stayed home all day!

We are putting up our pool. The sides are up now, the side posts are fastened to the bottom rails...now we have to get more sand before we can put the liner in, which isn't cool, because the sand place isn't open on Sunday. I hope we don't get strong wind and rain, or that pool is going to buckle. And it has been so much work!

Unrolling the side panel of a 27 ft. pool: almost impossible. It is so heavy! Unrolling it and placing it into the bottom rail without taking any toes off any feet: we did it!

So what did I do today? Walked in the morning, swept, cleaned under some living room furniture that I didn't get to yesterday (I don't know why, but the living room just feel so much cleaner when I know it's clean under the couches), did some laundry, helped with the pool, made dinner (boneless chicken thighs baked in Buffalo hot sauce, chicken nugget strips baked with Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce, frozen pizza, and leftover home-made pizza re-heated, green beans) I only had a few thin strips of pizza, just a few tastes. Then I had some French bread croutons dipped in the Buffalo sauce, dang it they were so good.

Anyway, I went on a second walk after dinner, which felt nice.

The little girls are watching, "Rapunzel", with Kathryn. They have only one chapter left of, "Little House On The Prairie", then we start, "On The Banks Of Plum Creek."

They keep busy all day. They dressed up in frilly dresses and danced and had a pretend wedding. Camille asked, "Mama, what does I Thee Wed mean?". They played outside in their Little Tikes houses, which they now want to paint, thanks to Martha, who posted some cool ideas on facebook:). They tried to ride their bikes, they played on the swingset. They helped put up the pool, minimally, but they romped around happily in the wet sand. Margaret went to play with and help with the twins and William. Joseph, Aaron, and Samuel have been working until late at night each day on a tiling job for a church fundraiser. Mirielle is working at the baseball game in the city. Only 8 kids were at the dinner table, and one of those is my niece Olivia.

Did I mention that I love summer? Just the unstructured hours to while away. The luxury of knowing that if we want to do something, we can.

The dog is lying on the couch next to Paul, snoring, and the kitten is lying across my arms purring. He is the nicest little thing.

Right now I am going to get up from my comfy chair and make some popcorn for some kids.