Labor Day... Well, That Escalated Quickly

It's Labor Day.

That means it's September, and

HOW DID THAT HAPPEN???

When I haven't been blogging here for so long

it feels awkward to start back up.

Do I try to fill in all the gaps?

No?

Maybe?

Just jumping in, for now...

I hope you're relaxing and enjoying your Labor Day weekend in proper style,

as ours appears to be All About The Projects..

a weekend of LABOR.

Boys are doing laundry (see above)...

and cleaned their bathroom (no photos, but WHEW!)

In anticipation of the changing seasons and an end to line drying,

Kerry cleaned out the dryer vent...

That ain't the half of it!

(Boy is that new leaf blower versatile!)

None of us felt like doing much in the hot, smoky weeks of August - ugh.

(Thanks B.C. wildfires...)

The beautiful sunsets were no compensation for nasty air.

Isn't that view depressing?

That's more like it.

So with fresh air and renewed energy,

back to the projects...

Gunnar (and sometimes other boys)

have been digging out the crawl-space under the house.

It's dusty.

Probably because the dirt down there hasn't seen rain since 1902.

Then on the outside...

We've had brick piled in the driveway for a couple of years,

and I've been wanting a little retaining wall to separate the so-called flower beds from the lawn.

And why do I refer to them as my "so-called flower beds"?

This is why.

Ravenous parasites.

 They're surveying the buffet, unfazed by the bricks and the work going on.

And it IS going on!

Kerry's teaching himself a new skill,

and saving us a boatload of money.

Meanwhile, I found some cute fabric at Ragfinery recently.

Probably paid all of fifty cents for the green polka dotted upholstery fabric and decided to put it to immediate use.

When I pulled out the red ticking, for the backing,

... suddenly they looked kind of Christmassy,

so they've gone into the closet for awhile.

Niko apparently didn't get the memo about working hard...

Whew.

I'm just glad for cooler weather!

I lounged in my (still-feels-new) recliner this morning,

sipping tea, and enjoying this dramatic sky...

... which has since cleared and given us a lovely autumn-feeling afternoon,

perfect for screen doors and porches. 

 And I cleaned our bedroom and moved the furniture again.

I like my head right under the open windows through the summer...

But everything fits so much better this way.

 I even hung a new string of colored lights, and put them on a timer,

so I have this cozy scene waiting at bedtime,

complete with a cat who thinks he owns the place.

And with that, we're launched into September.

Whew!

A Solution?

It's great that the boybarians are willing to use things more than once.

We don't have to wash

every single thing

every single time

it gets used.

Bath towels.

Jeans.

Drinking glasses.

But you know what's not great?

Multiple identical drinking glasses all over the kitchen counter because,

I'l use it again.

Yah, but... 

Which one is yours?

So I think I have a solution.

It's basically a communal coaster that sits right next to the sink.

Everyone has a color.

Know your color.

Put your glass on your color.

So far so good - the boys are cooperating.

So why did I find the husband's glass... 

on the counter, right next to his space???

Wish me luck.

It Was a Much Better Day... and Weekend

If you're keeping better track of things than I am, let me reassure you that we had a lovely visit with Burke and Mary last weekend.  All the household systems functioned as intended, our simple dinner was properly cooked, no emergency repairs were needed, and everyone seemed to enjoy each other :D

Hallelujah and Amen.

I'm shamelessly pilfering Tate's facebook page for photos of the afternoon walk.

Tomorrow is Easter, and I have a houseful of family coming - Kerry's family last week, my family this week.  But we're minus Gunnar...

Beginning of the school year - he looks so much younger!

Gunnar owes me big for getting up at 2am (to make sure he was up) and driving him to the high school, to meet his orchestra group.  They all took off for SoCal this morning.  If they're following their itinerary, about now Gunnar is all suited up in his fancy-pants and they're heading out for an Italian dinner before hearing the L.A. Philharmonic later tonight.

100% swanky.

