Wordless(mostly) Wednesday...

less than 2 hours left in this day but it still counts!...



(my dad's works)


(old flame)


(new baby)

Summer so far....

We have had a busy summer this year! Mark and Ryan have spent hours and hours helping Papaw with long overdue yardwork. Because of his mom's illnesses she was unwilling to let anything get done there. They are making up for years of neglect and its tough!

I have been decluttering our house, doing a few improvement projects and learning to crochet with thread. We've also rescued several dogs, all returned to their rightful owners thankfully.



(crochet flower ornament)


It has been ungodly hot here in east Texas this year! Most summers are hot but we've had temps well over 100 for at least 6 weeks now, with no end in sight. As of today, 72% of Texas is in extreme drought. Its not pretty. Crops have failed, livestock are dying, fires have destroyed acres upon acres of land. I am thankful we live in the eastern part of the state, so far no major fires here. Can't wait for some cooler temps though!



The kids have had a banner year for socializing! Sarah now has four neighborhood girls to hang out with, something she's never got to do before. Ryan had a huge birthday pool party in May and continues to entertain friends by the droves. Currently two friends are staying the week and a pasture campout will happen tonight with an additional several coming out for the adventure. The girls and I have plans for a spa night after we return from a marshmallow roasting visitation.


(one of about a gazillion cicadas so far this year!)


(Tibert isn't stupid)


(Mark resting on Papaw's porch at last weekend's work session there)


(assorted pots gathered from the yard)


(pulling vines out of the trees is hard work!)


(newly painted dining table!)


(fire from the boys night out in Papaw's pasture)


The day after Mark's mom's funeral, his dad told him who his biological mother is. So we have been finding assorted birth relatives for the past few weeks. Pictures as well as information have been provided from his aunt's family. These are Mark's biological maternal grandparents, he looks very much like his grandfather! My mom is a genealogy genius and has zipped his birth family all the way back to Jamestown and then some! It is fascinating to find out things that we've always suspected(a Native American ancestor) are actually true. Anyway, we have plans to meet his half-brother this fall when we visit my parents. One of his cousins lives 3 blocks from us and we will meet up with him soon too. It is neat for our kids to be able to know the biological ties to their ancestry.



(pool on a good day)


(this guy has the right idea!)

The Birthday Week...

Sarah's was Wednesday, she turned 11, on the 11th of 2011. Pretty cool huh? Ryan will be 18 on the 15th, and Amy will be exactly 15.5 on the 15th as well. Soooo, we have lots of celebrating going on these days. I took the kids out to lunch yesterday to a new restaurant in Longview, El Pollo Regio, and to their favorite thrift store. Sarah found another bathing suit(her 3rd) and a beach dress. Amy found two bathing suits and a dress, and Ryan got a Bob Marley shirt. Not too bad for under $50!

Here are some birthday-ish pictures of them...


(Amy in her $8 dress)


(Sarah and Ruby)


(modeling with Rosie)


(Amy looking gorgeous)


(Ryan hanging out by the pool)

Ryan is having his annual pool party on Saturday. Not sure how many kids we'll have but I think we're gonna grill hot dogs for them again. One time he had over 40 show up! I need to tell them to bring their own towels and sunscreen!!! Shhhh, don't tell that I'm getting a cake for him too!

Taste the Rainbow...

We are all skittleheads now thanks to Manic Panic's Classic Cream Formula.



(Amy's redo in Shocking Blue)


(Molly's teal-mix of Lizard Green and Shocking Blue)


(Ryan, just blond for now, will be Lizard Green on the spots)


(Sarah's Hot Hot Pink, over her natural coppery red)

Blackberry Pickin'

Last week the teens in our homeschool group went north to pick strawberries at McPeak Orchards. There were four families represented with seven kids. We had a great time and came home with about 15 quarts of delicious, fresh red strawberries. I put up 7ish quarts and we ate the rest within a day or so. I wish I had taken pictures of the outing but all I've got is one of our two baskets to show you...







We didn't quite get our fill of picking berries so one of our MOT(mom of teen) offered to let us pick from her dad's dewberry patch not far from us. Again, I did not take pictures but that's a GOOD thing! It was 92 degrees, sunny, and windy. None of the kids picked for more than 5 minutes so it was just us hot, sweaty, windblown moms doing the dirty work. And it was DIRTY! I came away with just under five pounds but we are going back next week for more. I froze three quarts and made a "scone cake" with the rest(what was left after the girls had munched them anyway)...



(before butter)


(now that's better)

Blackberry Chocolate Chip Scone Cake

(it is important to note that the measurements are extremely approximate!)

2-2.5ish cups of flour(I use half white, half whole wheat)
1.25tsp baking powder
1/4tsp salt
1 loose cup(about 2/3 cup packed) light brown sugar
1 heaping cup of blackberries or dewberries
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
enough milk to make a think batter
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 egg
(I did NOT add any vanilla or cinnamon but both would have worked-I just plain forgot)
Preheat oven to 425F.

Combine dry ingredients and toss to mix and break up sugar. Add berries, chips, milk and egg and mix well. Pour into a buttered 9x9 or 9x13 pan(mine was a 9-inch straight sided round stoneware tart pan). Bake for about 20 minutes, testing at about 15-16 minutes with a cake tester. It might take longer than 20 minutes, I was facebooking and didn't pay attention. The edges were slightly pulled away and browned when they were done if that helps. Let them cool a bit and cut into serving sized pieces. Eat buttered with plenty of coffee!! Enjoy!

Ready for Fall....

