horsing around

 One of Doug's former co-workers had been inviting him over to see his horses, so last weekend we made the hour drive over there. 

And we ended up all getting a horse ride!

Not Miss Lucy, but she was able to alternately pet the horse and then be afraid of it, haha

It was a fun day. 

I couldn't help but remember my love of horses as a girl. We had 14 acres so I would beg my parents for a horse. They would often arrange for me to go to my dad's cousin who lived nearby to help groom and ride her horses. Now I can see why we never got into it. It is a very time consuming and expensive hobby/sport/pet. This co-worker said they had spent $100k on their riding stable. 😱 And spend hours and hours grooming, mucking, etc. 

Always you get up on a horse and just imagine yourself flying like the wind, but it's always just a slow walk in a circle too, lol. And of course while my kiddos were up on the horses back I was glad it was just a slow steady walk with the owner holding the reigns, the nurse in me is too cautious about broken necks and fear of being stomped on. 

The visit ended in a trip for ice cream and it was a lovely little half day trip :) 

4th of July

4th of July fun with friends at our friends' house of the lake. Good friends, tubing, wakeboarding, playing in the sand, good food, and fireworks!

So thankful we live in the land of the free. God bless the USA!

 

June goings-on

 Well another month has gone by with no blogging! So busy all the time.

This little lady went on her first father/daughter trip. They had a good time. Look at how happy she is! 😍

Pic of me & mom since I forgot to take one of us together when we hung out for mother's day

Me & my little Lucy

Jeanie girl was practicing AB patterns

August had a half day in his last week of school and we went to the Zoo afterwards, fun!

He finished up his 8 week soccer class (he wasn't a big fan. His last game was so funny, he was running, then he'd stop and pick a clover and eat it, run and pick a clover, run and stop and pick a clover, I had to tell him to stop picking flowers during the game!!) But it was a good intro course and we'll probably try one again sometime. But for now it's on to tennis lessons. 

Me & the other 2 while Jeanie was gone with daddy

Little garden is planted and ready to grow! My backyard is such an ugly eyesore, but hopefully the garden will be somewhat productive.

Little things growing.

A very persistent groundhog has burrowed out this hole at least 3 times as we keep refilling it. Last night he got caught in the live trap. I was at work and Doug told me today a little groundhog friend kept peeking out of the hole to look at his friend/(relative?!) in the trap. Which makes me sad, I don't want to break up a little groundhog family! 😩 But nor do I want them in my garden. So hopefully we will catch the friend soon and can reunite them in their new area a few miles away. One summer Doug caught 7 groundhogs, and then its been years with none, so we shall see what happens. 

today

The day started off with a trip to the dermatologist and then to the plant store to get seedlings for my garden.

Thankfully we had a $50 giftcard to this place, seedlings ain't cheap! I still spent another $15, then came home and bought some taller tomato cages on Amazon, and still need to buy some seeds. 

I am so pleased with this Viburnum plant. I planted it 3 years ago and it FINALLY bloomed! Last year it had great foliage growth, but not a single bloom. And this year it is covered. 

When August came home from school Jeanie wasn't feeling well so they all watched some Peppa Pig and ate some popcorn. 

I do not know what is going on lately in the neighborhood but there is seriously a cat infestation. I looked out in the afternoon and one cat was lounging on the porch, another cat appeared to be stalking up on that cat, and not pictured was our cat also on the porch closer to the door. I guess I don't totally mind, but sometimes they all fight and it's like just get along!!!

This girl. Trouble. I was making dinner and looked over to see her with the power cord for Doug's laptop being poked into her ear. So I put her in the penned up play area, and then when I look at her again she is eating dirt from a plant :( so the rest of the dinner was made holding this heavy girl.

After dinner this sweet babe still wasn't feeling good and fell asleep laying on my lap. We had a few precious minutes until little sister clamored all over us and woke her up. 

Doug and I worked in the garden boxes after the kids were down, weeding, and rototilling. We'd planned to pick up some free compost before we planted and Doug went to the place to pick it up. I assumed it was an open till dusk type place, but nope, open 8-4. So he'll try to get it on his lunchbreak tomorrow and then I can plant.

So, in the category of things I didn't think I'd be spending my free time on: sewing up my son's ugly cheap stuffed toys. 

There used to be a time when I could name who and what occasion stuffed animals were gifted to my kids. But sadly some cheap crap has been blended in somehow and of course it gets treasured and would be sorely missed should it get "misplaced". 

This guy is Mr. Pepper, origins unknown, and tonight I sewed up a big rip in his back. 