It's weird that he's gone over Easter, but we're glad for him to get this chance.  And he earned it.  When they proposed the trip (with a $1700+ price tag), they "offered" the students a monthly line-up of fund-raisers.  I get that they're trying to make the trip possible for ALL orchestra students (a good thing) but fund-raisers...  UGH.  I told Gunnar that we would NOT be doing them (with the exception of the chocolate bars, because everyone loves chocolate.  And they're only a buck.)  We would not be hawking overpriced miscellany to our friends and relatives, month after month, BUT any money he earned by working, we would match.  He did a lot of pet care, mowing, gutter-cleaning, etc. and he made it :D

Hope he enjoys every minute of it!

Painting the House... Both Ways

I got a little distracted this summer. About the time school was starting, and we were getting a cat, and my dad had major heart surgery, we decided it was time to paint the house. I still love the periwinkle blue, but it was getting really, REALLY faded across the front.

So we spent a lot of time looking at colors, because there are so many. It's insane.  I mean, go to any paint store and ROYGBIV is meaningless.  Nobody has "green". Nooooo. There are 500 shades of green. Anyway, we pondered and hemmed and hawed, and I brought home samples, and we made a decision we're happy with. A deeper blue, and deeper green for the doors and the little triangles up in the eaves. I love it. And we spent all that time thinking about it only to be told...

... we painted a Seahawks house.

Why yes, apparently we did.

And if we'd only thought of it that way, it probably would've simplified the whole process ;D


After painting the actual house, Kerry gave me gift money to have the house painted by a friend of mine.  I know, have the house painted?  We just DID!  But my Ben Mann painting is a dream come true :D  I want to link to his website, but it seems to be down.  He's on fb though, here.

Isn't that a great addition to the living room?!  Look closer :D

I asked him to paint the house the "old" colors - it's really capturing a moment in time when the boys were younger... playing soccer, watching a robin... and Kerry is mowing, and I'm hanging quilts on the line :D

Every time I look at that painting it makes me happy!

A Grasshopper Update, Of Sorts

* Tap tap tap * Anyone still here?

We are.  We're all still alive.  Just getting through winter here, in the PNW.

I'm not big on introspection, so this will be brief.  The boys are growing up. Not so many cute/funny stories, and less desire to be the subject of a blog post.  I get that.  Healthy and normal. So the blog seemed like it was getting to be a lot of me-ME-ME! And what's the fun of that? But I realize how much I use this as a point of reference for our LIVES. (When did Tate have his appendix out? Check the blog. Do I have any photos of so-and-so's baby quilt? Check the blog.  etc.) So I'm giving it another try...

How about a family update?  Nothing embarrassing for the boybarians...

Wyatt - graduated (AA) December 2016, worked for a while at a small hydro-electric plant near Mt. Baker, then when that job ended he was kind of at loose ends. You can guess how popular that situation was from a parental perspective. (Ahem.) Meanwhile, he likes working on cars and seems to have a knack for it...

so we suggested and he got interested in a one-year auto-tech program. While he was going through the steps to enroll, Kerry heard from a friend looking for a "shop boy who could grow with the (HVAC) company". It took a little convincing (because testosterone says that working on cars is cooler than working on furnaces) but he agreed to give it a try for a year. If it isn't a great fit, the tech school will still be there, and he'll have made some money. And he likes it. And he's doing well :D

Tate - the overachiever, still taking 19 or 20 credits a quarter and getting straight A's at the tech college.  Featured in the quarterly college magazine :D This quarter, on top of his program classes, he decided to take pre-calc... for fun.

He's got finals next week, then one more quarter until graduation.  Woo-hoo!

Gunnar - plugging away at his sophomore year at high school / home school, playing in the school orchestra and looking forward to tour in SoCal over spring break (Disneyland!), and planning to go to community college for Running Start this fall.

My. Baby. In. College.

Just letting that sink in for a minute.

And, by the way, sporting a new haircut AND braces.  Love that metal grill.

Kerry - staying very happily busy with work, and enjoying Niko, the office cat.

