Summer Solstice

Happy Summer Solstice everyone! Last week was such a beautiful (and almost cold) week! This summer is starting off gang busters! Yesterday we fit as many summer activities into one day as we could.

We started the day off by going to Pearl's Vacation Bible School Program. She attended vacation bible school at a church which was not in town so we didn't feel too badly at her performance. Danny was on "mancation" with his friends camping in Eastern Iowa, so I invited my parents to come and see Pearl (and help corral Cece in church). My Mom was giving Pearl the infamous "don't pick your nose in front of church" speech on the way and apparently it didn't work...I was so proud of my little girl itching her head furiously as if she had not bathed in a week (I gave her a bath the day before), giving the occasional pick of the nose, and gently pealing off the applique off the front of her shirt (which she successfully completed before sitting down). That's my girl.

After the post-church hot dog/sundae lunch, we headed home for naps. The girls took good long naps, during which I made some progress on my dresser project. Hopefully next week I will have some pictures and good headway to document!

When naps were done, I offered to inflate their pool so they could run around in the back yard and have a little summer fun. I inflated it and it was not nearly as big as the picture on the front of the box. Seriously. Were these children the size of smurfs? Or are my children XXL? The picture on the box shows three fairly large kids in the pool. My two barely fit...

Finally, we got a call from my cousin to come and enjoy a bon fire. I'm sorry, what's that? Smores? We are IN! I could eat complete meals of smores. I dream smores. Smores are almost the entire reason I camp. Love it. It was a perfect summer day, right up until it started storming. Still lovely and we had such a blast. We are so ready for the 4th of July and everything the holiday has to offer.

Happy Summer Solstice y'all (a week late)!

Back from the dead

Well, I feel like I've come back from the dead. I'm back up and around after that completely evil sinus infection. I mean evil. I am not comparing myself to Jesus, but I assume he felt something like I did on Friday during the resurrection: "What day is it and who made this mess?"

As my head became more and more clear this past weekend I got a chance to look around and see what a mess we had been living in. My nearly two weeks of "relaxing" or, as I call it, being sick was over. Time to get to it...so it was scrub floors, clean crayon off furniture and walls, do piles of laundry and - oh yeah - there goes the apple juice, commence floor scrubbing again. How does that happen?

It's been a good weekend. I'm pacing myself with the house cleaning and I feel like I'm almost back in good working order (with my usual "to do" list in hand). No yard work or dresser restoration to report but I'm satisfied with a "good health" report. I even worked out this morning.

I felt like I haven't been a parent to my girls much this summer so Friday we made little cars out of boxes for them to sit in. Pearl had a great time painting it, I had a great time painting Cece's and Cece had a great time getting paint all over (see picture). "Why?" you ask. Because. I had boxes, paint and children. What else would I do? Isn't it worth the looks on their faces?? Bwah ha ha. I think Cece looks like that because she doesn't like to sit anywhere. Ever.

Today we had a play date/picnic at the park today with a friend and got stuck in the bathroom during a storm. It took some major convincing to coerce Pearl into running to the car in the rain (it was quite a haul - really). We did it and we made yet some more memories. My best friend in high school's mom used to always say "Go make some memories!" as we headed out the door. Yes, please. I think I will. Enjoy the week friends. Make some memories.

It's June what?? This week has been a blur. A blur of a nasty cold complete with a sinus infection. I don't know what is happening but this is the first time that I've had a fever for 6 days straight. Miserable. It was "hello sinus infection, fever, body aches" and "goodbye energy, scent, taste, and any sense of normal activity". Uff da.

I have a confession to make: It is an unspoken rule at our house that I don't cook on the weekends (unless I want to). I have another confession to make: I love McDonalds french fries. I don't mean the kind of love that I could eat for supper every now and again, I mean the kind of love where I wish it would rain french fries and I could bury my head in a pile of them (a perfect fastfood meal would be McDonalds french fries married with a Culver's Cheeseburger and capped off with some Culver yogurt - in case you were wondering)...ok, now that we've got that out of the way...About every 6-8 weeks I allow our family to eat at McDonalds and since I was close to death this weekend I allowed it for lack of energy to do anything else. It was bad. There I was not able to taste ANYTHING eating a 1000 calorie meal. Oh FOR SHAME. You better believe I was not in my right mind and had no amount of energy to correct the situation.

As I sat there hanging my head (yet still eating my value meal), the thought that I was having is that this was my big chance to eat all the completely nutritious food that is sooo good for me yet disgusting to eat. What about beets? What about greek yogurt? This was my big chance. I think I need to make, then freeze an ubber nutritious meal such as this, should this event ever happen again.

It was most upsetting to miss the traditional Scandinavian Days activities this weekend. How I enjoy our little town and all the people in it. It is such a wonderful place to live and it was pure torture to be so close and so far away from it. Finally, on Sunday, the array of drugs that I was issued started kicking in and I was able to go see the Scandinavian Days performance of "Little Women". What a great show! Kudos to all the performers - we are so lucky to have such a theater group in town. It was not only a lovely story but it offered a host of professional performers. The performers were both lively and believable. *Sigh* Just plain wonderful.

Well, today I was able to do a couple of loads of laundry, go to the play, and rest. I feel like things will be on the up and up this week. I just had homemade chicken noodle soup for supper (courtesy of Danny) and now, to relax with an old episode of Hee Haw on RFD TV. Love. It. A complete recipe for good health. Tomorrow I will start trying to figure out what happened to the first week of June...