More Surprises

Recently a couple more trees have started to bloom.  This time in our back yard.  There is a row of trees along the driveway that are starting to bloom too.  Pictures will be forthcoming!

Because Memorible Things Aren't Supposed To Happen Right Now

This is just how life goes.  We haven't seen a deer in our yard for months and months, but sure shootin' as soon as I turn my camera in for repairs, boat loads of them show up! HA!

Yesterday a few deer showed up further down the driveway.  I called the kids to come look as soon as I saw the deer.  After I gathered the kids and went back to look myself, I saw Toothless was sitting right in the middle of them all.  What was too hillarious is that he bolted after a while and scared off the deer!

Please enjoy the lovely cropped cell phone quality photo.  Seriously.  Sorry.  It's the best I can do under the circumstances.

This morning the kids yelled "Mom, the deer are back!"  They were way closer this time.  We hadn't let Toothless out of the shed, so he didn't get to have any fun. 

We only saw two deer at first, but after a couple minutes a third deer came walking out from behind that clump of trees.

A couple weeks ago, the kids were playing with those sticky slap hands.  You know the ones . . .

Yes, those are the ones.

Anyway, sticky slap hands have left numerous hand prints on my ceilings.  Fortunately for the kid's sake, we are going to painting the ceilings soon!  The kids were told not to stick anything to the ceiling for future reference.

Yesterday, the girls were quietly doing schoolwork and Isaiah was no where to be found.  I walked into the livingroom to find Isaiah's favorite pet shark attached to the ceiling!  He must have bolted once the shark got stuck.  It was actually very humorous at the time, and it still makes me laugh when I think about it.  (I'm living on very little sleep, so you'll have to bear with me.)  The first thought that came to mind was that even this ferocious shark couldn't handle the stress and chaos around here and hung himself from the ceiling! HA! 

It was funny at the time.  You'll just have to trust me.  Yesterday was actually a pretty calm day.  The girls finished school by 2:00 which is a record lately.  {SIGH}  Don't know if it will last, but I'll enjoy it one day at a time if it does.

Well, life is calling.  It's 12:06, and I'm sure the children are almost turned into dust as lunch is supposed to be at noon on their time clock, and I'm running late!

A Little Reminder Of Summer

This beauty bloomed on the first day of summer.

We've been experiencing less than "summery" days around these parts, and I just needed a little reminder.  May it brighten your day as well!



Wordless Friday

Home Sweet Home

Since I remembered, since it was a nice out and since the yard was picked up . . . I decided to take pictures of what work we've [had] done this summer.

You've seen the Project Revealed, but we've done a little landscaping. Mostly free stuff/gifts or Buy One, Get One sales. We'd like to add a little more, but this will do for now.

New front porch / sidewalk complete with our cat, Patches.

Our friend made us this stone when we moved in almost five years ago, and we've never had a place to display it until now.

Our second project was adding a back deck. Our "deck" was an overgrown piece of plywood on stilts. We're working toward preparing the house for selling (although we're not exactly sure if that's going to happen since our lives seem to change almost daily).

This is the aerial view from our swingset - ha! Notice the picnic table? It was Frrr-eee! It's not great, but the price works. We are planning to stain it. The ferns . . . free. Our yard is being over run by them. Didn't actually know they were spreaders. And, I found the two plant stands for $2 at a garage sale! It's only been finished for a little over a month, but we already love having it. [Side note: Madison was just saying this afternoon that she likes how the sidewalk winds around to the driveway. I told her to make sure to thank Bro. Allan from church that put it in for us.]

Since we're on the subject of our yard, here's a useless piece of information . . .

Daddy's grandpa liked to support the Arbor Day Foundation. So we joined for a while and were sent a few saplings. This is one of the best growing trees we have even after Rick ran it over once with the lawn mower two summers ago. I finally had to put baby formula cans around the rest of them because he kept running them over. I'm excited because it was only 6-8 inches tall when we got it. I can't wait until it blooms -- think it's a Washington Hawthorn.


Again, more useless info . . .

We bought two, count them, two tomato plants (another BOGO deal and I'd gladly pay full price next year). Yep, that huge mound of green is two plants. I can't even begin to estimate the yield of these two plants.

So far they've been ripening a little at a time, but I'm getting nervous -- these plans are loaded.

and more are on the way! Got tomatoes?

Update: Just had to add this . . . since posting, Rick cut the yard (and trimmed, an only occasional task) so it looks much nicer than the pictures posted, a TON of tomatoes have ripened with more on the way in the next couple days and Isaiah ran over one of my saplings in the front yard with his 4-wheeler. Guess I shouldn't have said anything. =D

Where We've Been

Again, we've been so busy. Saturday I helped a friend with a small party. It was in the most beautiful setting. I had planned to set up and leave, but we needed a couple more items that Daddy so graciously brought to us. We decided to stay and eat, play a few games and then come home. It was an impromptu family night, and we had a great time. Here are a few pictures I took from our day. Just enjoying God's beautiful creations.

(Tried putting floating candles in the pond but it didn't turn out as great as we had hoped.)

This is the covered bridge we set up the food and tables in. Thankful for a beautiful day!

"The Firmament Sheweth His Handiwork"

I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to take some photos of a beautiful day here in NW PA!

The view from our front yard / livingroom

Looking up the driveway at our house

(Our neighbor's house)