Bright Summer Days

The past two days have been BEAUTIFUL!  I am so glad.  It seems like much of this spring was really cold, wet, and windy.  The kids and I have really taken advantage of this nice weather.  I have taken advantage of their labor and we have done a lot of weeding the past two days.  We have also done some planting, but not as much as I need to do.  I needed to get the weeds out first, though.

With our new summer schedule we spend most of our morning working and most of our afternoons and evenings playing or having free time.  So, after the kids get their jobs done in the house, we head outside.  The girls have been pretty good about helping me pull weeds.  Michael has either spread out our gravel pile or today he was bringing me bottles of water to water the plants I put in.  Rachel just kind of does whatever.  She was helping me pull weeds for a while and she did pretty good.

For family night this week we went over to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for a hot dog roast.  It’s the first one of the season!  Someday I will have our fire pit all set up but for now we go over there.  Grandma also had jumbo marshmallows for dessert!

My dad gave me a bunch of plants that had been abandoned at the high school where he works after school let out.  I’m not really sure what varieties they all are, but there are some bulbs, some other flowers, some tomatoes, and some peppers.  I’ve gotten a lot of them planted, but I’m running out of room since I still need to plant a few other things that I also have in pots.  My dad also got me a flat of cabbage plants.  I think if they make it I will need to learn to make sauerkraut this fall.  I’m not sure what my kids will think of it, but I do like sauerkraut and so does my dad.  Lindsey likes cabbage, but I’m not sure about fermented cabbage….

I finally have some flowers this year!  A friend of mine divided her peony plant a couple of years ago and shared with me.  Last year it leafed out but didn’t bloom.  This year we have one bloom.  I love it!  It’s almost like a rose without the thorns.  I can’t wait until it gets bigger over the years, it’s so pretty!

After a long hot day of working what could be better than running through the sprinklers?  Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the lawn needs watered, too.

The girls also wanted to wade in the ditch.  I told them they could if they cleaned the ditch out.  Here they are taking some debris out of the ditch.  This just may be another activity to do for future hot days.