{ The past few days }

It has felt so good, not having to worry about doing school, and just having the full days to myself to do with as I please.

You know I love that I am blessed enough to do homeschooling with my children, or rather, child, since he's the last one in school.....but it IS time consuming, and needs a lot of attention and concentration, and those days where you have portfolios/projects to complete as well, it can become quite overwhelming for the child and for the parent.

Usually by this time of the year, we are so ready for a break.  So, it's been really nice to just relax and take it slower.  I absolutely love summer and everything that comes with it :)

I'm not going to lie, there are days during the school year, that even my homemaking chores feel rushed, so even in that sense, it's nice to slow down.

The past few days, I've done loads of laundry, and have avoided my dryer, choosing instead to make full use of the wash line.  I find the rhythm of hanging the laundry out to dry, such a peaceful and relaxing task, not to mention how I love the scent of freshly line dried clothes.

If you have a clothesline, make full use of it, it really does cut down on the electric bill during the hot months of summer.

I've also been trying to wash more dishes by hand.  I've always found it relaxing as well, just standing by the window, talking to God, watching the birds outside....and again, saving on electricity by not running the washer.

I will admit that during the busyness of the year, I don't often have time to fill the cookie jar, it's more of a "eat from the bag" kinda thing.  It's a nice change to be able to do such simple things for the family.

My garden has been tended too, meticulously.  Plants moved in and out, watered, pruned, watched and loved on.  In return, they are growing beautifully and giving my gardening skills a boost.

I've been successfully regrowing veggies for many years, with great results and I currently have green onions, garlic, potatoes, and now some celery growing.

Also planted some sunflowers, which I'm hoping to transplant once they start growing.  My idea is to line my wooden fence with some gorgeous bright yellow sunflowers.

I've been reading a lot too, my review pile is continuously growing, which makes me happy.   For me, opening the door to a new book every week, is the best feeling ever.

This week we celebrated my husband's 45th birthday.  We were both laughing the other night because we turned to each other and said "you know, we really are middle aged now, isn't that insane?  We have a 19 year old and a 15 year old about to start 10th grade, what???????".

Life just zips right on by doesn't it?

This coming weekend we have memorial day, of course.  I don't think we're doing anything, we wanted to barbecue, but just not sure if that is going to happen.  I DO have my husband home tomorrow, he has the day off and I'm thrilled about that as he doesn't ever take time off from work.

Yesterday I worked on a project with my Jasmine.  Her close friend in Scotland, is an amazing talented young girl who draws like no other.  She has a university project needing to draw some real life people and the theme was protesting etc.  She gave us some ideas on what she was looking for, and we just went to town.

I'm thrilled at how the pictures turned out, of course it helps that I have a gorgeous red head as a child to model for me.

Speaking of Jasmine, we are still waiting to hear back from the recruiter, she's frustrated and so are we, just don't understand why we never heard anything after turning in the paperwork.  Apparently, this is the norm nowadays.  My husband has tried to contact him numerous times and just can't get him to return any of the calls or emails.  I think it's time we look for a different recruiter.

Life has been good, I'm plodding along, puttering around my house and doing what I love most.  If you were to walk into my house most days, you would see just that, me, at the stove cooking, or doing dishes.

Speaking of which, perfect example, when I was in San Diego for the weekend, Marley kept looking for me in the kitchen and would go lay down by the entrance and just stare and wait.  Jasmine sent me quite a few pictures and videos of him just waiting and running in there anytime they said "where's mommy?".  Hahaha

So sweet!!!

Well friends, today I'm having a bit of a down day, I'll just say that it's the first day of *THAT* time of the month and I always get really bad cramps, feel lightheaded and plain worn out.  I'm going to do the dishes, I don't have to worry about lunch because we have a ton of leftover pasta casserole from last night, and later I'll be making the chicken chimies again for dinner.

Until then, I'm going to be on the couch, working on blog stuff (since updating my food blog template, a lot of the blog post thumbnails are not showing up, so I have to go in individually and add the photos from blogger itself).

I'm going to watch youtube vlogs, read and I also want to start on some crochet placemats for our dinner table.  I have a lot of cotton yarn that needs using and haven't had a chance to sew some place mats yet, and since I have a pattern for crochet ones that I haven't yet used, it might be the best time to try them out, especially since I'm having a down day.

Well friends, I hope you are all having a beautiful week, and I wish you a blessed Thursday :)

On this day in 2006 - Works for Me Wednesday
On this day in 2007 -  Slow Cooking Thursday
On this day in 2008 - Back to my roots!
On this day in 2009 -
On this day in 2010 - Summer Days #1
On this day in 2011 - Homeschool Curriculum for new year
On this day in 2012 - Spring Reading Thing 2012
On this day in 2013 -
On this day in 2014 - New Place
On this day in 2015 -
On this day in 2016 -
On this day in 2017 -