At the top of my list

One of the items at the top of my thrifty list is yardage of vintage red and white table check. Over the years I haven’t found too much... a cloth napkin here and there or moth holed pieces that can’t ever be returned to their crisp and clean lined splendor. It has always seemed odd to me there isn’t more good stuff as it seems it was part of everyday life for many. My source for this info is of course the Walton’s—do you know John and Olivia? They are good folks, those Walton’s and brought me through many a rainy day. I have only one season left to watch and I ration each episode, watching one only when I am at my down and out and need to see their weekly apron stash as they do chores up on the mountain. Yes, I like the story lines and John Boy is a writer and Mary Ellen a nurse, blah blah blah. I really just like looking at their furniture and dishes and how they built their chicken coop fence. They wear little cardigans over tiny flowery printed dresses, I just love that.

I found a decent piece of this fabric at an estate sale…the one that I mentioned as awesome, dude. I saw it from afar and though there was no one else in the room with me I took giant leaping steps and like a magnet to metal it was firmly tucked into the crook of my arm.

After washing it and hanging it out It was ironed and sprayed with Egyptian Cotton Linen spray, I heavily dilute this as the scent is a bit strong. I like it to be just a hint of scent otherwise it reminds me of that Freshman English teacher that smells like scented maxi pads. I know you know this lady. She always wears her hair in tight short curls and has skinny lips with lipstick that has trouble staying in the lines.

Can you imagine what kind of grade she would give this post? Indenting paragraphs is so yesterday.

I love the faggoting edge. I really want to learn how to do this. Such a tiny delicate stitch and it adds so much.

Is seven pictures of Gingham table check enough? I capitalize the G because it should be a proper noun. Don’t you agree?

Gingham…… I love theeeeeeee

last day of school cake

I’m glad summer vacation is here. The kids have two half days left of end of school parties and fun, it has been a good year. I like to celebrate this with a cake each year.

This is a cherry chip box mix cake. Have I blogged about this before? Betty Crocker releases them every few years, they are my favorite. It has a kind of almond extract flavor to it. Almond extract reminds me of my mother does it do that to you, too? How do you know my mother?

Hadley knows my mother, she has her skinny chicken legs.

I took this picture a few minutes ago on the screen porch….Hadley, you are so pretty! I’m happy you are home for last day of school cake!

Ho Hum is a happy sort of day

Henry’s five senses today...

Seeing

Reading the same book 25 times. This has been going on for six days.

Hearing

Art Garfunkel Breakaway. Only 25 cents for that melodious Little

Town voice.

Smelling + Tasting + Touching

Banana Oat Bread Using the rest of the bananas.

Even though I use wheat flour and steel cut oats Henry

calls it cake. Don’t tell him it might be healthy.

Now he is...

Sleeping.

Grateful

The weekend was full and busy with Friday night football and celebrating my lovely daughter's Birthday. Shall I go on at how fast she grew up? I vividly remember my husband driving 20 miles an hour home from the hospital with our tiny little bundle. It really doesn't seem like 17 years ago.

Hadley, you have brought such joy into our hearts and not only have you grown into a beautiful young woman but a dear friend as well. Your Dad and I love you so much!

We celebrated a day early and decided to spend her actual birthday in Dallas. A treat as it is nearly three hours away. But unfortunately this happened:

As we were stopped at a red light we were hit from behind by a teenager with a large jacked up F150 pick up. No one was injured, which I find amazing as my car was full of kids and the little ones in the back seat were covered with glass. I am overwhelmed by everything about this. By the "what if's" and at just how blessed we are to all be okay.

Having said that let me vent for a moment (or two) at how I feel about the parents of this teenage boy who could only mumble "sorry" and say or do nothing else. I found him on facebook tonight and noticed he had posted on his iphone while at the accident scene "just had my first wreck". This boy is a small 16 year old and has no right driving a vehicle such as this. Is it wrong if I share a picture from his facebook?

As a mother of teens I have seen over the years kids who are given everything they can imagine wanting. This child could have easily injured or done worse to my family. Thinking about this has been the most traumatic part for me. I can't get Molly's cries out of my head. But then God steps in and I take comfort from Him in the fact my kids are okay. They're beautiful and strong and have been such wonderful gifts since the day they made that slow drive home from the hospital.

a bit of cheer

Gone are the lazy days of summer. They slipped away without even telling me they were leaving. School has yet to start but the activities have. As much as I'm tuckered out from the mom/taxi thing it nice to have a little structure to our days. Five bored kids at home on a hot summer day can make the walls of the house close in and every one's voice an octave higher.

The high temps here much parallel the cold temps of a New England winter in that you are really forced to stay inside. It's instinct in my body to want to be outside on a sunny day--not to waste it indoors. It's hard to train myself to stay inside. We burst outside at around 7:00pm and run wild with pent up energy and a half deflated soccer ball.

This brings me to my boring thoughts--and yes, I do feel like such a bore lately. For this I am sorry. My thoughts include your opinion of the ideal summer. Where would you spend it? Did you have happy summers as a child? Did you have fresh squeezed lemonade? Did your Gram announce it was "too hot to cook" and you clasped your hands in glee. Even though it really just meant you were having cold cuts and waldorf salad.

These houses are very close to where my Gram grew up. It makes my heart hurt to see something that was once so magnificent become so neglected. Unc J and Auntie J do you recognize these places?

How pretty these places must have been in their glory. Especially when they were surrounded with the colors of summer...surely the children who spent childhoods in them were never bored? Didn't they read books and act out plays? Didn't they hang out the turret windows and yell at their friend Joe to maybe play ball later? Didn't they sit on the porch and play marbles until their mother brought out warm oatmeal cookies? And now look at them all saggy and leaky. How can this happen?

