A Week of July Goodness

I do love summer time. 

Making smoothies for breakfast. Buirlen's all about helping push the buttons. 

He's a classy dresser

At the beginning of the week, I had another ultrasound because they hadn't gotten all the pictures they wanted at our 20 week appointment. Sweet baby girl is doing good. We are now at 25 weeks with 15ish left to go!

Earlier this week, Buirlen and I were going to go work in the garden. I needed something from the barn, so we went there first. When I opened the door I heard some sort of critter rustling around, which startled me and I shut the door. Suddenly, a cat(we don't have a cat) came flying out from underneath the larger door, scaring both Buirlen and I good and proper. I still needed what I had come for, so I braved the main door once again only to find there was still something in there, then I realized it was kittens. I haven't managed to get a look at them since, but Luke has seen them a couple of times. Buirlen was sufficiently shook up(We both were) and wouldn't let me put him down until we got to the garden, which I managed to convince him was a safe place. 

Exploring the sunflower forest in the garden. 

So, I was convinced I'd planted beets. However, as the plants have come up, they don't look like what I thought beets looked like, they don't have any red on the leaves. My father-in-law said it might still be a beet just not a red one, or maybe I didn't pay close enough attention to the package. We shall see I guess. 

Fresh basil from the garden for our pizza. 

I mowed the law this weekend, I will say that is a summer job I quite enjoy. 

There are several trees in our backyard. I had assumed they were crab apples, but with my mowing escapades this summer I've taken a closer look and i'm wondering if we have a plum tree. 

Luke spent last summer working on residing our house. He got the entire house done before winter set in, but the garage had to be put on hold. So this summer he has been working on that. It's going to look SOOOOOO good once it's all completed. 

Buirlen has recently taken an interest in what he wears and he has a few different shirts that are favorites. He has had days were the shirt he wants is dirty and that is stressful. The other day he brought me his car shirt and I told him it was dirty and needed to be washed. He promptly went to the sink to do just that...

Morning devotions. 

Helping Daddy and Uncle Jordan work on the car. 

I made naan this week. I do love the feeling of dough as it gets to the right consistency when kneaded. 

May the week ahead be wonderful!

"The most beautiful things in life cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart." ~Hellen Keller

Power Cord Cozies and Elephant Paws

     A couple weeks ago, we survived the frigid temperatures of the polar vortex and this past week we have been getting lots of snow. It's piling up quite impressively around here. In fact, there is snow coming down as I type this.
     I've written in the past about how I tend to have a grandma style when it comes to my tastes.  Well, I'm at it again. I don't like the look of exposed cords and so today, I made a power cord cozy....like a tea cozy, but for a power cord strip.

 Ta da. 

This isn't the first appliance cozy I've made however. Awhile back, we got a new alarm clock that was far to bright. We had a piece of paper over it, but then I made a cozy for it. 

And while not a cozy per say, a while back, I also found a way to hide the computer router which before had been just sitting on the shelf.

So there you have it, my grandma style in action. 

The other night, I was sitting beside Buirlen's crib as he was supposed to be falling asleep. I offer to hold his hand while he's falling asleep, but that particular night he let me hold the hand of his stuffed elephant, Egbert.  It made me think of when I was a kid and had a doll that I made my mom kiss good night. 

There is a new week a coming and I was going through the local grocery stores weekly ad and realized that there are some good sales to be had. So, yes, to top of my grandma-ishness, I'm also excited to go grocery shopping this week. Happy Sunday!

"Happiness is a choice, a repetitive one." ~Akilnathan Logeswaran 

"Life is a gift. Never forget to enjoy and bask in every moment you are in." ~Unknown

4 Years of Home

    This past week, we hit our 4 year houseaversary. That means we have now lived in our house longer than we lived in the apartment. It's a good little house...It's home. This past week, drum roll please...... Luke also finished the siding! Technically he still needs to put the roof fascia on, which is on the agenda for today, the garage still needs to be done(it may have to wait till next summer) and the interior wall of the porch needs to be insulated and covered. But, the pressure is off and the house looks AMAZING!

Last weekend the siding was going up fast!

The fascia(What Luke is putting up today) is the white trim that sits right below the roof line. It is currently just painted board. 

We aren't going to side the porch because the walls weren't built real well and so Luke would like to completely replace them someday. Why spend time and money to side them only to rip it off in the future? So, the plan had been that next summer we would just paint it to match. Well, last weekend as the siding got to the end we realized that we wanted it painted now! So I quick did one last painting project for the year.

We are very happy that we decided to do it now instead of leaving it red for the winter. 

October 2015(our 1 year Houseaversary)

October 2018

New roof(summer 2016's project) and new siding....Basically the outside is a whole different house. 

My little handy man. 

Working on his truck. My parents were up for a visit last weekend and they got him this little truck he can ride. I think lately he has spent more time "working" on it than he has riding it. 

Cousin fun. 

Cleaning up the garden. 

He's been coloring and using stickers lately. Fun stuff. 

Chillaxing in the sunshine. 

Poppy and Ama

An afternoon on the town with Ama and Uncle Jordan....Major fun!

Well, October has less than a week left and new seasons are upon us. May your Saturday be delightful and may you rest in the peace that comes from The One gave us this life to live. 

"Home sweet home."

And It's Already Halfway Through October!

     Happy Winter.... wait, it's technically still Fall, though we've been having some cold, wintery, weather up here in the good ole Northlands. We got our winter's supply of wood delivered yesterday, which  is good because we've been running the stove for a couple weeks now using up the tail end of last year's wood.

Happy Fall

Happy Winter

Stoking the stove with Daddy.

Adventures with your best buddy are pretty great.

The 3 Musketeers

Checkmate

We've had some pretty great help the past couple of weekends on The Great Siding Project of 2018.

My brother Mick came up at the end of September to give Luke a hand. It was fun having him around for a couple days.

Jordan and Mick

The following weekend Luke's sister Martha and her family came to help. 

Falling asleep while Aunt Martha reads.

An unexpected side project...Isn't that just how house projects go!

While the guys worked on the siding, Martha, Molly and Heidi helped me clean up my garden.

And then this weekend, Luke finally got through the numerous, putsy, prep work and...drum roll please...started putting up the steel.

It. Looks. So. Awesome!

The first sheet.

This part moves a lot quicker.

This little boy has been into copying what we do, he's so much fun.

He requested his own private table at lunch the other day.

  Being a big boy is exhausting work, sometimes you just crash.

We didn't realize how often Luke sits like this after dinner until Buirlen started doing it to.

Had a bite now for a moment of relaxation....Ahhhh

Happy Tuesday.

"To live will be an awfully big adventure." ~Peter Pan