more sunshine, a few thorns...

 Ah yes, the sunshine...and the warm, clear, sandy-bottomed Lake Ontario.  This is Anya, me, Lydia!  Cousins are very special.  Sonja, Camille, and I brought Miss Lydia with us today, to visit Ben and Ashley and their girls, where they are camping.

Ben playing with the kids, and Miss Sonja K.  

Lydster...we stopped for ice cream on the way home, she chose cotton candy.  (Shh, I decided to just have an ice cream, I usually refrain...one scoop of mint cookie crumble, and one of marionberry fudge ribbon). (not a good combination, I'm pretty good at that)(but excellent nonetheless...Lyd was impressed at the colors together, she said next time, she is "getting what Grandma got.")

We got home, dropped off the coolers and snacks, bathing suits and towels, then I brought Lydia home.  Back home, for five minutes, in which time I managed to wolf down some dinner that Paul so graciously made (taco meat with fresh salsa), then to church to do some cleaning. 

Home again, ahhh...but, there were some chores to do!  I watered the garden (then it poured this evening, of course), vacuumed the living room and kitchen (the dog hair in the summer, ugh!), and cleaned up some messes which we won't get into, courtesy of Suri, when we weren't home.  

We were supposed to have dentist appointments tomorrow, but they've been postponed until Thursday.  Tomorrow, the girls are planning to stay home and get their bedroom back in order.  I need to do some things around here, too much going going going.  

The thorns, you say?  What are these thorns I speak of?  A headache.  A fine, whispery headache, swirling around the edges of the day, tired of being ignored, and pounding to the surface, with nauseating firmness, taking hold and taking over...ugh.  I had two ibuprofen in my hand to take, before I went out to water the garden, one fell into the sink, and shh, there are a few dishes in there to wash, so I wasn't going to dig it out, heck, one is good enough....well, no it wasn't.  I finally cried UNCLE, and took two more.   

Now I'm doing all right, feeling a bit worn out from all the sun and busyness, but the headache has receded into the background again.  I am SO thankful for ibuprofen!  You know me, I don't like to take any meds at all, but sometimes, you just gotta do it.  I wonder if the ice cream added to it.  I should journal things like that.  It seems like I had a major headache another time that I had it, it might be that I just don't eat the sugar anymore, then boom, all that yummy sugar....I can almost feel it rush into my veins, and unfortunately, it feels fantastic ha.

Oh well, it was a good day.  Lydia is a riot and a half.  She likes to play games in the car like "I Spy", and "20 Questions".  Also, rhyming games, and singing entire songs using only the word meow.  Yes, she likes to MEOW songs, then have me guess what song it is.  She doesn't like to be interrupted until she has meowed the whole tune, so imagine listening to her meow the Happy Birthday Song, Jingle Bells, and Rain Rain Go Away....

We stopped at Dunkin for coffees on the way up, and got her some donut holes.  I also asked for an ice water for her, and she thought it was the funniest thing in the world when they handed out an extra large one.  

Kids sure are fun.  Seeing Anya and Elise too, oh dear, they are so sweet.  

Saturday is my birthday, and the kids are coming over for a barbecue, but they taking responsibility for the food.  I said I really don't mind doing it, but they are planning it all, which is so nice.  It makes me feel bad, because I have more time than they do, the nurses and such.  

The rest of the summer is packed full of plans...we're going to an airbnb in the Adirondacks next weekend, then there is a church summer youth camp, which I will be helping with meals...then our church summer conference, then we're going camping, then Paul and I are going to California, then I'm going to a weekend in the Finger Lakes with the older girls....then it's Labor Day weekend, a youth conference at church...I may be helping out there, maybe not...but it's a busy life!

Not too far from where we live...it made me think: Oh beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain...