a bit of this and that

The first picture up there is a collection of vintage sheets and pillowcases that I have picked up at the thrift store over the past year. Well, I have purchased more than that, but I've actually used some of those vintage linens for their intended purchase ~ on our beds.

That stack is what I intend to use for my quilt. I want to make a big, comfy quilt. A quilt that two (or more) can cuddle up under. A quilt that the kids and I can snuggle under during our read-aloud time. It's gotta be something simple to make since I don't have the time nor do I have the desire to start a project that is going to overwhelm me or take a ridiculous amount of time to complete. Something like this or even simpler like this one, perhaps.

My parents opened their pool over the weekend. That means we've been down there every day since. The kids didn't care that the water was only seventy degrees the first day. After being cooped up for the last umpteenth months, they've been impatiently waiting for the pool to open all spring.

Yesterday, however, it was a nice balmy ninety-three. That's more my speed. I took them down in the afternoon for several hours, toting along my crochet and knitting projects. They swam. I crocheted. And then we all went back down after dinner. I wasn't going to swim. I didn't even take my swimsuit along. But my niece and nephew (ages four and two, respectively) wanted to get in and their mom and dad were busy. I felt really bad that they were just hanging out watching my kids splash and have fun so I thought I would just let them play on the steps. Yeah, that didn't last long with an adventurous, fearless toddler. I might have started on the steps with my shorts rolled up as high as I could safely get them, but I ended up just jumping in with the rest. I'm glad I did.

I spent an amazing hour in God's Word yesterday morning. It was one of those perfect mornings ~ the rain was pouring down, I had a cup of hot coffee, the kids were still sleeping. I sat out on the back deck listening to the rain falling and the chickens squawking (a sound I've grown to love) with my Bible and a study on the Holy Spirit spread out before me. It was a very spiritually refreshing time. Honestly, it had been a while since I had sat down for that long of a time span and just spent time reading God's Word and letting it speak to me. And at the end, I asked myself why I'm so quick to neglect that area of my life? It's such an amazing way to start each day. That quite time grounds me.

I recently restocked my yarn supply. I was running very low on project yarn. Project yarn is the yarn I use to crochet or knit items I sell on Etsy or at craft fairs. I buy it with the intention of turning into something profitable. I also have fun yarn that I buy for myself. But this restock was purchased with an intended use ~ to restock my shop and my inventory for this fall. I really do have to work on this all year round. Two years ago when I had my open house, I waited until two months before to stock up, and that was such a huge mistake. Talk about stress. Nope. Never again. Now I keep at it steady, working on a little bit almost every day. As the time gets closer to the fall, I will start to schedule two-hour increments of time each day that I will devote purely to my business. I just found that this works best for me and my family.

I'm enjoying monitoring the progress in my raised beds each morning. It's so exciting to see all the little green tips poking up out of the ground. I already have a prolific amount of oregano, sage, and spearmint. We've been eating green onions for a couple of weeks (in fact, it's time to plant more), and our cucumber hanging baskets are already producing cukes! Those were an experiment this year. We have cucumber plants in our big garden, but they never really do as good as I hope. Our local nursery had cucumber hanging baskets available this year so I purchased two. It's just important to keep on top of watering them which may be a bit of a challenge.

Despite of all of the swimming and outdoors play, we are still keeping up with some learning this summer. We're doing a botany study for science this summer. I figured that there's no better time to study botany than during the summer when we have so many plants and flowers readily accessible in our backyard. I'm using this curriculum (I love the Young Explorer's Series) as well as this journaling notebook for each kid.

Ian's been spending most of his free moments with a book in hand. I found a treasure trove of the old Hardy Boys books at our library's book sale in the spring. Although they didn't have the complete set, I bought what they had which was twenty of the books. Ian's been devouring them. I think he just finished the tenth book. He definitely takes after me with reading.


One of my favorite online sources for yarn: Craftsy
Knitted bunny: Simply Playing
Embroidered Lamp Shade: IKEA
Romans 8:38 Print: French Press Mornings
Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan - Free to borrow on the Kindle with a Prime Membership; only $4.99 otherwise

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