Scenes from a Summer's Day , 19

Scenes from a Summer's Day

Definite things of summer;

Waiting for our golfers from the deck with
an ice tea ready for them in hand

Gelato in a fancy cone

Big billowy beautiful clouds blooming higher before our eyes

Ducks by the water's edge

Scenes from a Summer's Day and other things - Catching up!

Catching up!

The “Scenes from a Summer’s Day” photo challenge is still in progress, though no doubt many of our participants are beginning to concentrate more on back to school rather than summer at this point in time. I plan to post a few more between now and the end of next week myself.

I haven’t been able to introduce other challengers to you yet, though their names and links do appear on my right side bar for all to see. I hope you’ve been able to have a visit with them over a nice hot cup of tea this past few weeks. Please consider taking a peak at some of the photography summer fun on their blogs if you haven’t already, but allow me to first introduce you to;

• Donna at Moments like these
  

• Jessica at Shower of Roses
  

• Andrea at Running with perseverance

These ladies are all fellow homeschooling bloggers who keep it real with family living in focus. Donna is a fellow grandmother club member, what fun that is for both of us!

Of Flower Fairies

There are two other items I’d love to share with you all, and they are both very near and dear to my heart of course.

My friend Denise is so creative; her blog is even titled with the word in it!

This particular post HERE on making flower fairies is so fresh and fun, especially when making fairies is using phtos of her daughter and grand-daughter. (Yep, she too is a fellow "Grandmother club member!)

Please go (run) and take a looksy, because I just know you’ll love the idea for making it yourself with your kidlets.

To Dream the Impossible Dream
...has officially come true

I would like to refer you to my friend Justine’s adoption blog and ask you to pray for her family’s safe journey. They are in flight as I type this up, on their way to Ethiopia in Africa to pick you their two beautiful new daughters. The journey has been so beautiful for their family, and God has truly touched them in ways they never thought possible. They stepped out in faith and away they go, flying towards this fantastic reunion they have worked so hard to become blessed with.

Her husband is a carpenter, and both their older sons accompanying them on this trip will assist him with a labor of love, complete with all the tools they purchased to tutor the men in the area about his craft to make the next dream come true. Her blog appropriately named “To dream the impossible dream” has come true. Go watch the video clip at THIS LINK , and see how richly they have been blessed and keep up with the trip now in progress.

I have goose bumps just typing this up! It’s been so exciting overall, it really has, even for me way over here depending on her blogging efforts to keep me in tune with all the details.

Ray and Justine – the Kleenex tissues are ready and we can hardly wait to see you on your blog all the way over in Africa with your girls! Woot, woot!!

Scenes from a Summer's Day, 18

Scenes from a Summer's Day

Lovely florals from our property

The daylilies are bursting with color. Lovely.

We have the loveliest clothesline pole, don't we?

With honeysuckle and clematis vines growing up over the top of it, they are bursting with new blossoms each day. Lovely.

Our one sunflower seed soil deposit via a birdfeeder has grown well, well enough to enjoy the blossoms this week, many of them. Lovely.

Just when I went to take this photo, a little insect appeared

Scenes from a Summer's Day, 17

Scenes from a Summer's Day

Ahhhhhhhhhh.........

Pardon me for taking time this week to catch up on life's details. I have much to tell you all, be back soon.

Scenes from a Summer's Day, 16

Scenes from a Summer's Day

Taking a tour around our countryside neighborhood

Allow me to be your personal tour guide today.

The photos below were snapped at approximately 7:15am. this morning as I chauffeured our daughter to her summer job. Normally I'm sipping a nice hot cup of coffee about now, enjoying the fresh outdoor air, while watching the two younger children swim their laps in the pool. However after a telephone call this morning, it was announced the swim team session was canceled due to cloudy water issues needing correction today.

Meanwhile, as I drove to and from the barn, I decided to snap the photos for you below, those within our sleepy hamlet town. As you view the scenes below, you'll see why we love it here so much, having grown quite attached to this ever peaceful and lovely countryside.

Allow me to be your personal tour guide

Farmers are reaping their rewards as the wheat continues to be harvested all over our area, most fields only show evidence of the chaff now left behind.

College students are now coming out in force for employment to pull the tassels from the corn stalks, arms reaching high in the air to yank them out so the corn seed doesn't become contaminated for the duration of the growing time.

I snapped this photo above while in motion driving, loved the color!

Soybeans, green beans, oats, barley and potatoes are also grown locally, as well as plenty of bird feed materials, hay, straw and other assorted farm animal necessities.

I actually snapped these two photos, above and below yesterday on our way home from church. Each of these round bales weighs in excess of 1000 pounds!

The countryside landscape is always changing around here with crops grown and harvested, several a year in the same fields. The heart of our area is definitely farming, and if you have a pantry reaping such a harvest, why not consider thanking a farmer today.

