Grandma Style

     I have been told on more than one occasion that I have a grandmaish style. Meaning that often the patterns and items I am drawn too are supposedly something a grandma would pick out. This has been brought up this summer as I am redoing my kitchen cabinets. I decided to line my freshly painted cabinets and drawers with some lovely contact paper that I found. The bright pops of color against the white just make me happy and I figured it would keep things from scuffing up as fast. When my brother stopped by the other day he commented on the grandma-ishness of the pattern. Then someone else pointed out to me that contact paper in and of itself is a rather grandmay thing. And I'm ok with this, in fact I've decided to just fully embrace it.

     Last weekend I came home from the store with a roll of that grippy mat stuff because Buirlen's booster seat kept sliding around on the chair and I thought it might solve the problem(it did). As I was getting a piece cut out and put under the seat Luke commented that that is also something that grandma's are known to have. And I decided then and there that, you know what, grandmas know what's up. They've been running their household's a lot longer than me and seem to have discovered secrets like "contact paper and grippy mats are useful things," so I'm just going to tap into that wisdom and rock my grandma style.
   Speaking of Grandma's, my Grandma and Grandpa Shearer just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. They are awesome and  I am so very blessed to have their wonderful example in my life.

Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Frances 65 years ago. 

This week my sunflowers finally passed me up, at least this one did. Non of them have bloomed yet, but I'm sure looking forward to when they do!

Yesterday, my friend Emily, her kids, Buirlen, and I drove south a few hours to meet up with my dear friend Katy and her kids for a quick visit. We visited a lovely public garden that gave me serious joy and garden inspiration. So many colors and types of flowers that I had never seen before....The few pictures I got do not do it justice! 

(Photo credits on these 2 go to Katy)

Buirlen and Brody. Cute little buddies!

A storm just rolled in and the rain sounds lovely as it comes down with rolls of thunder. May your evening be delightful and filled with the peace of The One who designed each and every flower, created marriages that last 65 plus years, and brings the rain. Good night!

"Where flowers bloom, so does hope." ~Lady Bird Johnson

"Love is not an affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained." ~C.S. Lewis

July Just Flew By

     Summer is such a lovely time of the year, and a busy time, and a fun time....It's just good! The name of the game this summer has been "paint all the things"(And I'm so close to being finished!), which I seemed to do last summer as well(do I own a million chairs because that's how it felt), so much to paint. Anyway, it is fun to keep making this home more and more unique to us and put down some good home roots.
     My garden is becoming quite the jungle in the most lovely way possible. The beans are above my head and the sunflowers are just about there, it is just crazy how fast they grow!

Welcome to my garden

The sunflower jungle a couple weeks ago....

...And yesterday. Growing like crazy.

Checking out the beans, tomatoes, and prairie corner(The last two summers I've let one small corner of my garden grow wildflowers, once it gets blooming it's beautiful)

Speaking of things growing like crazy, this little boy has been doing just that. He loves tools and his shoes, likes to boogie to a good beat and play with his cousins. 

Broccoli 

Peas

Cosmos

Why yes...He did take this picture himself.

Luke keeps trucking along with the trenching and lower half of the insulation. He is just about around the house and then he will put the top half of insulation up and then then the siding...Whoo hooo. I"m dreaming of turning our backyard into a lovely and welcoming play and hang out area in the future when it's no longer a construction zone. 

The Lovely Keren Ruth and I took a mini road trip today to visit Martha(Keren and Luke's sister) and her family. We had a lovely day

So there you have it, beautiful, summery goodness!

"We might think that we are nurturing our garden, but of course it is our garden that is really nurturing us." ~Jenny Uglow

Summery Delight

      Happy Independence Day from the Northlands! It's been hot and thoroughly summery around here. Last night a storm blew through town and did some damage. We went for a drive and one block was really hit hard, and the surrounding area was virtually untouched. Luke thinks it may have been a tornado. Other than the power going out in the middle of the night, all is fine at our place, thankfully.
     We've been keeping busy lately what with Luke working on the siding, me painting the kitchen cabinets, a nice little family vacation, it's been good.
       No siding has gone up yet, but Luke is plugging away at all the little(or not so little) pre-projects. He used a jackhammer to get rid of one section of cement in the front of the house, and then he brought in the bobcat to remove the random section of sidewalk leading back to the laundry room.

The slabs of concrete just popped up with the bobcat's help!

 Tight squeeze.

Now Luke is working on digging a trench around the house in order to get insulation down to the foundation. We are hoping for a much better insulated house this winter!

(Photo credits to my sister Ema)

Last week we got to take a nice vacation. We first headed to my grandparents for a couple of days. Both sets of my grandparents live in the same small town, so we got to see them as well as several of my aunts and uncles. 

Hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma Shearer

Buirlen quite enjoyed the booth around the kitchen table, nothing like relaxed dining!

Naps on Great Grandma's couch 

Helping Great Grandpa with some tree trimming. 

I spent a lot of time playing with those same toys when I was little. 

After visiting grandparents, we headed over to the BPW(Blanshan, Petersen, Williamson) family reunion. Luke's grandparents were close friends with 2 other families and over the years a 3 family reunion formed. This is the 3rd one I've gotten to attend and it's a lot of fun. We are the P family (Luke's mom's maiden name) and the B family just happens to be the family of one of my dear friends, Polly...so that works out quite nicely!

Polly and I taking Buirlen and Ruthie for a swim...It was SO HOT!

He thought the pool was great!

Buirlen thought that Ruthie was a nice little buddy

It just so happened that the reunion met at a camp ground 5 miles from my parents house, so we also got to see them and then I went into town and had a nice visit with some of my closest friends growing up, Amanda and Emily. I sure do wish we didn't live so far apart. 

Going for a walk

Checking out Uncle Jesse's new puppy. 

On our way home we stopped for giant donuts. Yum. 

Ahhhhh! nothing like the sweet sleep of home. 

And, my garden is growing nicely. My sunflower forest is going to be lovely!

zinnias, marigolds, and cosmos....Oh my!

My kitchen cabinets are still in progress. The cabinets themselves are done, but I've still got the doors and drawers to finish. As I was slapping on paint, certain spots took coat after coat to cover some of the water stains on the old wooden cabinets. As I was working on that, I thought about how great God's grace is. Because, unlike the paint, His grace needs only one application. He takes our sins and makes us white as snow and we don't have to keep layering on coats because one is enough. The stain of our sin is no match for His grace, when He covers something, it's completely taken care of. 

...Anyway, may your day be filled with summery goodness, joy, and confidence in God's amazing grace!

"Every summer has it's own story."~Unknown