Do you recognize the talent here? Showing you these dilapidated houses...I am not only boring but so very depressing as well. Tootleloo!

*not true to scale

There was a big storm here last night. This made me edgy and fake smiley with the kids, it's our first tornado season in tornado alley. With no basement I can admit it makes me a little nervous. We weathered the storm playing a dozen games of Mad Libs and laughing at our adjectives and nouns that got rather vulgar. The storm passed and we were okay! I shall reenact what happened next, please note these are actors portraying the chain of events and certain items are not true to scale.

Most everyone was off to bed.

I tucked in the little ones.

I stepped outside to look for damage-- I saw a snake in the screen porch. I can't say I like snakes. They are creepy and look slimy and this one looked as if it would bite. I wasn't feeling very brave.

Sam and I used garden tools and a broom hoping to shoo it out. It wouldn't leave. I was feeling even less brave than before. Why do we look so happy?

Even though I love animals and gently let bugs out of the house to fly for freedom...I tried to shoot this snake. I used a BB gun which in reality is silly. I'm confident I could have used a rifle but didn't want to blast a hole in the wall of the house and have to live that down forever. But I did think about it many times. Notice Nana peering out of the door. We were all scared, she was going from window to window with a gallon of paint asking me to drop it on the snake. She has always been resourceful.

I finally called my helpful neighbor to save the day. And he did, catching the snake and taking it to the back of his property to slither away for freedom. Nana, Sam and I hugged and cheered.

Then we all went back in the house. You know all that talk about facing your fears? I think I am more afraid of snakes now. Every time I see a stick in the grass I jump with fear. Snakes are creepy!

That's all she wrote

It's funny I'm having trouble loading pictures tonight--this very last day in May. I kept my word and posted each day in May. We laughed, we cried, but mostly we yawned.
It has been a busy month and truthfully I am glad to welcome June. A whole brand new month just waiting to be filled up with fun.

I shall start a list of simple June things:

swimming

shaved ice

bike riding around the local lake

picnics

staying up late and looking at the stars

seeing "Night at the Museum 2"


What will you do in June?

board game mojo

As the kids grow, playing games has become more entertaining. Though I admit it is a very fragile thing to play a game with two teenage girls (say the word "what" with five syllables like--WHhhAAaaatttTTTTahhh), a jr high school boy ( insert flatulent noises from the armpit) a six year old (who actually is the most mature person in our family) and a two year old (who rolls the dice by whipping them on the table, under the table and on the kitchen floor--he usually gets banned from the vicinity).

(Am I using parenthesis too much?)

I hope your weekend is good. I hope you find time to sit around and play a game. It's fun (even if you lose).

family

Today was a happy day. I'm glad to have my mom here. My face keeps flexing muscles involuntarily. I think it's called smiling.

Guess what?

My mother is coming tomorrow.

She is sweet and skinny and loves nature-- like birds and flowers and such. When I say she is skinny I mean like she has the skinniest legs you have ever seen but also she has pointy ta-tas. A rare combo if I should say.

This is a picture of her and my sister before I was born. She was a stay at home mom who sewed clothes for herself and her children. She wore dresses and skirts each day. By the time I was born the 70's had taken their grip and she traded in all her dresses for a pottery wheel she would set up in the kitchen. We moved to Hawaii and went to the beach everyday. She would wear a brown bikini with white palm leaves on it. When we moved from there her life really changed. I didn't know this at the time as I was still pretty young. We moved back "home" to Connecticut and soon she was working full time. As soon as she got home she would unhook her bra and put on a big T-shirt and my brother and I would yell at her to put pants on. Is this too much information? But this is my mother. And she is coming here tomorrow.

B,B,B

Bedtime: Henry's afternoon nap

Baseball: Watching brother play.

Birthday: Eating these in honor of Ken's Birthday today.

1. Wash screens 2. Clean out gutters 3. Plant garden...

I like the to-do list that comes with spring. Though it is long and often intimidating, it gives me a sense of satisfaction. When it is a year such as this where we aren't moving I feel especially motivated. I love envisioning the summer sprawling ahead full of hot days knowing we worked hard all spring to reward ourselves with laziness.

time well spent: a quiz

Can you guess how we have been spending our time these last few days?

If you answered...

Eating Sausage Pie (mostly sausage and cabbage in a pie crust.)

Driving to Lubbock. We had never been, it was pretty though the drive was three hours each way and there was nothing in between only horses and cows-- which is okay b/c horses and cows are pretty unless you need to pee and there is only a shack with one pumper for gas and a sign that say "gas, antiques, beer, fried catfish, and minnows".

Losing six teeth in eight days.

Eating a plum nearly naked.

Driving to Dallas. More horses and cows but I bought this 1941 book in a used book store, which makes everything okay.

Hadley studying excessively for Literary Criticism.

Training ducks who are now named Prudence and John even though we are still unsure if they are male or female. And yes that is me, brown and aqua match, eh?

They have grown really fast and are growing their soft downy under-feathers. I really love them.

Eating chicken and barley w/ mushrooms and tomatoes all simmered in beef broth and baked with cheese.

Building a ping pong table after baseball practice-- a going away gift...thanks, Dad!

Maggie is in Austin for several days on a speech/debate tournament. We miss her, especially the hundreds of headstands we watch her do in the living room. And trust me, she will love this picture.

So if you answered any of the above...wow, impressive. Otherwise I promise to write about more exciting things next time. Like the new Oliver+ S Spring patterns that came in the mail!