Scenes from a Summer's Day, 15

Scenes from a Summer's Day

Blessings of a perfect day;
...and playing with the sunlight and colors of a sunset

From our early rising and our long trek to attend Sunday mass this morning, we've been blessed all day long this day.

When we arrived at church, it was such a relief to find all the fans whirring round and round and the windows wide open - cool air for my hubby to endure easier breathing, and avoiding the crippling fatigue usually accompanying such situations where heat and humidity aren't given complete climate control settings indoors. It also allowed him the ability to be able to participate more fully by standing, kneeling and sitting without feeling light headed and dizzy.

The most unexpected and heart stopping blessing touched us like no other. It happened there as our family knelt in unison, there where we first began to kneel in silence, our hearts softly filled with own private prayer petitions, intentionally remaining "still", yet fervently seeking for Him and waiting, listening, to hear His voice.

It was there where we were first blessed and filled with much grace, feeling tightly wrapped and tenderly hugged in the arms of our loving Father.

As the sunlight rose to take it's place, arcing high above us in the east, its glowing rays began illuminating through the colorful saintly images in the stained glass windows located high above the altar, its rays drifting forth into the church for all to witness the wonder and beauty of this perfect new day. In fact, the soft rays of light began offering warm hues of lilting colors across the altar - as if to say, "Good morning, I have come to give you rest today..."

It also felt as though a message was sent directly to us, reassuring us our weary and aching hearts would be lifted from the heavy burdens of life after what seemed to be an extra tough week emotionally for my hubby and I.

The great fountain continued to spill over with even more blessings, a fount of loving and soothing salve when we encountered the perfect words from God's holy word, just as though He was waiting for us to bid him good day, just so he could whisper a personal message only my hubby and I could begin to understand with the perfection of the timing, a message which instantly became so touching reaching deep into the bottom recesses of our hearts. Just as a parent knows what to do when his child is injured, so too were we in great need of extra care emotionally this day.

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost..

Introit

God in His holy place; God who maketh men of
one mind to dwell in a house: He shall give power
and strength to His people.

~ Psalm 67:6,7

Prayer;

Almighty, eternal God, who in the abundance of thy loving-kindness, dost exceeds both the deserts and the hopes of Thy suppliants, pour forth Thy mercy upon us, to take away from us those things which our conscience feareth, and to add that which our prayer presumeth not to ask. Through our Lord...

Please say a prayer for us as we head into my husband's three month respiratory appointments this week. This is the week it was suggested he will likely begin oxygen therapy, and the thought of having to carry around an oxygen tank is weighing heavily on his mind, among hundreds of other things health wise of course. Because there are so many other variables, and we feel the added discovery of emphysema on top of everything is beginning to affect him in general, we pray and trust in all things..

But for today, for today only - we are so thankful for such a perfect day filled with many, many blessings!

Goodnight to all my family and friends
Hugs!
Renee

Scenes from a Summer's Day, 14

Scenes from a Summer's Day

Blessings of a clothesline... and I have two of them.

Lucky girl!

I love things flapping in the wind, waving at me

There is one thing I love about summer since moving into this house. I just love having double clotheslines to hang oodles of laundry on, and all those towels and bathing suits summer weather produces after enjoying beach time moments as a family.

We miss our pool this year, the one that sprang a huge leak from stretching and warping so badly from the heat exposure in the east we weren't' used to in the west (with the added humidity of course).

Our pool with Auntie and her three Nieces last summer

We had to pitch it when it became evident it was beyond repair at the end of last year when the plug and filter areas came unglued leaving gaping holes and the pool store encouraged us to bid it farewell.

With the water's edge so near to us though, sure we miss our big pool on our property, but it just forces us to get nearer to the beach often.

It's something we've had to remember to do - on purpose this year, and if there is any merit in the effort it takes in the long run, it is the satisfaction for this mama to just enjoy the beauty and simplicity of it all, including observations at the end of the day when my clothesline sits with fruits of those waterside memories.

Clothesline lessons were complete the year we moved into this home, so everyone knows how to use the clothespins, and spacers for the lines properly. Often one of them is assigned the duty of hanging up the laundry, or bringing it all in for folding when it's dry.

Imagine how just a few handfuls of wooden clothespins provide a tight and secure clipping, good enough for allowing all of the recent day's wet items to flap and sway in total freedom, rhymically moving in sync with a soft gentle breeze. It's as though they are waving at me as, sending a warm greeting and a cheery "hello" at day's end. I just love my clotheslines!

Scenes from a Summer's Day, 13

Scenes from a Summer's Day

Bunny Loving

Time for some "bunny loving" with one of our mini lop bunnies. Their fur has a lovely soft feel to it, and they love being brushed often. This bunny, "Floppy" is such a gentle male, he literally cuddles up around our young daughter's neck when she holds him and reciprocates the bunny loving moments right back to her every time. Everyone loves our bunnies. I'll try to get a photo of our other bunny, "Moppy" uploaded soon. She's almost as big as this one now, but so frisky and silly most of the time. Perhaps this is the way of a female bunny?