Uggglly. And I couldn't even get Senor Pepper to stick, so Mr. Pepper it is.

Can't wait to see him be excited about Mr. Pepper being fixed in the morning 💓

 

Life lately

It's felt really busy lately! 

We had a big project to take down a tree, and of course I can't find a better "before" picture, but that pine has been growing up into the maple for however many years and it was super bushy at the bottom and bugged me. (this pic is after Doug already cut all the bottom reachable limbs off)

So Doug's buddy and my dad came over and a neighbor we all worked to get it down, and then trim up the maple. Also rehomed my crazy forsythia (the pretty yellow one in the pic there) to my mom's house and cut down a lilac that died who-knows-why last year. 

After getting rid of all the brush and limbs and logs, the next goal was to clean up this "grove" area. So nearly every naptime and after kids in bed, before dark, night has been devoted to this task and it is exhausting. 

Also going on: fun with MagnaTiles

And this boy is doing a 7 week beginners soccer class. 

And planting fruit trees. Here's us pushing 3 trees to the Jeep and then thinking... hmmm... where shall we put these exactly?? 

Luckily we only live 3-ish, very slow, miles away as these babies rode on my lap and on the center console sticking out the sunroof on the way home. We got a lot of looks!

Progress picture of the grove with the brush/other small trees gone and hours and hours of roots and weeds hand cleared from the ground. 

Utilizing my last year's birthday present of my leaf hands!

So just went outside to water the fruit trees and saw a deer print in the ground. 

It went something like this:

oh hey, a deer print!

oh the prints are walking over to my apple tree...

wait a minute a bunch of the leaves and flowers are gone!!!

Doug, emergency! We need to perimeter the trees tonight!!

So Doug has been at our college ministry group and is stopping by Walmart on his way home at 10pm to get stakes and fishing line so he can work by headlamp-light to perimeter the trees. Sigh, such is the life of the "farmer" I guess. 

102

My Grandpa turned 102 today. Here he is with a cake my cousin made for him, he's so cute. 

He is my last grandparent. 

Today we were in the city where he used to live before my Grandma broke her hip and they had to leave their home with its upstairs bedroom and move up North to live with one of my uncles. So I wanted to stop by their house, and maybe send Grandpa a pic on his birthday. 

As we were driving down the street I was commenting to Doug about how few original homes remained as the homes were being torn down for these mansions on the small, but wonderful close to downtown, lots. 

And then we pulled up....

It was gone.

And I got out and stood by that fence and just started sobbing. 

I'm not even sure why. 

It's just a house and they haven't even been there for nearly 10 years now. For a now mostly wealthy area, it was a small house built in 1901, and I kept thinking one of these days when I'd drive by this is what I'd find, but I was shocked all the same. 

My grandparents bought the house a few years after they married, they raised 8 kids in that house, my grandpa built an addition on the back, I lived there a good almost 10 years on and off as I watched it for them when they went to Florida for the winters and as I went to school and figured out life. So many fun memories of racing down the streets with my cousins and playing in the backyard. It seemed so huge back then, and looks so teeny now with the trees ripped out and the house gone. So many family dinners around the dinner table and people crammed into the living rooms. Parties at "grandma's house" in my college years. So so many good memories.

I think I felt extra sad because now I don't have either of my grandparents' homes to look at anymore. My mom's side my grandparents' home burnt down in a fire, with my Grandpa Arthur inside. 

And now this one is gone too. And Grandpa is my last grandparent, I'm lucky to have had him this long, I know. Doug said to me, he hasn't had any grandparents in over a decade now. 

Anyway, I was just feeling sad. I know I must have a picture of it somewhere, but for now all I have is this one off zillow where you can see they haven't powerwashed it in forever, and after 100+ years the front steps were now starting to slant, I don't know what those people did to it to let it fall into such disrepair. My grandpa always took such good care of it. 

Anyway, just feeling sad. Missing my Grandma who's been gone 5(?) years already, but feels like much longer since she battled Alzheimer's for a long time. Life feels very bittersweet sometimes. 

I need to make a plan to go visit him again. We went up last October for a quick visit and I love seeing my kids spend time with him. August was so excited to teach him to use his Nerf gun. He can almost relate better to him, I find myself struggling to know what to talk about with the age-related memory loss and he can't really follow a conversation much anymore. But I still love to see him and just like to be there. 

Happy birthday Grandpa. 

I know he longs to be in heaven with Jesus and my grandma, so I hope someday soon he will, but I also think it's so neat he's still here.