A Sunday at Home

**Be prepared for a completely and utterly random post :o). **

I get to stay home today with a sick little one. Squirt is under the weather with a summer cold. She is currently still sleeping and is running a temperature. Not a good combination for going to church I don't think. Once the rest of the family heads out the door, I will revel in the peace and quiet with God's word and a big glass of  water (I already had a big cup of coffee).

Right now I am savoring a book called Decorating Year Round  from Better Homes and Gardens. I am not a decorator. My mom will attest to that one. I drive her crazy with my sharp angles on  knic knac placement. She loves to rearrange it when she has the opportunity. It suits me just fine -- except that I'm so clueless I always put it back in the wrong spot. Right mom ;o)?!

I am gleaning ideas for the addition/remodel of our home. At the rate we're moving right now, it doesn't sound like it will be done before the arrival of our daughters. However, we will be sure to have their room ready for them, so that they don't have to experience anymore moves for a long long time. We are thrilled that considering what they have been through in their short little lives that they are healthy (albeit tiny) and tough psychologically. We're all so excited to hopefully have them home with us by Christmas. What a blessing and joy that will be!

It's been a busy couple of weeks here. The birthday of our firstborn daughter, Miss Peach, was on Friday the sixteenth. She is such a sweet, helpful, and funny young lady. The Engineer and I took her out for a smoothie last Saturday morning and he asked her if she had any big plans for her last year of childhood. She looked at him blankly and shrugged her shoulders. So, no, no big plans for this year. I hope she will just continue to enjoy her childhood and retain the sweet innocence that she still has. She is such a blessing to us!

Last week Friday night was the closing program for VBS at one of our local churches. The girls had the opportunity to attend VBS again this year for the first time in two years and loved every minute of it. I was in day two of a three day migraine, but managed to make it through. The Engineer took me in later that night for shot number two. I slept great, but woke up with it again on Saturday. Somehow I managed to make it through Saturday and by mid afternoon, it had finally abated. What a relief that was!!

I spent a couple of days completing the weeding of the vegetable garden. It looks awesome!! My goal this week is to get the strawberries moved to their new location more towards the front of the garden. Hopefully despite being moved, they will produce as well next spring as they did this spring.

Speaking of the garden, we are beginning to enjoy a harvest. I already have zucchini (summer squash) coming out of my ears. Time to start making zucchini loaves and muffins, and freezing some too. We enjoyed fresh spinach last week, but it's been so hot here this summer that it bolted before we could really eat it all up. I will let it seed itself for now and hopefully we will be able to enjoy another crop before the snow flies (perish the thought!!!). It's also time to start eating (and freezing) the Swiss chard.(I need to find a few more recipes using Swiss chard).  Our blackberry bushes are loaded!! I hope we can get to them before the cedar waxwings decide to eat them all. I am looking forward to making blackberry jelly. I am still waiting for my first ripe tomato...

Our microwave died this past week. What a pain! You don't realize how much you actually use it until it stops working. This is our fourth microwave that has come to a demise. Two other ones went the same route as this one, and one's life ended abruptly due to some incorrect wiring in our home that was thankfully fixed before anything more serious happened. That was a scary reveal!

In the meantime, my dad fixed our central air! We are so relieved!! I thought I was enduring the heat and humidity quite well, but on Friday, the humidity had reached an all time high. It might as well have been raining the humidity was that high. We went to the Big City with my parents, but as soon as we arrived home, my dad got to work replacing the second burned out motor. He was pleased to have another motor come through his shop that he knew worked, so he installed it in our unit and HOORAY it worked!! Now I don't instantaneously wilt when I do anything inside. I think the heat was getting to me more than I realized -- even with the pool because all I've want to do since then is sleep.

Remember our kamikaze cardinal? He has long since been named Carl and his mate is Carli. He stills visits our windows several times a day everyday. We enjoy his birdsong off and on all day and on occasion, we see Carli stop by for a visit too. Although these days she seems content to sit in the crimson king maple and watch Carl's antics at the window. It's almost like having a pet bird, but better because there is no work involved :o).

Yesterday was still very humid, but overcast and a little drizzly. The kids had their first swim meet of the year and all four participated without a peep. In fact, I think they all quite enjoyed themselves. Bub and his teammate, F were the only two boys competing in their age group, so it was consistently F first and Bub second. They have a great camaraderie those two, so we teased them about how Bub would have to go home and start lifting weights if he is going to out swim F. The boys will be attending high school together in the fall and will be on the swim team there together too. What a great motivation for both of them.

Speaking of high school in the fall, we went to the Big City to buy a few pieces for his school uniform. Friends
of ours that are much farther ahead in the child rearing years  have their baby boy heading off to university in the fall, so he didn't need his uniforms anymore. She kindly gave us several pieces to get Bub started in his high school career. He is now quite excited about high school. While we were there, we bought back packs for all four children. If you're ever in need of good quality lifetime guaranteed backpacks, you need to buy  the JanSport brand. There are tons of colours, styles, and sizes to choose from at a little bit of a hefty price (comparable to Land's End), but it's a piece of mind knowing they won't go through a backpack a year. I remember those days... (I know, you're wondering why backpacks for all four children. I'll leave that for a separate post ;o)).

Today started out dark and dismal, but the clouds are breaking up and the sun is beginning to shine. The humidity has finally fled. It looks like it is going to be a beautiful Sunday. I must go get started on my day! May you all have a blessed Sunday!