boys last week for cousin camp.  They had a ball.  Went to the fair, and up to Capilano in B.C.  I'll get pictures from her soon.  But in the meantime, here are Wyatt and Tate at the fair in 2001, riding the infamous Dragon Wagon.

Oh yah, they were Hot Stuff, I'm telling you.  Wyatt had just turned five and Tate was only two and a half... big enough to ride the Dragon Wagon.


*  And with that, we turn to the rest of the thoughts currently swirling through my gray matter...  

 - The baby bunnies are growing.  They're still cute, but not they're-so-fluffy-I'm-gonna-die cute.  If you haven't seen Despicable Me that will make no sense to you.  Especially since they're not unicorns.  But they're still cute.  I'll get some more pictures soon.

- The boys need shoes.  And jeans.  We'll hunt for the jeans at Value Village, but the shoes not so much.  I'm a little creeped out by used shoes.  And the jeans, don't get me started.  The boys have grown out of  every single pair of jeans they own and have entered the circle of Dante's hell where you can't just get a size of jeans, but you need a waist measurement and an inseam, and I may lose my mind because that is just too much information to keep track of with this many boys.  And all those years they only wanted to wear sweat pants and I wanted them to wear jeans (because jeans are so cute) are coming back to haunt me because - HELLO! - stretchy pants don't need a lot of fitting, and we all know how much boys young men enjoy trying things on at the store.  And what on earth is with the designers?  I mean, my boys young men wear out their jeans fast enough, why on earth are they making jeans that look already worn???  Or even weirder, jeans that look dirty?  People that would never soil their hands are wearing jeans that look like a mechanic owned them first and couldn't get the stains out.  What???

This is what I want.  Plain, straight leg, blue jeans.  No stains, no rips, no tears, no fake fraying.  Nothing goofy on the pockets.  Plain jeans.  Do you think I'll be able to find them to fit the boybarians?  Without paying an arm and a leg?

-  We have one more week of summer, and what will we do???  Because I feel like we should be doing something memorable.  And there's no budget for it.  So we'll probably be right here.  Trying to be memorable.

And you?  Scrambled enough for you? 

Enjoy the end of summer :D