EKjourney Backup

Today was a calorie burning day!  Our neighbor got a dumpster and only filled it about 2/3rds full and offered the rest of the space to us.  It was too good of an opportunity to pass up.   Here is the huge dumpster!  My arms hurt from hoisting load after load of yard waste, old building material, misc garbage and broken stuff, toys, wood pieces, etc..  Phil took over the heavy labor in the afternoon  (thank goodness, I was pooped!). The side shed space was a disaster! After clean up and weeding, we raked down the leftover pile of hog's fuel and made the pathway look nice.   Finally, garbage cans hidden behind the fence.  This area was full of broken brick, garbage, roofing materials, and rocks.  We managed to get everything tossed or organized.  Then we weeded and raked out the space. We cleaned up this area and the children helped me haul all the good bricks up here.  Now I am ready to lay the pathway. I am so looking forward to ha...

This isn't exactly a Thursday picture more like a "when the weather warms up picture".   This is what our children's feet look like from the time the weather is warm enough for bare feet until the cold/rain forces them into shoes.  Even the evening scrub down after a day outside doesn't quite wash away the stains of good ol' dirt play! This Thursday was take your children to work day.  I had a very rare quiet morning as the older four were up with Phil at the classroom and Glorielle was here at home napping.  By the time I had set up for a crafting time, I had a good hour to work uninterrupted, followed by another hour at rest time (although this wasn't uninterrupted, it was less so than normal!).  Anyway, I decided to quilt and hem a swaddle blanket that I started for Glorielle a few months ago.  I was given some green flannel receiving blankets and bought a few yards of fabric to piece toget...

A beautiful day at the beach, followed by two 80 degree days at home working in the garden?  How will we ever go back to cloud cover and rain after this?? Warm weather = good snake hunting  Weeding   The currants, gooseberries, and kiwis all have blossoms.  As do the apples, pears, cherries, plum, and fig.  Our trees are still young and we have not had a great deal of success with cherries but we are hoping to get some fruit this year!  Oregon Sugar Pod is 1-2" taller than the rest of the peas.  I also have in shelling, sugar snap, and two varieties of sweet peas.  Shameful!! We are hoping to put in 4-5 blueberry bushes in here eventually and a weed barrier. Simply Shameful The second layer is suppose to be my strawberry patch.  The bank on the left collapsed in and buried half of them.  The asparagus have all died.  This particular patch of garden has been very difficult to maintain.  The weeds are atrocious and...

Over Spring Break, we had wanted a beach adventure and the forecast for the weekend was so inviting, we decided to make a day of it!  We meandered our way to the beach, stopping at garage sales along the way.  We spent the late afternoon/evening beach combing and playing in the sand.  We had a very late dinner, tailgate style, and headed for home just after sundown. We might be a bit adventured out after 2 long Saturdays in a row.  A family adventure means quite a bit of work for Mommy and Daddy!                        

       

Isn't this a lovely little bit of craftiness? The paint (poured inside a glass bottle) took almost 2 weeks to dry and kept sliding off the glass, leaving streaks.  I attempted to remedy the situation and ruined one of my wooden handled spatulas in the process, even Phil got involved in trying to get the paint to stick.  The dandelion puffs were made while listening to a screaming baby who had been so crabby all day that I finally just put her down on the floor with some toys and sat next to her and let exercise her lungs a bit.  You would never know that I trimmed the puffballs down with great vigor and ringing ears and that I breathed in so much cotton fluff that my nose was stuffy till the following morning. No, crafting is not a steaming cup of tea, sunlight streaking through the window, birds singing, and whatever else is lovely....sometimes, crafting has a dark side!

We thought a family adventure might be nice so we spontaneously decided that a trip to the high desert at Smith Rock would be our destination.  We packed up day bags, snacks, and dinner, loaded up in the car and drove off toward the mountains. Big Cliff Dam, Detroit Lake  The mountain view We saw this tank as we passed through Redmond at the National Guard station. The directions were, put your hands down, and look at Mommy.  There are 8 eyes and only 1 of them is open.  B immediately put his hands in the air .  I am going to go with he didn't get the directions.  LOL! The view from the top of the trail.  Climbers  We stopped and watched these climbers. You can appreciate the massiveness of these cliffs when you see how small the climbers are against the sheer face.    We so appreciated the sky.  Puffy clouds rolled in and out but there was constant blue and warm radiating sunshine.  We have had such wet dark weather ...