Missed Monday Musings

Yep, kinda busy in these parts. Here's why:

The Chairman on Father's Day

Dad D. was here too!

And a birthday!

Happy #11!

I always wish people would ask me the next couple weeks what ages our children are.  Because our "Irish Twins" are the same age.  Kinda neat, eh?

This lovely lady spent some time with us.  How was it?  I'm pretty sure you know the answer.  Look at those faces.

And on top of all that, we went berry picking!  Seventy pounds of berry picking.  In the pouring rain.  It tested the mettle of the MYP here.  They passed after some coercion and a threat or three.  Did you know picking strawberries in the rain gives you super-de-duper soft hands?  I'm not sure why.  Was it the rain?  The berries?  Or the dirt?  But when we came home we all commented that our hands were soft as baby bottoms (without the smell of well... never mind)

Yum!

Some of the finished products

So yes, we've had busy summertime days.  The MYP are continually figuring out how to get this friend or that one over for a visit or an overnight.  Has worked pretty swell actually.

Summertime is so busy though that when you are very occupied with company and friends and berries that other things get neglected like laundry piles and flower beds.  Hard to get all self-satisfied with yourself when you think one job is really done well and you round the bend to see a LOT more to do.  Did I mention that I'm tired tonight?

But!  Tomorrow two are going south of the border and another to another place.  If you do the math that is three kids MIA from our home.  Can you say 'alone-time' with me?  It'll be lovely to have just a few hours to myself.  Then they'll come home and look so cute and I'll have missed them desperately.  Or not.

Our neighbors are moving to England.  A job transfer for about three years.  I found some irony in the fact that the big truck out front was emblazoned with the words, "MAYFLOWER" and a picture of the original one.

So I needed to find a place for all our delicious goods that came out of the strawberry fields.  Dug through the abyss in the basement that's better known as our chest freezer.  Found some french bread from '08.  A turkey breast from who-knows-when.  Some muffins that had shriveled into mini-muffins.  And an oozing bunch of those bright-colored tubes of yuck that you freeze for summertime.  I tried to put it all back neatly and I could here the pyramids falling before I even shut the door.  But at least I got two big garbage bags of icky stuff out of there the night before garbage day.

Did I mention I'm tired tonight?  Oh, sorry.

Lisi has a story to tell, but I'm not sure she's up for the telling.  You see I saw something looking very yucky on the screen porch floor.  Got closer and saw it was... well to put it bluntly, puke.  But it looked like something else.  I got some paper towels to get it and in it was a big rock.  Not just a rock, but one about 2 1/2" in circumference.  Obviously she's not a bright dog to swallow a rock.  But I think we are very, very lucky owners that she was able to hack that thing up and not have it get stuck in her throat or in her digestive tract.  We have no idea how long it's been in there.  But it was big.  And scary after the fact.

On a sweet note... we have Dad and Mom Mallard at the nearby pond with 11 of the cutest little ducklings swimming behind them.  Mrs.  Mallard is very VERY testy if Lisi gets in the water at all nearby.  We've actually trained her to go after geese and not mallards, so she leaves them alone anyway.  Mrs. Mallard isn't convinced though...

And lastly.  On Father's Day the Chairman and I were both in our bathroom brushing our teeth or whatever mundane thing we do as a couple and he said out of the blue, 'you have been really nice today'.  I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.  You mean typically I'm not so nice?  Or I'm being super-nice?  Or?  I smiled and said 'thanks'.  But it did give me a little giggle later.

This is enough.  Lots of musings on a Tuesday.  Did I mention yet that I'm tired?