Colors burst in wild explosions
Fiery, flaming shades of fall
All in accord with my pounding heart
Behold the autumn-weaver
In bronze and yellow dying
Colors unfold into dreams
In hordes of a thousand and one
The bleeding
Unwearing their masks to the last notes of summer
Their flutes and horns in nightly swarming
Colors burst within
Spare me those unending fires
Bestowed upon the flaming shades of fall.
-Dark Tranquility, With the Flaming Shades of Fall

But I remember more dearly autumn afternoons in bottoms that lay intensely silent under old great trees - C. S. Lewis

I am SO ready for the Autumn season! And really, really ready for the rain to stop already. Please? I think we're on day 8 of rain or something like that. Possibly up to 10 inches or more so far. I now realize that what I love is a good, dramatic, thunderstorm rather than incessant dripping, dripping rain.

Fall sports some of my favorite colors, the temperature is more agreeable, and there is just something about the angle of sunlight that seems more beautiful than other times of the year.



(on the side of the house)


(looking out to our front yard)


(sunset from our driveway)


(over the pool fence)

Anyway...



We lost our sweet Puppy-girl a few days ago, unexpectedly but not. She would have been 15 years old on October 7th and had declined in health over the summer. We are sad to see her go but glad she won't suffer through another unkind winter.

I have a felty crafty thing going on but can't share pictures yet because the camera is with the kids in North Carolina. Its based on this cuteness from turkey feathers(in my blogroll) but will be a banner(and a necklace) instead of a mobile. I made Mark go collect leaves for me last weekend while we were watching football so I'd have something to keep me occupied in between touchdowns. If I can figure out how, I will share the patterns here.

We are collecting the kids this weekend in Birmingham. I can't wait to get them home so we can get back into a routine. Sarah has missed 3 weeks of AWANAs so she'll have lots to work on. Amy and Ryan are anxious to see their friends again. And, I'm ready to have some noise in the house during the day! It has been too quiet here.

Crazy Times...

If anyone ever tells you that toddlers are harder than teens, please smack them immediately. They are NOT. Teens have to be driven around, watched like a hawk, and fed lots of pizza(or other junk). I swear I'm in the car more in a month than I was in a year before anyone turned thirteen. My kids didn't do soccer or gymnastics or music or art lessons, or anything else extra-curricular so their childhoods were blissful. Now that two of them are teens(and the youngest a very social nine), they still don't participate in those kinds of activities but I find myself hauling them around almost daily!! To a friend's house, to work, to the mall, to church activities, to homeschool activities, etc, etc.

Hauling kids along with real life have overwhelmed me to the point that my blogging is getting neglected! I hate that! Anyway, here's a catch-up:

Mark's job is going well. Slower paced than he is used to but very stable. He is driving an hour one-way to get there and back so that's been an adjustment. Things he used to do on his lunch hour here in town, I'm having to do.



I'm still in decluttering mode. It is amazing how much STUFF we have! Items that have been stored on shelves for years and years that we don't have a need for. I've taken bags and bags to the local thrift store(Hope's Closet). The bad thing is that I can't even tell anything is gone!! Where was I keeping all the other stuff before? I have no idea.

One of my favorite blogs shared this a while back...

The Story of Stuff. It has certainly opened my eyes!


Our pool is finally up and running! Usually we're swimming by the last part of May. This spring was cool so we didn't even start on the summer prep til mid-June. Ryan had a pool party the last weekend of June and the water was horrible, even after lots of chemicals. We ended up having to drain it and start with clean water. So far so good and Ryan's hosting another party in a few weeks!

The kids are going to North Carolina at the end of August. I'm still deciding if I'll join them. There is SO much to do here that I'd love to have that "free time" to work in the house.

Hopefully things will click soon and I'll be back to blogging on a regular basis. I definitely READ blogs almost daily!!LOL

Saturday-ish...

No time for coherent posting today! Pool party with tons of teenagers, hot dogs, and so forth! But, I did want to share these loverly sites/blogs/what-have-yous.

Go NOW and read this!! Autumn is soooooo very wise!


Look here for beautiful inspiration.

My friend Sadira had the most magical of Mad Hatter Tea Parties!

And last but not least, here are some quick pics of our kitchen paint colors. It took forever but we've finally settled on most of the colors. The very farthest wall(above the doorway to the utility room and next to the fridge) will either a burnt orange or a rosy red magenta for an added pop. I'm very excited about these colors, they all just meshed this morning for some reason. Hopefully we'll hop right on this and finish by the first of September!


(kitchen view from the dining area)


(soffit color, a banana pepper green- this didn't photograph well, it isn't quite as intense as it looks here but is more yellowish)


(kitchen wall color, Chardonnay Bottle)


(dining room color, a Kilz color, Garden Glove, that I'll have to match in Valspar)

Yummy Pretzels!

We finally had a lull around here so I jumped in the kitchen and made Alton Brown's Homemade Soft Pretzels! Altered of course, subbing honey for the sugar and half whole wheat flour. My topping was regular table salt mixed with granulated garlic(not powder) and onion powder. I was out of kosher salt. They. Are. Spectacular. I'm on my forth one(I made mine small and got 2 dozen) already with spicy horseradish mustard.

The girls didn't get the camera batteries charged in time so enjoy the picture from the website, or at this lovely blog. Apparently I'm not the only one who loves them!

We're about to get a nasty storm so who knows what we'll do this afternoon. The girls cleaned the boys piggie cage so we don't have that many chores. Maybe I'll take them to the dreaded "Mall". Yah. and hoo.