Happy Monday

What makes me happy?

My pumpkin plants growing big and starting to vine....

(just a little beat up by hail)

... and all the mid-summer blooms.

Here are my "pansies in a cage" (have I mentioned how much deer love pansies?), yes some are "escaping"...

My ancient geranium... this plant is at least 10 years old and still going strong!

And the first few blooms of what will soon be a riot of purple coneflowers. (the white dots on the leaves is deer stopper spray... deer like coneflowers too!)

... and wildflowers of course...

almost hidden in the waist high prairie grass.

Enjoy your day!

no time...

S is still here and both time and energy are in short supply around here. I need to always be in the room when she and M are together and since neither of them likes being outside (and it has been HOT lately) I'm spending a lot of time inside the house... and the outside work has not been getting done. So... I've started heading outside to work early... before they get up... but that's normally my "blogging" time... therefore no blog post today.

Although, I guess this is a post, but this isn't a blog post about anything... just explaining why I'm not able to post...  (Too little sleep makes for convoluted thoughts/sentences!)

S has a pre-placement visit today with a foster family. She's super excited. I'm cautiously hopeful. This family might be wonderful... but they don't really match what the department said they hoped to find for S, and it's not like they are the best option from among several families the department is considering... They are literally the only foster family who could take her right now. So... we'll see.

One more quick note... I changed the settings for my comments because I got some feedback that things weren't working well... Let me know if this is better, and leaving comments easier.

Everyone is still asleep so I'm back outside to get a little more done... (The gardens look like giant mutant weeds are taking over!)

"EYE-oh-way"

I talk a lot about my daughter K who is in the Peace Corps... but I have another traveling daughter, B, who travels all over the U.S. for her work. She is very private person, so I don't post about her much... (I don't think she'd appreciate it. ;) She works on organizing campaigns and fundraising projects and works horrendous hours... but her work makes a difference in the world. We are incredibly proud of her, and all our kids... they have grown to be such amazing people.

Since she is off traveling this week, I thought I'd post this for her:

Can you guess where she is?

*~*daybook*~*

FOR TODAY

Outside my window... I hear the rhythmic sound of the sprinkler watering the garden, the magpies (and their babies) making a racket over something, and the the teapot heating water for my first cup of tea. 

I am thinking... about S. She's still here... partially my decision... they would have moved her last week (in a hurried way, with no transition, to a home too far away to visit) but I told them it was ok to take a little more time to find the best fit possible.

I am thankful... for these few minutes of peace before everyone wakes up.

In the kitchen... after a super busy week last week (and not much cooking) I'm looking forward to being home more this week, and having more time to make good meals.

I am going... up to the Health Sciences Center later for M's appointment with the spine doc. Hopefully (HOPEFULLY!) he'll get the ok to stop wearing his back brace. Hopefully (HOPEFULLY!) it's good news, that his back is healing properly.

I am wondering... if there is a reason I wasn't able to sleep last night and felt so strongly that I needed to pray for a person I used to know.

I am reading... The Good House, and O Pioneers! (by Willa Cather). I picked up the first book at the library yesterday just for a light read, I started Willa Cather a few days ago... her books are "comfort" reads for me.

I am hoping... they find a good home for S soon.

I am learning... patience, and that M and R can be very resilient when they have to be.

In the garden... the pumpkins are really starting to take off, the onions, peppers and tomatoes look good... but have been slow. I think all our cool, wet weather has slowed them down.

One of my favorite things...

Peonies.... they remind me of my mom...



This was the best year yet for my peonies... we had so many blooms!

A few plans for the rest of the week... we need to get down to Castle Rock and get new glasses ordered for both M and R, work at the thrift store, M's doctor appointment and S's case in court both this morning (we aren't going to court) and maybe... if I'm lucky... a little time to get caught up on all the yard work that hasn't been getting done lately!!

______________________________

Visit Peggy's blog for more about The Simple Woman's Daybook

Happy 4th of July!!

Let the flag waving, parade going, hot dog eating, fireworks watching, day begin!

(And just for fun, can you pass this U.S. citizenship test?)

Thrifting Thursday (vintage fisher-price)

Finally!

I've been looking for a vintage Fisher Price little people dollhouse for awhile now and I finally found one at Goodwill... for $3.99.



I've had the vintage little people barn and some of the animals for awhile now...



They came into the thrift store M works at and I snapped them up immediately. I think the barn kind of looks like ours...






Complete with barn art and bird's nests!






But I couldn't find a house to go with it.

Until now...



Of course, this is the second time I've purchased both these items... Our "big kids" had the house, barn, garage, and village little people sets (also purchased from thrift stores) back when they were tiny. As they outgrew them, and I wanted the space all those toys took up for other things, I got rid of them. (a definite lack of foresight)

I always liked those old little people sets though... I love the cool little furniture, and various expressions on the people's faces, and the neat way everything fit together to store away.



My "new" house could use a little more furniture (I'll keep watching thrift stores) but otherwise I'm set... I have no desire to collect them... I'm happy with just the house and the barn.

Despite the fact that my "babies" are now 21 and 17, the house just looks more like a home with a few toys here and there....

Postcrossing update

Back last fall, we went to a co-op class through our homeschool group that was all about Postcrossing.

Postcrossing is an online project that lets you: "send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person in the world!". Which means each time I send a postcard to a postcrossing member, I will receive a postcard back from another postcrossing member. (You can read more about how it works here.)


When I went on Postcrossing the other day to register a postcard I'd received, I realized we'd hit a milestone... we've sent and received 50 postcards!

I do love facts and figures... so you can imagine the fun I had checking out our "stats"...

We joined postcrossing 266 days ago, so it took just about 9 months to hit the 50 postcard milestone... Since the more cards you send, the more you can have traveling at one time, we should hit our next big milestone of 100 cards in about half that time.

Since we began postcrossing the cards we've sent have traveled 232,569 miles (or 374, 284 km). 

We've received cards from 24 different countries (including the U.S.). We've received the most cards from Russia and Germany (7 from each) and have gotten cards from as far away as Malaysia (9,358 miles) and as close as Sioux Falls, South Dakota (635 miles). 

Postcrossing started as a school activity, but the kids quickly got tired of writing and addressing the cards, so I sent them out now.  We all enjoy receiving them though, and our postcards live in a big dough bowl on the dining room table where we can look through and enjoy them often...

Here are some favorites...

I love these cards with donkeys... (the card on the left is from Germany, the one on the right is from Lithuania)



The kids like this one from Barcelona.. it reminds them of Harry Potter.



Our cards from Germany:



And our Russian cards:



Isn't this one from Czechoslovakia pretty? I like it's unique shape too...



And our map cards... Joe likes these a lot...



We love getting mail and this has been such a fun activity... often we get out the globe or go online to learn about where the cards are from... it's truly been something that all of us have enjoyed.



Has anybody else out there discovered postcrossing? Leave a comment and let me know! With 478,000 postcrossing members worldwide, I'm sure at least a few have found their way to my little blog...