summer 2011

summer 2011

Paul and I, all 16 kids and Ashley, Benjamin's wife...Christmas 2012

Paul and I, all 16 kids and Ashley, Benjamin's wife...Christmas 2012
family

Sunday, July 3, 2016

summer fun....


Mali brought little Lydia over to visit, I love being Grammy. Lydia is such a sunshine, she comes over here and gets passed around from Cam to Char to Jon to Sonja, Suze, Evelyn, Kathryn...and Emily and Mirielle were also visiting yesterday evening, so they held her too. Paul was also here, Suzanne and I picked him up from the airport yesterday.

Evelyn grilled chicken, we had rice and veggies, and ate on the deck in the warm summer breeze. Some of the girls went to the lake to watch the sunset with one of their friends, and Jon went to the drive-in with some of the boys.

Today we are going on a picnic to the beach on Owasco Lake, then the symphony plays the patriotic music, then fireworks. It's lovely weather, all sunny and warm, and I am very thankful.

Don't get me wrong, ha, it's not ALL sunshine and roses here. We have skunks getting into the garbage every single night, they knock down the cans, even it it has a lid on it, and have a messy feast. We know they're skunks because Joseph saw a few one night, he threw a chair at them, and they didn't seem too fazed. I guess if you are a skunk, and you live near our family, not much scares you. So we have to figure out something do do, besides Paul's suggestion, which is to wait up for them with the rifle, ha. I am tired of picking up the garbage in the mornings.

And, we have something that smells in the living room, we can't find it. Yesterday we moved the furniture, swept, vacuumed, mopped, and still smelled it. It may be a mouse dead in the heat vent, although we had no clues of any mice here. Today we are going to move the bookcases and see if we can figure it out.

We weeded the garden yesterday, Kathryn and Evelyn and Suzanne, Sonja, Jonathan, Char, Cam, and I. Evelyn had her snippers out there, chopping the weeds around the rasberries, and the rest of us weeded between squash and corn and beans and tomatoes. Afterwards we jumped in the pool...

I put flea stuff on the dogs, and they seem to have less. We need to treat the whole yard, as that's where they come from, but I am reluctant to put chemicals on where we walk with barefeet, and play.

Also, both girls failed their driving tests this past week. They'll probably kill me for putting it out here, but it happens. They are both good drivers, but one got nervous, and one almost hit the instructor's car when she was parallel parking, which I watched from the park across the street, oh dear. I have gone through driver's tests with eleven of them now, and some of them took a few, a few had to take it three times, although I think the boys all passed the first time. That's a lot of times to go through this...the nerves before hand, living with the sulky teen who fails...and you know us, we go take the test, then have errands to do after...and there I am, trying not to say the wrong thing, totally understanding that tears want to flow....I hurt with them, although I know better than they do that it's not really the end of the world.

So life isn't all sunshine and roses. But as I sit here in the quiet of the morning, sipping my coffee, the washing machine humming with a load of towels, after taking care of the pool and feeding the pets and taking a shower, I can't complain. The kids will be waking up and talking to me, and no, I can't complain.

3 comments:

FLmom7 said...

An idea you could try for the skunks: we get bears and racoons knocking our huge trash cans over, and our garbage company suggested spraying inside the cans (on top of the trash bags) with diluted Ammonia. I've been doing this for a few months and no animals have gotten into our trash since. Not sure if it would work for skunks, but thought I'd share if it helps. :)

Michelle in FL

Anonymous said...

Oh I totally get the drivers test thing. Not my favorite things. That feeling in your stomach as they are taking the test. Yuck! Julie

16 blessings'mom said...

Michelle, thank you. Paul's going to try the ammonia. He wasted $15 on a bottle of Critter Ridder, which in spite of it's adorable name, was like a big joke, it was more like an invitation to a garbage party at our place. All of the cans were knocked over, even the lucky cans with the lids. See, I purposely didn't clean up the garbage yesterday morning because ha, telling Paul about it is one thing, him having to clean it up is another, and I thought it might get him on board for finding a solution, and it worked.

And Julie, yes, that feeling in the stomach...and two in one week, oh my soul!