Happy Birthday America!!!!

Celebrating our freedom seemed extra special this year of 2020!!!  God has blessed our nation so much but so much is happening to threaten our freedom!  Because of COVID-19, we still have freedoms but it sure feels like the enemy is trying hard to put fear into our hearts and take our nations foundation down to nothing.  Freedom is not to be taken lightly and I appreciate the things our forefathers have done for us today!!!

Allen and Janelle had us over for supper and fireworks!!!!  The friends, food and fireworks were all great!!!!

 "Free to be AWESOME!"

Mike and Allen bought some fireworks and they were actually really good!  So many displays got canceled because of COVID-19 and that's sad to me!  I love fireworks!  This was special to still be able to see some!

 Happy Fourth of July friends!!!!

Garden goodies!!!!

The garden is looking so good these days!!!!  Last fall we topped each raised bed with mushroom mulch.  I love how it helped enhance the soil!!!!

The herb box is always fun to pick from and smell!!!!  This lavender smells wonderful.  I planted a dill plant for the first this spring and I added fresh dill to my refrigerator pickles I made the other day!  So tasty!  

Cabbage is one of my most favorite vegetable to watch grow.  I'm not why other than when I think of Peter Rabbits garden, I think of cabbage.  It's so beautiful with those huge leaves forming around the head of the cabbage.

We planted Zinna's and Cosmos in Ashlyn's small raised bed.  They are starting to bloom now!

Fennel ... well, I never planted these before.  I'm experiencing and not sure what to do next?  We love to buy fennel at the grocery store and eat the white bulb!  It tastes a lot like black licorice.  Ashlyn and I love it!!!  So, I decided to try to grow our own!  The fennel leaves are super tall with barely any bulb.  Why?  I did finally cut the top greens off and I hope this will force more of the plant power into the bulb area.  Ashlyn's got her eyes on these plants and can't wait to eat it!

The cucumbers are looking fantastic!  Never did I have these plants looking so good!  There are tons of blooms and we picked about a dozen cucumbers already!

 Right beside the cucumbers I planted a zucchini plant and egg plant.  So far the zucchini took over the space and the egg plant is hidden underneath the big leaves.  We love zucchini bread and zucchini foods!  We've got a lot of these so far too!

 Red beets are yummy and I pretty much planted these because I still had a pack from last year that I didn't plant.  I washed these, wrapped them each in foil and roasted them.  After 45 minutes I got them out of the oven and sliced them.  Harvard Beets are a favorite of mine and they were tasty!

I pulled the onions out of the ground yesterday and they are now on the shelf in the barn drying.  When I make salsa, the onions will be used up!

Carrots are still growing.

Tomatoes are looking great too!  In May, yes May, we had frost and even some snow.  I thought my tomato plants were not going to live, so I bought new plants and planted it beside my first plants.  You know what?  They all survived!!!  We should have plenty of juicy red tomatoes coming up!!!!

 And the sunflowers ... well, I planted three different kinds.  Mammoth, yellow and orange seeds.  Matthew made me this nice tripod structure that I wished the sunflowers would grow up and out of but the only seeds that came up are the smaller sunflowers.  So, we have sunflowers growing but not tall and high like I thought!  Oh well!

Teddy Bear Pumpkins are growing here and as much as I love summer time, I also love fall!!!!  We should have us some nice pumpkins by then!!!!

Here's my pickings from the garden!  I'm so blessed!!!!

The cabbage got made into coleslaw.  The onions will be used in salsa.  The beets were cooked and made into Harvard beets!

Gardening has become such a fun hobby for me!  I love how the raised beds give me options to grow foods and yet not have weeds growing out of control.  I love to visit my garden every day!  It's such a fun place to sniff and smell and watch God's goodness grow!

Austin celebrates another birthday!

My baby is turning five years old today!!!!  "July one!"  That's how he tells people when his birthday is.  He's grown so much already this summer!  On Father's Day he took off on his bike without any training wheels on!  Then yesterday at the pool, he jumped off the diving board without any puddle jumper on his arms!  He's learning life skills so fast!  He is loving life!  He finally sleeps in in the morning.  Most times he is the last to wake up.  I didn't think this would ever be Austin because he is our up and at it boy!  Why sleep and especially sleep in???  I love that!!!!

Austin woke up all smiles this morning!  He had a hard time falling asleep last night because he knew it would be his birthday in the morning.

We took Austin out to buy a new baseball glove and he was thrilled with his new pair of shoes!!!!

His friend and cousin, Colson, stopped in and said happy birthday!