You may look at, but not touch, his little bear.

Me - this is the story of why I haven't been blogging...

     

     * October - my gall bladder tried to kill me

      * November - I got to have surgery

     * November/December - recover from surgery, host Thanksgiving, celebrate Christmas, and....

     * December/January/February - become the somewhat reluctant volunteer "care manager" for elderly neighbor/cousins dealing with health issues related to aging.  They are the sweetest couple, but he's getting frail and forgetful, and she's deaf and older than he is.  It's been a rodeo... EMTs, ambulance rides, hospital visits, "care center" stays (ie nursing home for rehab), lining up all kinds of in-home help and therapies, adapting the home environment, etc.  What an education.

     * January - oh!  And in the middle of all that... Jury Duty.  I could just about write a book about that.  Ugh.  The details of the stalking case were hard to dwell on, but the worst part of the whole thing... well, let me just say there should be an I.Q. test for jurors.  We had one... one that drove us all to the Cliffs of Insanity.

So there you have it.  There's more, but those are the Big Things.

No promises, but I hope to be back in this space more regularly :D

In the meantime, Niko is watching...

Doesn't he look completely malevolent?

Thursday Brain Dump

1.  High School.  

Yes, this is our last year of public high school.  Our district has made some decisions I think are stark-raving-crazy, but they've been so accommodating to us part-time homeschoolers, that we're not making a fuss about it.  (Things like starting school nearly an hour later so the babies can sleep longer - meaning Gunnar doesn't get home until about quarter to four, and having an 8-period schedule, etc.)  We're getting used to him going every-other-day for a full-day and it hasn't been pretty.  He comes home... HANGRY.  Tired and grouchy.  But we're working through it.

2.  Neil Armstrong...

in Civil Air Patrol, the "Neil Armstrong Achievement" is the last one before becoming an officer, and has additional requirements for the cadets to complete (namely, an essay and a speech) besides the drill test, PT test, aerospace and leadership tests that are normal.  So it's kind of a big deal.  But in typical military logic, they don't get new insignia or a new grade, so their grade is "Chief Master Sergeant Sustained" (because they were already C/CMSgt).  I'm glad they have to make sense of it and I don't.

Turns out that Gunnar earned his promotion

the same night as his best buddy at CAP :D

Since Tate was acting Cadet Commander that night,

guess who presented his award?

Yep, his brother.

I love it when the brothers have to salute each other.

You can be sure that's NOT happening at home ;D

And here's AJ :D

3.  Strings...

now that Gunnar's in the orchestra at school,

we've dropped his private violin lessons.

I'm debating continuing with the same teacher

(love her, but she's not overly directive)

or looking for someone else.

In the meantime, I'm keeping up on my practicing...

4.  The boys testosterone-laden outing...

I mentioned that they were heading for Deception Pass

in a small boat on Labor Day...

All went well.  Lots of fun.  Everyone got home safely.

I snagged this photo from Tate's Facebook post...

It was a gorgeous evening.

5.  Smoke...

but I bet you noticed something about that photo.

That amazing red sun is brought to you by...

Who knew that the weather app had an icon for smoke?

We're inundated again.

Ugh.

I often snap a photo from this point along one of my normal walking routes.

Isn't the lake pretty?

And all the foothills?

This was in May.

Now everything looks dirty brown.

And where did all the hills go?

The smoke is so thick we can smell it and taste it,

and the air is gritty.

And here - again, from May.

And yesterday.  Ugh.

It's sooooo dry.

I had just filled the bird bath with water (to the left of the bamboo)

and as soon as I went around the corner three deer showed up for a drink.

Sunset...

6.  Dad...

continues to get stronger.

And he can drive again (allowed after surgery)

so that is a huge sanity-saver for him and my mom both ;D

7.  The Mother Load...

making progress, but things keep piling up.

How does that happen???

And what are we going to have for dinner tonight,

because in the middle of seven errands this morning

I forgot to plan anything.

Which just about sums up my day perfectly.