Late Summer Outside

As summer winds down and school starts again, morning begins a little earlier each day mostly for the sake of routine and not due to needing to catch a bus.  But it makes for viewing very beautiful sunrises. 

Our false sunflowers are loving the heat and height of summer. 

We'll have to get in here and thin the herd sometime soon. 

Gigantic and armored moths are a thing here. 

I know the caterpillars have stripped my mighty dill to nothing now. 

The evenings are still warm enough to insist on staying out a little longer. 

And days are vibrant. 

And we'll enjoy the color and warmth for a little longer, while we start to think about dormant grass and autumn fires against cool evenings here soon. 

First Day of School 20-21

Like all the cool kids, we have first day of school pictures from inside the classroom this year.  Nick got started two weeks before the others this time. 

I was unaware that a fork was part of the school supply list. 

But the girls ate breakfast in bed nearly up to starting time before running off to their separate rooms to begin class together but not in the same room. 

And Ben was a mixture of smiling for me and looking sad to begin again, particularly like this. 

As the cafeteria worker, I had lunch ready.  Although this really only takes care of 2.5 days....

As the IT department, Patric and I failed at tech upgrade in preparation for five people in Zoom meetings daily.  Nick took his first high school exam on his iPhone.  sigh.  But we got it fixed within a day.  We're learning. 

As social worker, I am available all day, every day with open office hours since no one has a similar schedule to another.  With no friends to catch up with, the traditional passing in the hall is now switched for coming by and chatting with me.   When I am cafeteria worker, this schedule doesn't work at all--4 kids in 3 different lunch periods that span 2 and a half hours each day. 

After crashing all the internet by logging into Zoom calls separately and then getting on face time with each other during the first 5 minutes of class, we had to put some rules in place.  So Alida immediately started sending her sister pictures during class instead of face timing with her. 

And it took the first roll call for Alida to show her boredom. 

July 3: the power line for the garage, 

met the water line for the house. 

That was a fun day.

And we decided we could do the painting ourselves, thank you. 

And so that happened during a heat wave. 

And the four were champions.

That is Ben holding the ladder over the power line ditch to ensure his brother doesn't sink/tumble into the earth. 

And it turns out we don't do too bad. 

But then monsoon afternoons hit right as you get to the last little bit and the columns will apparently never be stained on this our now garage/gym/provide some shade in this backyard/everything else place.

Covid Must Stop Now

A 14-year-old boy's pizza selection. 

Afternoon snack: churros

Crème Brulee

On a Tuesday

Because we ran across the torch,

and thought that would be fun to use. 

That's How the Garden Grows

With all the rain, we have had herb gardening success, to say the least. 

The bottom row are the herbs after being cut back recently.

They are now hanging around in my kitchen to dry.  

The children believe we are now witches. 

And potatoes have arrived.  

They were amazing in walleye chowder.

A Little Rain

On a normal day, you can see the culvert in our ditch. 

On normal days recently, you can't see the culvert in our ditch. 

The neighbors seem to have a lake. 

But all this weather makes for amazing sunsets.

This was all pre-Isaias hurricane.  We'll see what happens today.

A Birthday!

After getting home from vacation, we dropped the car, picked up the dog and cat, got some milk and prepared for the girls' birthday the next day. 

I'm not going to lie, when Alida showed up wanted to help make her cake, I was relieved. 

We moved and were here 8 months before Covid shut down the world. 

It isn't all bad that they don't have a huge cadre of friends here yet that they are missing now, and one guest for the day was perfectly lovely!

Ben hung the streamers.  It was certainly at the girls height...even if it looked a little like a crime scene.

Happy Birthday Elaine!

(I cannot take credit for that cake, which was beautiful!)

Happy Birthday Alida!

We totally take credit for the soda pop cake with strawberries and cool whip frosting that we call Slawberry cake here.  

And some cute little cupcakes to blow on since we're all being super clean these days. We probably could have moved the cakes some distance away from the blowing while we were at it, but we just get excited sometimes.