Colson gave this sling toy!

And let me just talk about these two for a minute!!!!  They are each other's best friends!  They really do play so nice together and mostly Austin does everything Ashlyn comes up with!  I think it's adorable because she does things he likes too!  Anything for a playmate!  They love to jump together on the trampoline!  They chase around the six kittens that are up for sale!  They hunt the chicken eggs together!  Ride bike, ride scooter and jeep together!  It's just darling to watch them in the garden picking chives and kale and munching as they go!  So much of them reminds of me how Hadassah and Matthew were at their age!!!  Best of friends!  I love that!!!!!

Ashlyn was so excited for Austins birthday this morning!  She woke up early and then slept on the couch until she heard him awake!

Austin picked to go to Red Lobster for his birthday meal!  He loves shrimp and rice and ate two biscuits!  He told the waitress that he wants to come back again next year for his next birthday!  I think that says he really liked the food!

After we ate, the kids went out to the Yukon while Mike paid the bill.  The waitress had brought out a biscuit with a candle in it, so we told Austin to come back inside and blow out his birthday candle.  He walked in trying to put his mask back on his face.  He said, "These masks are made out of toilet paper."  We laughed but that's just how it is around here right now.  Masks are required to wear when going in public and restaurants.  When we walked into Red Lobster, we didn't have masks.  The manager was sure to get us some to wear to our table and when we leave again.

We came home for dessert!  Austin requested a football shaped cake and of course his cousins came over to help us eat it!!!

 Happy birthday big boy!!!!  We love you so much!!!!!

Summer weekend!

With just coming out of a busy week of Bible School each night, plus an extended family shoot, we were ready for the weekend!  Mike celebrated his birthday on Saturday!  I had plans on yard sailing in the morning and then he was going to golf.  Rains came, which we really needed, but yard sailing and golfing don't go well with rain showers.  Mike canceled his golf and went with me instead!  We had such a blast!  :))). He drove me from home to home in three different community of yard sales.  He's said for a long time that he wants to do this sometime and I kept asking him if its fun because it was his birthday and not my special day.  I wanted him to be having a blast!  He was!  We drove down streets sipping on our coffee but he ended up eating both biscottis.  :). I laughed and said I guess I have to find a hot dog at one of the sales to eat!  We went through the sales in town, then to Highlands and then to Strasburg!  We ended up with a dozen of yummy egg rolls and fried rice.  We drove home happy and ready to feed the kids!

It really wasn't any deals that we found that was the most fun, it was just being together!

Then Mike decided to go with Matt to deliver some ribs out of town to a customer.  He hoped to then swing by Jeremiah's baseball tournament and watch a game.  Once again, he took off with the kids this time and I got to make some stops alone.  It felt more like my fun day but again I asked him if he's having fun and he was!  Spending the day with his own wife and kids was great for him!  He's so cool!  I am way too quick to think I deserve some "me time" of special days like this but not Mike!  

I dropped some things off at Fashion Cents and then went to Khols in hopes to find Austin some new shoes!  Bingo!

They all came back home around 3 and Mike took a nap.  The rest of us went to the Zook Pond for some swimming and then a steak, chicken and shrimp meal!!!  We bought a ticket at the school sale for this event and what a lovely night it was!  Perfect for swimming with friends and eating good food!  

We do so much with Matt and Lena and their boys!  They also bought a ticket last fall and this was a blast for these two boys!!!!  

JR and Lorene were also there with their family and Matthew loved to hang out with Benson again!

Austin so badly wanted to jump off of the diving board and with a little help, he did!!!!  Then he did again.  And again!!!  He loved it!

I walked away with my camera swung around my shoulder and heard Mike yell, "Hey, what about me???"  What a honey!  Ok then .... :)

Ashlyn and Desie ...

Bean bags on the sandy pond floor!  What a blast!

The kids swam before and after supper.  It was dark and we were sandy and tired by the time we left the Zook Pond!  Thanks Dave and Suz for the wonderful food and great night!

Sunday we decided to go visit our old roots and go to Spring Garden's church service!  It was great to hear a message from the Lord and see old friends!  Mom and Dad had us for lunch and we then we ended up back home for afternoon naps.

We had an appreciation meal to join for supper again at Dave and Suz's house!  The Miller family sang as we ate again and we totally enjoyed the songs, food and message!  Being missionaries on the road and to prisoners is not an easy road but God blesses those who go!!!!

That wraps up our busy, yet relaxing weekend!  We are so blessed to have friends and family to spend time with!!!