Lego oil well~
Renae saw this idea on Pinterest for patching a hole, so she promptly patched a hole in a pair of her everyday jeans. She used a scrap of fabric we had and embroidered the flowers. I was impressed. She’s so much craftier than I am. I think she inherited some of my sister’s hands-on ability. I was just chatting with Renae about how fun it is to see characteristics and differences and what we each enjoy. I was thinking about it because we had a birthday party for my sister-in-law last week and it made me think about how much I enjoy the details of tea parties and setting the table and using pretty dishes and fun stuff. Renae likes it , but not like I do. She noted that I would notice table settings at other places much more than she would. Renae has always enjoyed crafty and artsy stuff. I love seeing what she makes, but I wouldn’t find myself doing the stuff she does. Planning to post pics of the party table at some point!
It’s the August flexi! Check the cute little danglie!
Summery Strawberry Candle! Yum!
Hydrangeas! So beautiful! I really want to try growing them somewhere around our place. They are so gorgeous.
Bridge construction! They are tearing out a bridge not too far from us and we buzzed over to check it out. We kept hearing the noise and thumps as they broke up the cement. And we’ve had more traffic by our house because of the detour. You know you live in the country on a secluded road when your daughter says, “Yeah, I’ve seen five strange vehicles go by!”
Our road was also quite Highway 101 the first couple days of the week. The phone company was trenching along it running phone lines a couple of miles on down to a new home that was put in a while back.
On a completely different note, if you are craving a purple icee pop, you might want to stop on by. I found five floating around in our basement freezer and I know they’ve been in there for a loooong time. Apparently, purple is not THE favorite.
I’m so excited to have enough cucumbers to start a batch of pickles this week. We just opened our last jar. We don’t eat cucumbers, {and I don’t even eat pickles}, but my family does like homemade sweet pickles. My in-laws eat cucumbers and Mom always grows them and I often get some from her to do pickles. She hasn’t had a very big garden this year because she’s had back trouble. I was going to plant some cucumbers and then that didn’t happen. I thought I probably wasn’t going to get to make any pickles this year. Mom did plant one cucumber plant in a pot and it is producing enough that she asked me the end of the week if I wanted cucumbers. I didn’t think there was any chance she’d have enough for me to do pickles, so hadn’t even asked her about it! I was thrilled! Amazing how much just one plant can do!
Speaking of produce, we got Colorado peaches the end of the week. Another event of summer we always look forward to! Fresh peaches rock!
Homemade ketchup! Isn’t this adorable? A birthday gift from a friend. I want to make ketchup now, just to put it in cute bottles. My friend said her mom always bottled homemade ketchup this way. I’d never seen it like this and just love the idea! I’ve never made ketchup, but I would enjoy trying it. I do some home canning and freezing and enjoy it. I like trying things out. Quite a few years ago I made homemade peach pie filling. It was fun to do and very yummy! I wouldn’t want to make everything all the time, but I definitely like trying something new every so often. Last year, I made homemade salsa for the first time ever. It was fun and relatively easy, and BONUS, we really, really liked it. I made spaghetti sauce one year and I didn’t like it.
See? I like setting my table and I like taking pictures to remember the look and time. Not that I do anything so astounding, it’s just one of my things! Fun evening with friends and eating hamburgers and homemade ice cream.
Talking about table settings has me thinking about finding some old photos of a mother/daughter teaparty I had back when my daughter wasn’t almost as tall as me. It would be fun to dig them out and post them.
Anyone have a good synonym for fun? When I blog, I feel like I so overuse the word fun. But a lot of the details I want to journal are fun and I don’t know what else to use, so I keep just using fun. It works! 🙂
In not-so-fun news, Tucker had some kind of rash on his face last week. We think it was either poison ivy or impetigo. He looked pretty rough for several days and didn’t feel the best for a couple. It was itchy and bothersome. Thanks to some essential oils and Nature’s Poison Ivy Relief and time and the healing God has equipped our bodies with, he is almost over it.
We had rain again! It seems it is almost a weekly occurrence now that it has started raining.
The basement cupboard doors are completed! {Except for a couple of knobs.} Another post to come………..
Tucker had a really good joke and one-liner on me. I loved it, because it is so my sense of humor and it took me by surprise when he came up with it, amid chortles! He and I helped Grandma pick up a chair from the room of our great-aunt at the assisted living home. Her room is in the Alzheimer’s unit of the home. To enter or exit, you have to key in a door code. As we were leaving we noticed the signs that said “Please make sure doors have closed securely and no residents follow you out.” We were talking about it a little as we walked to the car. We got the chair loaded and were climbing into the Suburban and buckling our seat belts, when Tuck started laughing in my direction and said, “Look Grandma, a resident followed us out!!!” It was quite funny. I told him, “Yep! And you better watch out because the resident is driving you!”
I updated my Peanut Butter Rice Krispy recipe post to include a link to another recipe on another blog. I found the recipe on Pinterest a few weeks ago and have tried it out a couple of times. It is yummy! Rice Krispies with Reese cups in the middle! Seriously, how can you go wrong there, unless you just don’t like peanut butter. The recipe called for chocolate on top. I almost didn’t do it , but decided to follow it the first time I made them. I did them again and omitted the chocolate on top and I prefer them that way. If you try them, come tell me sometime, what you liked best!
My man hauled rock the beginning of the week and I rode along, looking like a tourist with my camera on one shoulder and my bag on the other.
I know I keep getting a bit better each week. This week I noted that I put clean sheets on our bed ALL BY MYSELF for the first time in 2 1/2 months. Back in May and June, my daughter and niece put on the clean sheets whenever we washed them and since then my daughter or husband has helped me. It sounds like a small thing, but making the whole bed by myself looked too big. Our mattress is thick and it is heavy, even to lift and tuck in the corners of the sheets and blanket. This week I made it up without waiting till someone was available to help! I love clean, freshly-washed sheets! Another of my favorite things!
Here’s wishing you a good week filled with some of your favorite things or even just the realization of how much you enjoy something!

Your kids are so crafty/creative!!!
And I’m glad you are feeling more like your old self!
Thank-you, I am glad, so glad too, to keep feeling better.
It is fun to see the personalities and abilities God has given each of us and to enjoy the things kids do!
So very glad you keep improving!
Love the lego oil well. And of course I’m delighted that Renae likes crafty stuff 🙂 Ilike fun table settings too – it’s been way too long since I set one up.
I’d love to try those Rice Krispy Squares – but alas it’s not on my new eating plan 🙁
Me too!
I loved your space at the Summer Market Vendors. Setting it up would be as much fun as setting a table!
Love Tucker’s joke! Fun sense of humor.
Haha! Me too!