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Staying at home most days of my vacation- and high temperatures like we are having now- means that I have extremely slow mornings and have to go slow during the day.  I always walk around witha a little devil whispering from it’s place on my shoulder: You have to do more useful things aound the house. But it feels like I don’t get much done. Then comes late afternoon and I realize I’ve done quite a few things after all- AND have had time to relax and enjoy my day.

Today it feels especially hot and sticky- they called for some rain showers in the late afternoon/evening. And it looks like it’s true from underneat my big umbrella on the porch:

I’m soaked and in great need of a shower since I have

1. Done laundry, taken care of untidiness (in every room!)

2. vacuumed and emptied and filled dishwasher

3. Started cleaning out the storage room in the basement. NOT  a job done in a day!

Carly is off to a friend where they have a pool. Kristi is totally hung up on Sims3 when she isn’t talking to me. She is leaving for a week’s national scout camp on Friday and should probably start thinking about packing… I should remind her.

Bill is coming back a day early from his out- of-town office since he wants to finish some work on the porch deck before we attend the funeral for his best friend/previous boss onFriday. Most likely we’ll have four-five co-workers over for lunch after since they all live a couple of hours’ drive from here.

No creative time so far today, but I’m bringing my crochet out to the porch now to sit around listening to the radio, drinking cold juice for a half hour.

I finished my big wallpaper journal a little while ago, and I missed the possibilities the  big spread gave me. So now I have started another. This morning I was up (too)  early and did the front and back:

Front

Back:

The photoes turned out hazy and bad, unfortunaltely. Maybe I’ll try again later. Here are front and back together:

Kristi got her hair cut yesterday and Carly and I waited for her outside the hair salon. We brought supplies to pass the time…

This is the very nice result:

In the afternoon Bill and I shopped for  a barbeque : Steaks, baked potato, peas, asparagus. Red wine. (And later cake and ice cream)

We watched “Mall Cop” after that. it was FUNNY!

-Talking about movies, Sunday night we watched “KNOWING”. That was very suspensful. Kind of suspensful in the same way as “Signs” that came out a few years ago..

Tonight Bill is out of town, Carly is expecting a friend, I have cleaned upstairs- with some assistance from the girls, we had chicken burgers at the fast food place in town (that is a couple of notches up from the big franchises, thank goodness) and I have taken out this crochet curtain to work on tonight. ( My eternal project that is hidden away for months at a time..)Did a few rounds in the morning, too.

Today, Hubby and I have been married for 19 years. Every year we’ve had to rummage to find our marriage certificate and check the date to be sure we remembered correctly. This year I double checked in advance. The date itself isn’t that important, but we usually make a point out of doing something for ourselves around that time. This year we haven’t really planned anything. Beside, Bill’s best friend just died on Thursday, the funeral is on Friday. This has made us think even more about how lucky we are to be here, now, in this life situation. Especially after Bill was in a serious car accident three years ago. Sure there are things we wish were different, there are people we wish we had closer to us since we are far away from his family in  Canada. But still: Happy Anniversary, Hubby. I love you.I’m lucky.

We are lucky to have this beach nearby. Get in the car and drive for 25 minutes along the lake and there’s the beach/campsite for anyone to enjoy. The kids go swimming no matter how cold, I need a couple of weeks of good temperatures and sunny weather in order to venture in.

Emma used to stay home when we went there the other summers, she whined and was restless about it when she was younger. Now she’s six, a middle aged lady, so to speak, so she’s more relaxed in public.  But when the girls go swimming she’s on her toes, constantly looking for them. If they go to the other side of the little “pier”, she occationally whines for them. When they come up for lunch or to lay in the sun she relaxes and has a nap.

Where are the girls?

Oh, there they are:

They’re up and resting now:

so then I can have a nap:

The girls and I – and the dog- spent the afternoon on the beach by the lake. In order to get there we have to drive for about 25 minutes. It’s such a lovely place, but for me the water is wayyyyy too cold still. The girls, and their friend whom we brought with us, did not hesitate about getting in. Good for them. I’m just fine with staying in the shade- occationally in the sun with my book or my crochet, chatting to an occational aquaintance walking by..

We are planning to repeat it tomorrow. And the mornings are so slow here now that it is swallowed up by getting up later than usual, having slow breakfasts, putting on some laundry, getting a few necessities or a fresh loaf of bread from the grocery store..

and writing some  thoughts on prepped journal pages

or prepping some new ones..

If not shine so at least rise. That’s what I did- at three thirty.  Well, first I laid there feeling how some of my joints ached. I took a pill and closed my eyes. The ache subsided- my eyes were ready to see daylight! So at four thirty I got up, went out to get the newspaper, made coffee- and the dog looked at me like I was insane- and went back to sleep. (she is still sleeping!)

I finally got all the thank you cards from the confirmation done, so something really good came out of this. We’ve waited to take a photo since we forgot on the day of the party, but Carly has had a bad sty on her eye and wanted to get rid of it first. Yesterday we had to get the doctor to get her a specialist’s appointment in order to get him to cut it away. She’s pretty calm about it.. So we used a photo from inside the church. It came out really nice, but of course it doesn’t show her in her dress- but so be it. It is a nice portrait anyway. So far this morning it’s sunny but they have called for a couple of rain showers, so maybe we’ll get in the car and put the cards in the mailboxes then..

I also walked in the dewey grass this morning and cut some peones and roses to put in vases in the living room.

In the garden there are tons of peones so I thought I could cut some closest to the wall of the house and take with me indoors,

As far as the climbing roses go, I always cut them a little less than I

roses outside my window

 should so they can peek into my windows. i like seeing them while I sit in the living room.. This year I left them a little too long…

Now I’m really sleepy! Maybe I should take a little nap? Nobody else is up yet anyway, and it’s only 7:40.

Today was sun, sun, sun. I was in the sun in the backyard, out of the sun in the backyard, on the porch – in and out of the sun… And then I went to the last knitting cafe before we take a break for the summer. There I did needlepoint. Don’t ask me to touch wool on a day like this!

(a photo that Kristi took the other day. From the alley by the pond close to where we live,)

I prepped a few pages the other night sitting in the comfy chair. And then I had pages to write on as soon as I felt like it:

..And here are the books I wrote about on the journal page,they are a part of the curriculum I’m going to read in fall.