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