it's so awful, but I can't look away...

But I CAN look at my pool. Don't you love the black duct tape around the filter hose? Paul's a genius, a fixer. He doesn't care how it looks though. Which has been a teensy bit of a problem for me through the years, but I'm still alive and kicking, and what doesn't kill you or irritate you to death, makes you stronger, and hopefully more thankful...? He fixes something, works so hard, then looks at me and says, "It's fine, right?" Well, yes, it IS fine. The window he replaced in the kitchen several years ago IS fine. It doesn't match the other windows in the kitchen, and it's a new building window, not a replacement window, so it didn't fit right, so the molding never got put back on around it, and sometimes I look at it, and it FEELS like it's gonna kill me, but it hasn't yet, so I just forget about it, and focus on good things. And he patched the hole in the pool, so I love him forever for that.

But the news lately, so awful. Does anyone else out there just get a sinking feeling sometimes, reading it? (We don't watch television news, our t.v. is ONLY on when we purposefully want to watch something, then we turn it back off. No droning on in our home, commercials, what are they?). But the news, if feels like the Twilight Zone, or Groundhog Day, or a big joke. It goes on and on, this virus, and more and more rights are infringed on, more divisiveness between political parties...here in NY, the gov and his posse are having a new-law-making fest.

In the grocery store yesterday, there were so many empty spots on the shelves. Aldi puts out these ads with all these wonderful summer items, but are they in the stores? Barely! You can't find a pool float to save your life. I actually paid ten bucks for one in the grocery store, there were only three left.

Evelyn Joy went on an adventure with me yesterday afternoon: to get some pallets. We fit 20 in the back of the truck.


So here's what's going on: our kids are going to a summer camp at church! Some friends from Connecticut and Michigan are coming too, there'll be around 100 of them. The Ohio and Delaware kids can't come, unfortunately, due to travel restrictions. Now, before you get all Karen-y on me, this is a plan that has been APPROVED of by the county health department. The kids are in small groups, and will stay in cabins with their small group, drive to activities with those groups, eat meals with them, ect. They CAN be with others, outside, and with masks on. The whole place has been cleaned and disinfected, which is what the kids have been so busy with. Emily and Mariel are making meals, tonight Paul and I are going to help too, actually in half an hour, I'm leaving. We will serve the food, socially distanced, outside, and will wear masks. The kids will have temperatures taken upon arrival, ect.

The weather is looking glorious for three days of outdoor activities. Our girls are doing water sports on a local lake. Oh, the pallets are being used to make an outdoor seating area, a cozy one. I'll put pics on soon. They'll have meetings and fun and swimming and more fun, and pray with me that they'll all stay safe and healthy.

But the pallet advenure: we drove about 45 minutes, and this was a small farm with chickens running around, very...rustic-y. You know, an old horse trailer with crates stuffed in where the windows would go, lots of little sheds and weeds. The guy was super nice, he got on his tractor and went to get the pallets while the other guy talked to us. Then a Mustang convertible came speeding into the driveway, blonde lady with the wind in her hair. A few minutes later, she came out with an old dog named Sonny, a limping old thing, so sweet and friendly. She said she had to leash him so he didn't eat the baby chicks. This whole thing felt like we were in a book, but a really interesting one. There was a teenaged daughter, who helped strap those pallets on to the truck. There was the awkward moment when the one guy asked Evelyn why she was back from California, and we were like, "What?!" Her phone number is from there, because she lived there for a few months a few years back, when she got her phone. oh. okay. not totally creepy then. Then the guy who was talking to us, who so obviously liked Evelyn, told her, "Well, when you get home, your boyfriend will have to help you with those straps." Well, she said, someone will. She has no boyfriend, but she wasn't going to announce that. The whole thing was quite entertaining. They were such nice people, so helpful, we were only paying a dollar each for the pallets, we tipped them.

So only Paul and I, Ashley and little Anya and Elise, and Margaret and little Wulf will be heading to the Adirondacks tomorrow. We'll have a quiet evening, then Ben and Abigail will join on Sunday. Monday, when the church camp ends, six more will join...then on Wednesday, Emily and Mariel will bring Lydia up. Molly might come up for a night if she can manage, she is working a lot next week.

So here's the truth, I am not a good meal planner! I can only plan for a few days at a time! I only have to do the first three nights of dinner, the rest of the meals the other kids are bringing. :)

So yeah, I'm leaving here soon to grill burgers and serve a nice outdoor dinner to lots and lots of kids...they're getting pizza as a snack in the evening, lucky kids. And goodbye to you, and to my comfy chair...I'll prob bring my computer to the cabin, so I'll blog a bit next week!