Back to school.

 

I woke up with the sun!  Today is the first day of school for the kids once again.  Our summer was a good time filled with now many fun memories!

As the days came nearer for this first day, we were asked often, "Are you ready for school to begin?"  My response was, "We will be when that day arrives!"  And sure enough, here we are.  To get up earlier, get into better bed times and a routine again is always a good thing for us!

Ashlyn was excited and nervous!  She's excited about 7th grade and is on the volleyball team!  Being in middle school can be a full schedule when playing sports but we are super excited to watch more games and see our school friends again!

Austin is never ready for school to begin but so far we are tear free and he's excited to have Colson back in his classroom!  I hope to see much learning growth in this kid!  It's time to get back into books!

I know that one day too soon, my kids will not want me to walk with them into school but Austin asked if I would walk with him in to find his room.  Not sure why he needed my direction because he lead us right there!

I just grinned when I looked at his school essentials.  Backpack, water bottle, snack and baseball cards all in hand! 

Meeting Mrs. Shick for the first time as his teacher wasn't so scary!

I will miss these two like crazy around the house!  It's time though to get back to school to keep learning!  We filled the past days with fun things to do yet before school begins and it actually felt odd last night when we tucked these two into bed at 9 PM.  The house was quiet before I was too tired!!!  I love that!

Their first day went well!  "God, please keep our children safe in their schools this year!  Protect them from all harm and evil!  May your presence fill their schools and help them to learn much about you this year!!!  Amen!"

I love this from Pinterest and printed one for the kids to obey!

They both need water bottles and snacks.  This was their choice for this year!

And Austin had a treat for his new teacher!

Third grade is going to be a good year!!!!

Here goes new beginnings and much learning!!!!

I do love having my kids at home with me!  I miss them when school begins!  There always comes the close to another summer when school begins and I can usually feel it when it's time to get back to learning!  The house is quiet now here.  I'm finally catching up on this blog and enjoying a day solo!

I hope you children have the best year!!!!

XOXO ~ Mom

Phillies VS Giants.

We are busy doing fun things before school starts in a few days!  We planned a day to go watch the Phillies play against the Giants.  Matt and Lena like the Giants and we are Phillies fans.  Win, win!!!

We left at 2:30 and got to the game in good time.  Matt started up the little charcoal grill and cooked up burgers.  Lena made some turkey wraps and I brought all the burger goodies!  We added drinks and snacks and it was a success for our first tailgating party!!!!  :)

These boys were so excited to go the game!  Ashlyn was along too and her and Bryce couldn't wait to watch their first pro baseball game together! 

Here is our crew.  Hadassah really wished to come along but her commitment to coaching volleyball is a priority right now and she is loving it!  Jeremiah did join us but missed our photo.

I love doing sports with my man!!!!  And Austin was thrilled to get a signature on the ball he took along!

Tailgating was a success!

All the boys got else a signature or a souvenir!  It was such a fun day!!!!!

The Phillies won and the night got late!!!!  This was a blast and a highlight of our summer!

Go Phillies!!!!

My happy place!!!!

 Here's my happy place!!!!  I didn't know till a few years after we were married that I like to garden!  Watching seeds and plants grow is fun for me.  I usually say that I should work at a greenhouse!  Mike did such a good job and worked really hard this past spring to give this space an uplift!  The backyard garden was created a few years after we got married.  We started with a few raised beds made from railroad ties.  Mike filled them with dirt and I planted seeds.  When I look back at our first years of gardening, things really improved over the years!

We remodeled our home eight years ago and we had some brick leftover from the house.  We hired landscapers to come lay them around the garden beds and added a few more raised beds!  The garden is on a slight slant and this spring, Mike lifted all the railroad ties one by one to level the beds and then added another layer of ties to make them deeper garden beds.  Good mushroom topsoil was poured into each bed to level them off and I was ready to plant seeds!!!!!!

I LOVE this space so much!  I walk to it almost every single day!  We learned that this is a hobby for Ashlyn too!  She loves to go out there with me and plant seeds, grow all the vegetables and right now she goes out to the garden and picks a hand full of green beans and eats them on the spot!  That's what I love to see the most!  I love seeing the kids out there gleaning fresh produce with no chemicals and seeing how foods grow!  The other night, we had the kids go from plant to plant and try them!  Right from the garden!  Matthew did not like the carrots!  :). They tried peppers, jalapeños and tomatoes.  They chewed on some fennel greens and those that don't love the taste of black licorice, spit it out.  Kale is bitter but so good for you!  Cucumbers and green beans are a family favorite!  

I planted some fall vegetables!  Romaine lettuce and two different kinds of butter crunch lettuce.  Celery is growing.  Radishes are shooting through the dirt.  Cabbage.

 

And here's the benifits!!!  My cucumber plants have never lasted this long!  They just keep giving us fresh cucumbers!  I blanched and froze bags of green beans that we will enjoy all year long!  All the tomatoes come into the big farmhouse sink and get washed and thrown into big ziplock bags.  I freeze them and I hope to cook and juice them one of these days!  Ill can the juice and use it in soups!!!!

I love these kind of radishes and found them 1/2 price at Royers!

I planted three different kinds of tomatoes.  Early Girl, Big Boy and a Pea Size tomato.  However, we had a few plants come up in the watermelon garden box and I just them grow.  Roma's are filling that area now.  We love to make BLT sandwiches with fresh tomatoes and these basil, cheese and tomato slices are so yummy!

I planted sunflowers behind the garden and they are in bloom!

Two rows of carrots are ready to harvest.  I should learn to plant them much farther apart because they are all twisted and look funny from growing too close.  

The sink looks like this with fresh veggies twice a week!

I've been keeping my eyes out for these little creatures and last night we counted 54 of them!!!!  That a lot of caterpillars on our tender fennel leaves!!!!  We hope to watch these grow big and then turn into butterflies!!!!!

They are so beautiful!!!!!

I know that gardening is not for everyone but it sure speaks to me!!!!

I planted a row of zinnias and just love them right now!  I was also delighted to see the huge sunflower in the farmers field finally turn into a huge bloom!!!

I can feel the change of seasons in the air and that will have us pulling the pumpkins off the vines and gathering all the produce before frost hits it.  Until then, I'm really enjoying all the greens, colors and foods it is blessing us with!  Thank you, Jesus!!!!

August.

We came home from the cabin to the crepe myrtle in bloom and a garden full of zucchini, cucumbers, peaches and green beans.  Also, woke up to a new month!  August is here and there's no more ignoring the school emails.  I want to pretend school doesn't start soon but in reality, once it begins, I'm ready for it after all.  But, it's the beginning of a new month and we still have lots of gatherings, summer events and things to do!  The weather is lovely and I'm looking forwards to a few more weeks of summer vacation right here at home!  

I get all gitty when I know that we get to watch this basketball team play another basketball game together!  This has been the team that we watched so much last winter!  We traveled with them to the Giant Center and to all their final games in States!  Most of these boys are young men that were in Matthew's class and we have really loved to love them!!!!  They are such a good bunch of guys and friends!  They played in a summer league in Strasburg and made it to the finals!  It was no surprise when we realized that they made it to the finals VS the Linville boys team.  This team won it all!!!!!

Way to go guys!!!!!

My family got an invitation to bring us all together for a day at a pool that we are very familiar with!!!!  I grew up with this pool in our back yard and when Mom and Dad moved off of this property and down to the farm, we said goodbye to the pool!!  My siblings and I swam so much in this pool when we were kids and we have a ton of fun memories here!!!  The owners of the property now, invited my family to come swim for the day!!!  What a fun way to start this month!!!!

We ordered pizza for supper and made a full day of it!!!!

It's so fun watching the girls enjoy this pool!!!!

Thank you Happy and Linda Ann for letting us have this pool for the day!!!!  We had the best time!

We also attended our church campout event.  We didn't actually camp out but enjoyed the days spent with our church friends at the campground!  There's a big water slide that the kids loved!!!!

It's wonderful to see so many families come out!

There were lots of things to do at the campground.  

The best food was served on Saturday night and Sunday lunch!!!!  Wow thanks food committee!!!!!

The men, dads and single guys, played Thumper with the younger boys on Saturday night.  

Sunday service was at the campground too!  Merv and Laurel Charles were recognized for the work and many hours of helping the congregation heal from past hurts, messages preached and much more and move on to being a thriving church!!!!  Thank you so much Merv and Laurel!!!!  God bless you!

Then another delicious meal was served!

We really enjoyed the extra time spent with our church friends this weekend.  We made more new friends and the children really enjoyed it too!!!!  

The very next day, Ashlyn and I drove almost three hours to meet friends at the beach!!!!  I thought that I was crazy doing this but I quickly replied yes when we got invited before I talked myself out it!  I said yes because I KNEW it would be a total blast!!!!  I also knew to be out of the house and at the church campout all weekend would have me extra busy on Tuesday.  I told Ashlyn on Sunday night our plans and she was all into it!!!!  

We left early Monday morning and enjoyed our first beach trip for this summer and loved it!!!!  It was a gorgeous day to sit on beach chairs, listen to the ocean waves and feel the ocean breeze!  A highlight for Ashlyn and I was seeing the wild ponies on the way to and back from the beach!!!!  So awesome!!!!!

We met Lorene and Dessy at their beach house and drove to Asssteague Island.  That's where we spent a few hours on the beach and enjoyed the cloudless skies!  After a quick shower back at their beach house, we went to Ocean City for the boardwalk, supper and some shopping.  Thrasers Fries, a visit at Candy Kitchen and buying some ear rings for Ashlyn, we grabbed some coffee and headed home.

It was so good to see the ocean again!!!!!!

On the way home, we drove right into a storm.  A bad storm with rains that had me driving only 30 miles per hour for a long while.  We witnessed the most beautiful rainbow with extreme color on the way home!!!  It was just gorgeous!  It was good to be back home with the rains over and with sun kissed skin and hearts full to have friends to spent with on the beach!

I knew I would be welcomed the next day with lots of garden goodies!!!!!  What a blessing!