walk

 I took a walk in the yard, in my sheep slippers.
Caught some of its beauty on my camera.

 



 I love the yard in the summer. 
Trees are full of leaves.
Everything is full of color.
Everything is growing.

Enjoy.



pools open

These girls are brave.

 

The heater is on but I'm not getting in.

 

We opened the pool at the end of April and crazy that they are, they wanted to jump in at 75 degrees.

 

Brrr...  Not this chick.

 

 

We're in a holding pattern here in the show me state. 

Around 85 each day this week with clouds and scattered rain.

Doesn't matter to my fish.

the official 2014 summer bucket list

The list is here and ready!

It's a two part list with room to add on {a first}.

We've already marked off three of them.

 

It includes:



smores
silly string fight
sleepovers with friends
lake with Jada
city museum
ride bikes
zoo
camping
six flags
visit kapaw and mamaw
Gus' pretzels
Cards game
fireworks
go to local festival
swim parties
bowling
reading/library
water balloons
dollar movies
make homemade ice cream
pick blueberries and peaches {with Weilers :)}
catch fireflies
bonfire with friends
journal
night swims
church camp
volleyball camp
make pudding pops
drama camp
fishing
bake cookies for neighbors
swim at lake
cousin time
go to a parade
farmers market
Elephant Rock
Johnson Shut Ins
scrapbook
make ice chalk
movie nights at home
plant sunflowers

I think we are up for the challenge.

Go team!

my last day

This is my class from this year.

 

A great bunch of kiddos.  Fun.  Energetic.  Smart.

 

Love each one of them.  Cried when they left.

 

I am going to miss them. 

I'm going to miss teaching at ATA.

Not sure what God has in store for me.

10 minutes after taking this picture, I resigned.

It was a hard thing to do and I did it with tears.

It was the right thing to do.

And I've found relief in my decision.

The last month and half have been hard.

Disappointment.

Decisions made by others.

Feeling unwanted.

I was the consequence.

GOD IS IN CONTROL.

He knows my heart.

My worries.

My prayers.

My future.

Enough said.

last day

Couldn't have asked for better teachers this year.

 

Sarah had Grace's 2nd grade teacher, following in her sisters footsteps and I am okay with that :).

 

If you love the teacher, why not have them twice!

 

 

Grace had her first male teacher this year.

 

Going into it she was cautious and had some anxiety over it.

 

God blessed us and she compares him to her quirky, silly Uncle Kendall {that's a compliment}.

 

So blessed by the school.

So blessed by the teachers and staff.

Thankful.

holy moly strawberries!

Picking strawberries has become part of my daily routine. 

Everytime I go out to the garden I think there can't be more, but there always is.

What to do with all these berries?  Hmmmm...

Pinterest to the rescue.

Made these tonight for breakfast tomorrow.
{*recipe note* I didn't have strawberry/banana greek yogurt so I added more berries and an extra banana with vanilla greek yogurt.  I also cut back on the sugar some. Oh and they are GF}.

The original recipe calls for a loaf of bread but we love muffins around here.

Easy to eat on the run if needed and individual {no cutting}.

 

 

Look at that berry goodness oozing out the side.  Holy-moly indeed!

 

They might not make it to breakfast :).

 

Next strawberry recipe?

Have a friend at church who claims her strawberry freezer jam recipe is the best. 

 

Sounds like a plan.

 



new yard ornament

Thought about titling this post "dumb" but since I don't like that word...

I had it all planned...
I would be productive and mow the lawn today. 
I've done this many times before without Art being here.

It's stuck. 
Really stuck.
Grrrr...

Frustrated! :(

Curse you rain that made the ground and leaves moist!

Messed up my plans.

The cherry on top of this mess is that Art is going to the Cards game tonight.

HA!

Which means it will stay there until tomorrow night {most likely}.
Unless he wants to get up super early with me tomorrow and get it out. 
Nahhhhhh.....

Meanwhile... the grass continues to grow.

my dad has two green thumbs

Sharing a beauty from our backyard.

This is a clematis.

 

They only bloom in May/June.

 

They remind me of summers with my parents at my childhood home.

 

Dad had three of these, all different colors and boy did they bloom.

 

My dad has two green thumbs. 

 

Could be his 30 + years teaching science.

Could be he got his knack for plants from his mom.

Could be God given {this is my bet}.

 

Whatever it is, I hope it's rubbed off on me. Even the slightest bit :). 

I'll take it.

 

morning rituals (even in the summer)

 Ever since finding out I have candida and an issue with sugar I've scoured the internet for holistic remedies. 

Found something interesting about having a balanced Ph level in my system and if not balanced how it can lead to other things, things which I've had, pesky things.

So to help I started drinking red wine vinegar each morning and each night. 

Now I tried to do the vinegar straight up but that didn't go over well {insert pucker}. 

So I added it to OJ. 

{Yes, OJ is a natural sugar but it helps get it down and with my decreased daily intake of sugar, I've been okay.} 

Every morning I pour a tablespoon into a glass and fill it halfway up with juice.  I reserve the other half for the evening.

This in combination with other changes I've made has helped. 

 

 

Another morning ritual is reviewing the to do list of the day. 

 

I have a real sleek, custom approach to this... NOT!!! 

 

It's just me my handy bic pen and a spiral notebook. 

Fancy dancy! 

 

You would think the lists would be obsolete, it is summer!  But no. 

Life moves on, things gotta get done and in my mush for brains a list is a must have.

 

It's funny but we haven't moved from the house today yet the list says to go by JCPenney and the library :).

 

Guess those two get moved to Wednesday. 

summer day 1

Day one of summer and I was awakened by two girls who had a hankering for waffles.  

Thinking I had buttermilk I found a recipe on pinterest. 

 

Didn't have buttermilk, guess the hubby used it all on weekend pancakes. 

 

Improvised with milk and vanilla yogurt and they actually turned out pretty good. 

 

Girls loved them, so did I.

 

Got the recipe here.  {The name of her site caught my eye because in a way, I am a hillbilly}

 

We're getting our first harvest of these beauties that we planted last summer.

 

 

And yes they

are

 as good

as they

look. 

 

And so I mixed the two.  Spread some butter over the top with a little powdered sugar and wham-o, delish.

 

 

As for where I've been since March, well that is a long story. 

 

Mostly busy but also intense {more on that later if I feel like stirring the pot}. 

 

Time now to enjoy Summer.