The summer of 2017 was a crazy summer for us. Jim is not normally terribly busy this time of year, but this summer he has been quite steady with work. The kids have had activities and I have not had time to stop and think! Rather I have not had time to stop, regroup and think rational thoughts! I’ve had a lot of thoughts…just not sensible thoughts or thoughts I’d like to share.
I really like quiet summers. Getting up early, getting my chores done, loving on the animals, going for a jog, hopping on a horse and riding toward the sunrise while my kiddos sleep in. Yep, summer mornings are my time. My quiet time. My time to find my sanity, if that’s possible. Ha! Let’s just say that this summer has not been like that for us. So if you connect the dots there, I have not found my sanity all summer. Yeah, sounds about right!
This is the reason I get up early. My sanity is found outside with my animals and a beautiful sunrise with the Lord.
This summer we were blessed with an abundance of rain that really helped the grass grow and helped bring in extra work for Jim as well. However, the down side to more jobs was that Jim and I were both almost too busy to do any work out at the farm. He was trying to fit in any and all jobs that he could to save extra money. It seemed like we were saving some money, but the farm was not making progress at all.
I was supposed to be weed-eating the morning I took this picture. The mother turkey and her 9 little babies were sooo cute hiding in the grass. Even Desi (the horse wearing a mask and resembling a storm trooper) thought the babies were a trip. So, you can see how easily I can get distracted and get behind in my chores…
When Jim wasn’t working, we seemed to have somewhere to be, or grass to mow or fencing work that needed to be done at our house. Or the kids were sick. Or we were just plain tired and needed some down time or family time. A few times we loaded up to head out and do work, but when we got out there it was too muddy to work. Dozers can go through the mud much better than vehicles, but when the grass is growing and it’s really wet, the dozer just ends up tearing up all the grass. And I end up crying. Then Jim spends an hour or two hosing all the mud off his baby dozer while the kids ask if we are done about every other minute and I answer in between sniffles. It’s just not a good scenario.
So, yeah, bottom line was that we didn’t get much of anything done at the farm in June or the beginning of July. My plans, you ask? Oh, they must have gotten lost or something. But we did have a lot of great times this summer. We celebrated Father’s Day and Maleah’s 17 birthday just a week apart.
This is sweet Maleah on the set of her first movie shoot. I really don’t like pictures of myself, but I love the opportunity to spend time with my girl!
My sweet Maleah!
And just for the record, I have NO idea how Maleah got to be 17!! That is just not right!! Let’s move on now before I get emotional, shall we???
Jim wanted a pool for Father’s Day so we got him one of the 14 foot inflatable ones that is about 3 1/2 -4 feet deep. I tried to set it up myself and well,…lets just say that I probably needed an extra set of eyes to judge where the best, level spot was. So, the pool is a little deeper in some places than others. After a hot summer day of yardwork, or running errands, it really doesn’t matter if the pool is completely level though. We just love that we get to jump in and cool off!
A lot of our late afternoons and evenings have been spent in the pool just having fun! No complaints there! It has been a great source of entertainment and enjoyment this summer. Not to mention watching a 2 year old swim like a fish is so COOL! Yes, Camden dives under water and swims probably better than his sisters actually! And they both swim really good. But Camden is a water baby for sure!
This is Camden’s version of a cannonball.
Just for the record, he doesn’t make a very big splash, but we don’t want to hurt his pride or his ego too early in life, now do we?
Maylin likes the water….just a little bit…
…not much really….HA! She’s also not much of a show-off either….
The week of Maleah’s birthday she went with Jim and the youth group at our church to Dollywood. They had tons of fun while Maylin, Camden and I stayed home and had our own version of fun. Then came the farm tours, and Art camps for Maylin, knitting lessons for Maleah, VBS for the whole family, and Painting classes for Maleah and I. Toss in some ear infections, pink eye, and a stomach virus and I think we have summed up our summer pretty well. Well, the summer up until August. August is always our crazy month. Building a house, selling land, birthdays, anniversaries, school…maybe we’ll just leave August for another post, huh?
It all made for a great summer, but it didn’t seem like we got any work done on the farm! Hmmm, how do we catch up now? Sounds like I need to go relax on a float in the pool and figure out a new plan….Excuse me please…..
