June-uary

May I not be one of Those People

who always complain about the weather.

(Amen?)

But I will tell you about it ;D

Summer showed up kind of late this year.

And in this rainy part of the world,

we really really look forward to it,

and we notice when it fails us...

Friends,

this was the last day of school in June:

Gunnar and I went for a walk.

Notice what he's wearing?

Sweats.

A fleece jacket.

For good reason.

This is our friend Frank, aka "Fat Cat" (his owner introduced us).

Frank is kind of like a dog.

He comes out to say "hi" when we walk by.

Apparently he also walks the neighbor kids up the hill to school.

We like Frank.

We continued on our walk.

Frank stayed home.

Cool weather is good for flowers.

And we liked this little "fairy house" in someone's hedge.

We picked Tate up from the high school for the last time.

Yes.

June 14. 

 And had our traditional end-of-the-school-year treat at Lafeen's,

where the boys can have a doughnut bigger than their heads.

 And we were launched into summer :D

The weather may be cold, but at least we have warm friends!

  

And I'm getting good use out of my new, brighter craft space :D

This is my new view...

wouldn't life be better without overhead power lines?

Now this just isn't fair...

while we were still waiting for summer to work its sunshiny magic on us,

this....

HOW CAN FALL COME WHEN WE HAVEN'T HAD SUMMER YET???

Ridiculous to be bothered, yah?  When I live in a place as lovely as this?

And that's enough about that.

I'll tell you what I can't figure out though.

Why don't I get more done in the summer?

With all that free time, right?

And it just zips by!

It probably has something to do with driving someone to work,

someone to music lessons,

packing one off to a week of Worldview Academy,

spending a week at Fiddle Camp with another one,

helping the older one prep for backpacking,

moving furniture from one room to another,

visiting with my neighbors...

But still.

*sigh*

When you do things,

things get done.

But it seems like the rest of the family

are doing the things!

And that's fine.

That's June-uary.

Might as well roll with it.

And have a little giggle along the way ;D

For those who shower periodically.

Everybody Gets Something...

... just not all at once.

IOW, no family vacation this year.

Gunnar got fiddle camp,

Tate got Worldview Academy,

and Wyatt went backpacking with friends.

Of course, he didn't take a camera.

I pulled these photos from his friend's facebook page.

Wyatt planned this with three friends -

three great guys,

which made it so much easier to let him

head out into the wilderness for four days.

Things didn't go exactly as planned.

Do they ever???

And their plan was a bit... ambitious,

to use a kind mom-word.

When they got all that testosterone

around a kitchen table looking at a map,

nine miles, even thirteen miles a day

seemed really do-able.

But out in the wilderness...  

the trail was not as well-maintained as they'd hoped,

and somebody's knee started acting up,

and they wisely used their brains instead of adrenaline

and made a good decision to alter their route to something more manageable.

And had a great time,

and maybe learned a thing or two ;D

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I've been playing with my new iPhone camera.

Oh my word.

It does close ups.

Foxglove

Distance and zooming in, not quite so great,

but still...

Ya got yer Purple Mountain Majesty :D

Yes.

For real.

It looked that color.

I love summer :D

Sew Busy...

Hi Mom!

She's been wondering why I haven't been posting.

Because... summer, I guess :D

But what a weird summer!

Unlike last year, with hot sunny days from May to September,

this summer didn't really show up until mid-July,

making me extra-thankful for that week with Gunnar in Moses Lake ;D

Meanwhile, with the weather kind of meh,

I had time for a few sewing projects.

My friend Breanna brought me some unique fabric from Myanmar.

Coincidentally, I wanted a footstool for my office, and...

ta-daaa.

I basically made a big square "sock" and covered a plastic milk crate.

Then I had Wyatt screw a couple pieces of plywood together -

one just a little bigger, and one just a little smaller

than the opening at the top of the milk crate,

so it would sit on top and not slide off...

Found a couple pieces of foam and put them on top of the plywood,

wrapped a piece of fabric around it,

and staple-gunned it to the bottom of the plywood.

And hurray!

A footstool that is also storage :D

So I can make a cup of tea,

sit and rock and put my feet up

with Han Solo ;D

And with the rest of the fabric I recovered our couch pillows.

For whatever reason, my camera? my computer?

does NOT read this color well.

The fabric is a jade/turquoise.

Rewarded myself with a little Canadian treat... Smarties!

It FINALLY got warm enough to go to the lake,

hallelujah and amen,

by mid-JULY.

Haven't the boybarians grown?

Yep.  They're man-sized.

We love hanging out at the beach with Grandpa and Grandma Grasshopper :D

Wyatt launched the paddle board.

I just want to be

IN THE WATER.

So does Grandma Grasshopper ;D

The boys invited a friend to come along.

We live in a magical place...

Worldview Academy

How it it already August 1st?

Right after Gunnar and I got home from Fiddle Camp,

to blissfully cooler weather...

... and resumed our morning walks...

... and were a bit shocked to see signs of fall so early...

Just when our family was all back together again...

we sent Tate off for a week at Worldview Academy.

He had a great time :D

But he had so much more than a great time.

An inspiring time.

A challenging time.

A growing time.

Yay, Tate!