It's Summer Time

which means lots of fun happenings here at The Cottage! Casey has graduated from Mother of Diving Grace School, the long distance homeschool my kiddoes are enrolled in. It's been an exciting journey as Casey was my first one I homeschooled all the way through... (sniff-sniff). He's off to college on a free ticket so we're pretty proud of him...

Vacation was quiete fun, too. Mini-golf, sight-seeing, Liverpool Rummy, swimming and campfires are just a few things we enjoyed...

More birthdays too; Corey turned 26 which meant yet another cookout and party...

and yes, the pool is open so we've spent nearly every sunny day that we're home soaking up the Vitamin D and splashing or lounging around. Lots of gardening too. I'll have to get some pics up to share. Not too much by way of crafts, though. I'm thinkin' 'em, just not doin' 'em!

Pretty Strawberries

Fresh picked from the garden... Kaleigh planted the strawberry plants several years ago and is enjoying the bounty! Cassidy and I are allergic to them but we hear they are quite delicious.

Bears, Oh My!

We spotted our third bear this year! As we were driving this afternoon, this big fella was lumbering along...

Is he a big guy, or what? This is the second time in the past couple weeks a bear crossed in front of our car. Last week we had a big one in our backyard! I woke to hear my husband hollering. I couldn't imagine what he was yelling about. When I looked outside there was a bear crossing our backyard and going into the woods. He came through right where my clothesline is! Now whenever I go to hang clothes, I keep looking into the woods to make sure I'm the only one out there!

We had a great picnic today of fried turkey, coleslaw and corn on the cob. Gee it was good. Casey made Shoo-fly pie and chocolate cream pie for dessert. That was good, too. Corey entertained the three littlies with a few "magic" tricks. I can't decide who was more excited, the girls or Corey! He loves his little sisters, for sure, and thought they would enjoy a little magic show so he went out and bought a magic book and learned a few tricks to show them. Lots of fun!

Completely and Happily Swamped...

in Mother of Divine Grace paperwork. I've been a terrible blogger and blog-reader lately. No time for much crafts or reading, either. However, I'm not complaining; quite the opposite! Through consultations I've been able to talk to my 'old' families and meet some new ones. I think they assign me the best families! I'm a happy worker!

Spring Blessings

Springtime is one of my favorite times of the year. Beautiful days, including the rainy ones have me lovin' the outdoors as much as possible and spring cleaning the inside on the rainy ones. I haven't spent much time on the computer lately except for checking it for my consulting work. Not much blog reading at all; I do miss that! It seems that there's so much to do including enjoying the sunshine that the computer has taken a back seat for awhile. Ah, well please take a glimpse of what we've been up to. Today, the little girlies are playing on the Slip N Slide. That never gets old! Until we open the pool, which will be in a couple weeks, they'll be happy with sliding down that and playing in the sand box. Which reminds me; I need to pull out the water/sand table. They always like that, too.

My onion sets were planted back at the beginning of April. They're coming rather nicely.

Here is an overview of the garden. We've got: peas (they were planted awhile back, too), garlic, potatoes, asparagas, strawberries, tomatoes, pinto beans, green beans, lettuce, Swiss chard, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloup, pumpkins, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, beets, peppers, brussel sprouts, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and cherries. I may have missed something, but you get the idea.

Gary and I spent the entire weekend bending over and stretching. We were pretty tired on Sunday night.

My duckies are getting pretty big. Cookie loves them and Billy is fine with them, too. Soon they need to be put into the laying hens area. The meat chickens are getting rather plump. All they do is eat and stink up the back!

We had two birthdays this month. Kierra turned 7 and Caressa turned 5. Three parties and lots of cake at our house! We brought them to Olive Garden for dinner, had a family pizza party and a little girls birthday tea party with their friends. Lots of fun! Now I need to get back to watching what I eat! Too much good stuff for me!
Soon I'll do a post on the front gardens. I'm just about done planting them. Oh, and I know I'm behind here a bit, but I just LOVE Flydady.com. My spring cleaning is moving along and the house is looking sparkly clean and getting decluttered!

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope yours is extra special spending the day with those you love!

Lots of Good Stuff Going On

It's been very busy around here with all good stuff. Kaleigh got confirmed last Sunday. It was a very beautiful and personable confirmation; one she/we will always remember. Casey was her sponser. It was hard for her to decide which brother to have as they all would have been honored but in the end, Casey was the one! We had a wonderful family celebration afterwards... truly a memorable day.

We've been particularly busy with gardening and outdoor projects. When we go to bed at night everyone is pretty tired. Good tired, know what I mean? The little kids are playing outside nearly all day and we've had lots of dinners on the deck! I just love this time of year.

At night, I'm relaxing with knitting; lots of knitting. This is a dishcloth I made for myself. Since January I'm trying to make one a month. This pattern came from Homespun Living Blog as a freebie. I only run my dishwasher once a day, yet it sure could be run much more than that. Instead I wash many dishes, usually four times a day by hand. The handmade dishcloths sure makes washing my dishes more pleasurable. They're very sturdy and pretty, too. I've also been working on a baby bunting for a very good friend of mine. It's turning out to be quite the project but it's coming out beautifully and it's fun to work on. My friend is a knitter, too, so I know she'll really like it.
Once that is complete, I have some cross-stitching I'd like to work on. My fingers are just itching to hold a needle!