Such Treasures

In a little less than two weeks, my children will make their yearly two-week trip to see Jeff’s parents and sister in California. Oh, I will miss them. Part of me gets excited about all the things I will get done, but that part is definitely overruled by the part that hates to see them go. Yet, they are going and I am happy for them and for Jeff’s family because of the special time they will spend.

My mom is retiring this fall and has informed me that the kids will have to spend some time in Montana also, starting next summer. In all fairness, this is the right thing to do. But how am I going to be away from the kids for four weeks each summer?

I have some sewing to do to get them ready. Haniya and Naomi need tank tops, Mikah needs short sleeve t-shirts. Mikah needs boxers. I purchased socks for all of them, and panties for the girls, last week. We also bought some tennis shoes for Haniya and sandals for Naomi. I looked for sandals for Mikah but couldn’t find any. This is a brief rant: shoes are getting worse and worse. They are almost not functional at all and purely decorative.

Haniya and Naomi have to finish tyeing a quilt for their cousin, our new nephew, so they can give that to him when they are there. Other than packing, I think that is all we have to do to prepare.

Mikah is already packed, no matter how much I discouraged him from doing it already. He even has his bags by the front door. That was last week, three weeks before departure. He insists he has everything he needs and that I don’t need to go through it. Yeah, right.

Remember that song? It was around when I was in high school, I think. It wasn’t a favorite or anything, although I know I listened to it alot. When I was thinking of what to title this post, it came to mind. It doesn’t really apply. My life is not manic. My life is wonderful and blessed and I give all the glory to our Good Lord who blesses me richly, more than all I could imagine or dream!

We had friends over on Saturday. This is a family who is very special to us and we are spending more and more time together. We have committed to regular fellowship with them and take turns hosting. We usually end up spending two meals together. The moms work on something and the dads do, too. The kids play.

It was our turn for hosting this Saturday. My friend wanted to make linen pants like mine. We used a computer program (PatternMaker, I think) to print out a simple elastic-waist pants pattern tailored to her measurements. We made the first pair from a pretty sheet she has and they fit so well that she now has a great pair of pajama pants. We even cut out the bottoms of the legs to line up with the hem of the sheet — ready made hems — so easy! We made one change to the pattern, but otherwise it was good to go. The second pair we cut out of black linen and they were done in a half hour. I tell you, I cannot imagine not having a serger. Pants are so easy, the elastic part included.

It was really hot, though. The kids cooled off by filling up little jelly buckets with water and splashing each other. We had smoothies for our afternoon snack. The dads took turns on the tractor excavating next to the pole barn/shop where we are going to put our new water storage tank and pressure tank.

On Sunday, Jeff planned more tractor work, but instead got called in to work. With the hot weather, we had thunderstorms at night which caused many outages. The money is good and will help us pay for our improvements, so no complaining here.

While he was gone on Sunday, the kids and I tried to stay cool. We were really tired, all of us, so we took it easy. I got a burst of energy in the late afternoon when it started cooling down and a breeze came through the house, so I did a bunch of laundry and finished the last of the tote bags. In the evening, the kids and I watched a couple episodes of Pride and Prejudice — the old version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, which is my favorite. Jeff got home about 11:30 pm and I waited up for both him and the laundry. So I am tired today. And so is he.

Today, we went out first thing this morning to pick our 1/2 of a local grass-fed beef. In previous years, I’ve made the mistake of bringing it home in the afternoon, in the heat, and it thaws too much. So, I cleaned out the freezer early in the morning in order to bring the beef home while it was still cool outside. That worked much better. And now we’re stocked up for the next year. Thank you, Lord, for the local, healthy beef! We really would like to raise our own beef and may do that for our next one. We are looking at miniature cattle, as suggested by a friend. They appear hard to get (waiting lists) and we haven’t really looked hard yet. That’s another thing for my to-do list.

I am still quite tired and in fact, I took a nap today after we put away all the beef. I slept for the two hours until lunchtime. This afternoon, I’ve been puttering around, doing some inside and outside cleanup and more laundry. Jeff will be home soon. We never got to watch one Netflix movie over the weekend due to him being gone and also having friends over last. So I hope, hope, hope we’ll be watching it tonight. It is the new Sense and Sensibility that was on PBS Masterpiece this spring.

Hope all of you, my dear friends, had a good weekend, too!