Scenes from a Summer's Day, 12

Scenes from a Summer's Day

Lounging around poolside on a hot, hot, summer's day!

And now for a nice hearty snacktime

Chili topped nachos

Scenes from a Summer's Day, 11

Scenes from a Summer's Day

Meanwhile... back to the water again... here's what we found!

Surf's UP! - - - WAY UP!

See!

Here's what our family missed while they were here.

These are much too dangerous for the young ones to jump over, but the big ones love to venture in and play when the waves go jumping way up and down.

Scenes from a Summer's Day, 10

Scenes from a Summer's Day

Major Outdoor Summer Projects

Summer is a time for taking to task those grander scaled projects in our home, and this week was no exception to the rule. A large load of cedar red bark mulch was ordered and only supposed to be delivered tomorrow. When the doorbell rang Monday afternoon this week instead, I became a little flustered because we weren't ready and it was just too early for four yards of bark mulch to sit idle on a tarp somewhere for the week.

In progress with 300 feet of
landscape paper to install

Our older son has been parentally employed the past few weeks; first painting the fence - two coats, cutting circles and edging around all thirty some trees on the property where the end result was to add bark mulch into the holes to complete the task. When the bark mulch arrived, he sprang into action, edging around the remaining trees not yet finished, and then swiftly sought out the wheelbarrow to get the bark mulch moving off the pile.

Muscle building 101 - hockey summer workout

Another project was to simplify and create a maintenance-free rear garden bed where all our bird feeders were installed. Last year when hiring our landscaping crew, they insisted our garden would be simple to keep up with, not so. Just ask our children how they enjoy the HUGE task of weeding this flower bed alone each week, no joy found there because the soil consists of much clay, so all those lovely weeds are very difficult to remove from their roots.

To create this maintenance-free mode for the back garden, the project entailed the removal of the existing bark mulch, installing landscaping black paper on the soil, returning the original bark mulch over the paper, and then continue with the addition of all new mulch from the pile in the driveway. It seemed easier than it was, so complicated with just the landscape paper alone to go around all the shrubs and bushes. Golly!

There is nothing quite like already feeling somewhat overwhelmed by this grand task looming ahead, but perhaps God had a funny sense of humor with the arrival of the load five days before of its scheduled timing.

He knows though that I have a husband who wouldn't sit still and just allow the rest of the family to bring this goal to fruition by standing around and watching us, likely instead he would feel tempted to work alongside of us when he shouldn't or worse yet, couldn't, but mustered up a bit of adrenalin because he felt obligated to pitch in.

(Note; Some of these photos aren't great. Thick in laborious duties, I never thought to take photos earlier in the project, and had my cell phone nearby, so guess what I used instead of my camera? Better some, than none!)

Repositioning the bark mulch afterwards

Lots of bending and stooping this day

(note - lone sunflower growing courtesy of bird feeder droppings)

Ah, but wisdom prevailed no doubt, because now after a long hot day of moving together in unison, taking breaks to get out of the summer's heat, hydrating well during it all - I'm pleased to announce TA DA!!! D-o-n-e! This team was terrific! This team was to be praised!


At days' end we were all stiff from stooping to pick the weeds out of the way, cutting and laying the paper, shoveling, raking, pushing a wheelbarrow, raking some more, you know - after much sweat in the 90 degree breezy heat, a fabulous group effort working hard, we did it and I am very pleased it is behind us.

D-O-N-E!

Looking at this garden bed on the size of our property, surely it doesn't look as big as it really is, however I took the photos below to give it some perspective.


Oh, and I stood our daughter in front of the willow tree we planted last year. It blossomed and grew well in just one year. Behind to the right in the photo, you can see the huge willow tree with the damage from the lightning strike fully exposed. We hope it lives.

My our willow tree has grown in just one year!

As the group effort was so wonderful, we all washed up and headed out for huge rewards! First stop, to acquire handfuls of "lickey licks" (ice cream), and head to the water's edge to recover. While there we noticed how lovely the bright blue sky looked against the white pillow puffy clouds to our right, and then when we glanced to our left, what a contrast. A ferocious storm was moving in, and fast!

Gorgeous skies one minute, a fierce storm the next

Not even 20 minutes lapsed between the photos above

Soon afterwards, gusty winds, hail, booming thunder and forks of lightning sounds in the skies and fell to the ground. Yikes!

Tornado warnings were sounding across the airwaves, and on the internet though we never heard or saw them. Just observing the sky we knew it was a scary storm approaching. And it was scary to find out four tornados touched down not far from our home, though no damage was done. We noted many funnel clouds and clouds zooming overhead to shadow that bright blue beautiful sky. Drats! What about my bark mulch I thought. What if the wind blew it all away?

I am happy to report, it rained so hard (monsoon flash flood) it all remained in place. Whew....we are so lucky.