Vacation

Tomorrow morning we're leaving for here:See you later!

Summer

This picture makes me feel that summer is really, truly here. Homegrown organic vegetables that I personally tended are pictured to the left. Yum.

The garden is really beginning to be productive. I'm already wondering how to use up all of the zucchini. This is a good problem to have.

M's cast has come off. He is extremely happy, because now he can scratch. Poor kid had a heat rash underneath the cast. This is not a surprise, as we have had an extremely hot summer. He is now in a splint to protect the bone (4 weeks cast, 2 weeks, splint), but it is an improvement. Showers (not that he cares) and swimming are now completely allowed, as the splint can come off.

However, that is not what made him happiest. He went to camp right after the cast came off. He knows half of the counselors already, all of the summer staff, and a good part of the other boys. Bouncing does not begin to describe his happiness at being cast-free. We managed to get him to camp just before dinner, so the rest of us also stayed to eat. L is disappointed that he isn't allowed to stay. He knows everyone, too, after all. L's the darling of the counselors and the staff, too. He was almost ready to take some of the staff's offers to let him stay with them. He decided that he probably should come back home with us, finally.

Somehow I am going to ride my bike tomorrow. It will be beastly hot, but I'll figure out something.

Oh--the consecration of the church went extremely well. It's beautiful, and it already feels like God lives there. Good things can come to those who wait and hope. It may take awhile, but it does happen, eventually.

Lazy week

I haven't done as much as I thought I would. I wound resting because of this stupid cough.

I only was able to ride my bicycle twice. But I did get in 30ish miles.

I finished the Badcaul sock. Here it is, in all of its glory:
Since I am a person who can't stand to have things unfinished (well, for pairs of socks, anyway), I have cast on and completed the second toe.

The boys will be home soon. I miss them. The dogs miss them. But it was nice that we all had a break from each other.

The garden is doing pretty well. I have picked two tomatoes, and have a few that will be ready soon.

The church is more or less finished and is being dedicated tomorrow at 4:00 pm. Finally!

Before everyone arrives, I have to go to the grocery store, so this is where I'll stop. Hope you all have a great weekend.

MY Vacation

My real vacation is this week. The boys are at G&G's going to zoo camp. I am not at G&G's, so...

It's been a nice quiet week, so far. Yesterday, I went to weed the garden without help (well except for the Ipod) and managed to weed all of what I have left (the corn was MOWED DOWN), so it looks pretty good at the moment. Here's the first fruit of my garden:Tonight we are going to have it on pizza. I have a tomato that will be ready to be picked soon. I'm trying to decide what fall crops I'm going to plant when we get back from Pawleys.

B and I also were able to go out for dinner without any distractions, which was also nice.

I was going to ride my bike today, but there's so much rain that I think I'm going to wait. If it clears up, maybe I can go after dinner or something.

I should be turning the heel on my new socks today. It will be my first short row heel. I hope that it goes well.

Summertime and the living is easy?

Not here, it's not.

This week has been extremely busy. I spent lots of time trying to weed the vegetable garden (and still haven't weeded all of the corn) just to see new weeds grow. On the bright side, we have blooms on all of the vegetables, so we should see some produce soon. We also had a good soaking rain, which helps considerably. And I've finally been able to get back on the bike, which really improves my mood a lot.

L has decided to knit again. He's knitting a washcloth:










and a blanket (?)






I've been knitting, too. I've been working on the socks from my secret pal (the pattern is Badcaul) and I'm about halfway to the heel. I have never knit short row heels before, so that will be new. The lower picture is a close up of the stitch pattern.

I am also working on the shawl (it's bigger, just looks the same) and the Kilt Hose for P. I have 4 more inches on the leg of the Kilt Hose before I am ready for the heel on that sock. I think that they are really nice.

M is busy too--but I'm not sure if he's doing the driving crazy or being driven crazy.

The church is coming along. It's still not quite finished, but it's getting close.

Things that I like

1. An I-pod to listen to while I weed our (gigantic) vegetable garden.

2. Garden shoes that I can just hose off.

3. Learning new things, such as how to start toe-up socks. (Sorry secret pal, I didn't do a Turkish cast on--I don't have two size 1 circular needles--but I did learn the figure 8 cast on). The yarn is from my Secret Pal. It's been fun so far.

4. Making stitch markers. You can't have enough, because they walk away (just like cable needles).

5. Knowing that I'm going on a group bike ride tomorrow.

6. Having a minor bicycle accident (my shoes caught on the clips and I fell over) and even though I had bruises and abrasions, deciding I needed another couple of miles, anyway. (This really wasn't as bad as my wreck last year. I just have spectacular bruises!)

7. A break in the weather.

8. L deciding that he "needs to" knit a washcloth. He still needs lots of help (fine motor skills are waaaaay behind), but he has two rows finished.

9. Gatorade.

10. Lara bars--they are gluten and soy free and easy to stick in my jersey pockets. Yum.

Happy, happy Kate

Independence Day

Happy 4th to all of you!

It's hot here--really hot. Yesterday, the thermometer in the back yard read 100 degrees. This morning when I finally dragged myself out of bed, it was 82 degrees already. No bike ride today. It's too hot already and since I've caught a cold from a camper, I decided I didn't need that too.

Yesterday was B's and my 14th wedding anniversary. M and L were impressed, as they haven't been alive nearly that long. We didn't do much (too tired from camp last week) but had a nice evening at home (well, if you include coughing on the couch). We grilled steaks, had salads, and ice cream (no celebration is complete without ice cream), let the boys watch a movie upstairs, and B and I watched Le Tour de France.

Oh, we lead such exciting lives.

The other things that have happened around here is that I ripped the toe and cuff of M's smaller sock and reknit it. See?
I just couldn't leave them different sizes. It made my head hurt.

The wrap that I'm knitting is now 22 inches long. It's really boring to knit, but it looks nice, anyway. I've ripped out the intarsia part of the baby blanket and I'm just going to make it striped. I'm also going to rip out the sweater I'm making for B and using a different pattern. The stitch is a pain and boring, but really all of the increases are done on the wrong side, so making the increases fit into the pattern involved a lot of ripping and so on. I found another pattern which will be better.

And the biggest news: The new church building will be completed on Friday, July 7. We will have our dedication service on July 16. Finally.

Home again!

We've all survived camp!

Some of us had more rest than others.

All of us hiked, some of us swam, and some of us played 4-square obsessively. We even made hats! I can't share too many pictures, as I don't have permission from a lot of the people/parents in the photos, but here are a couple of photos to share.

It was a good week, and I'd like to do it again next year. But for now, I'm tired so maybe I'll write about more later.