Don't ya just like flowers, they just make you smile. That is one of the ones in my yard. It is one of the reasons I have a garden. To enjoy looking at the flowers and this year taking pictures of them. Learning how to use my digital that I was given by a dear sweet friend, has made life lots of fun. Taking pictures of my grands, my crazy animals, flowers, chickens. Yep, reminds me of how good life is. Don't we all need those kinds of reminders. That life is good, that we need to take a moment and enjoy what we are working to get. That the end isn't always the goal, the journey and learning along the way. Whether it is making a garden, changing it around, talking to your kids or grand kids and learning about them, sitting with a cup of tea in your swing and listening to the chickens, or the birds, or the noise around you. Life living!!!! So here it is celebrate life in whatever place your are!!! Makes you smile every time......
cs

Now isn't that the sweetest little sleeper you have ever seen. Ok, I might just be a little prejuidice but he is my grandson after all. I have to say I sure do have fun with my grandkids. All of them, they are the very very best!!!! I think every grandparent feels that way. At least the ones that I know.

So what have I been up to, ohhhhh how I wish I could say no good. Drat, not even so. Doing some sewing, watering, napping, owwieeeeeee, then back at it again. Sitting and listening to the chickens, hanging out with a couple of friends and their daughter and my grands having a picnic and playing in the water. Ohhh that was so nice cause it was hot. Ohhh yeah, addicting more people to going to the Buggy Barn. It is a carriage house in the middle of wheat fields that is a quilt shop. Dd and I sure love to get to go there, it is only 20 minutes from our house and is a beautiful drive with the wheat ripening up, turning that golden color.
If you want to visit it on line go to www.buggybarn.com. I like the friendly woman that work there and they are always helpful. If you haven't ever tried doing a buggy barn crazy quilt, go for it. They are simplier and esaiser adn addicting. Be warned!!!!!! LOL

So I wander in my thinking as you can tell, I am just that way. Start thinking about one thing and then go a whole different direction. Right now my dd is down with sweet Caleb, yep that picture was from him tonight and she is pulling my lavender off the stems. It sure does smell heavenly. I am glad that she is doing it for me. Don't have the energy and it needed done. She does lots of helping me with things that maybe wouldn't matter to others but does to me. So does my dh, as well. I have a family I am very very thankful for. Friends that are kind and giving and listen when I am having whoopers of days. Now what more could you ask for? Not much, that is for sure. Thanks family and friends, I love each of you.
cs

This is for you Ronna.....for comparisons to see how little those boots were and to show off my new muck boots that dd found for me for a great discount. She can find them. She saw the boots the day prior and was really bummed when they were not her size and wondered if they would fit me. Does she tell me about them.....no.....not until we get there and she says hey mom try these on. I loved them and they fit to boot. Oops, sorry for the pun on words. I really really like them and they will come in perfectly handy when I need to clean the chicken coop. Yep, you gotta be pretty when you are mucking.....lol

Hot here today and feeling kinda cranky tonight. I think that is because Pain has been my constant companion since I salvaged the decking with my daughter. So taking it easy and one step and day at a time. Isn't that the way we truly need to live.....yep, I just don't always do it. There lies the truth!!!!!
Here is hoping you do a bit better in that arena than me!!!!!
cs

Thought I
would give
us all a
cooling
moment
with the
heat we
having.

LOL. This is a picture of sometime in January of this year. Made me cooler looking at it tonight with being so warm still and having a tough time with trying to sleep.
Decided would go write a bit on the blog. Now imagine yourself sinking into that lovely snow and cooling right on down. Ahhhhhhhh.............

One of the events my dh and I do in August when we are getting down with the heat is watch Christmas movies. Ususally the last part of July and a couple of weeks in August. Funny how watching them can cool you off, give you good memories and a few good laughs while you are at it. We have done it off and on for a few years. We have to laugh when we have the ac on and I am under a light blanket because I get chilly. This year when watching them I will have to get out the shawl Bonnie made me and wear it. Now that will be fun.

Cooling off right now is the name of the game and watering the plants so they do well. We have only had a trace of rain the first part of the month and none anytime soon is expected. I like when we get a rain and it clears out the dusty air, but no compliants here either because my tomato plants are adoring the hot weather.
I just tend to get a little cranky when I am too hot. Drinking ice tea is the past time, and doing chores in the morning and later evening are part of the routine as well. Fans on our chickens to keep them cool is what they are enjoying the most I think. We have 2 of them working right now. The hens will take turns and come up to the fan that is outside of their pen and strech out their feathers and fluff their backsides. Then that hen wanders off and the next one takes it's turn.
Funny creatures they are but they do know what is good for them. Too bad this silly woman hasn't always done what is good for her. Yep, over do and you go opppss and owwwiieeeeee but it was for the chickens sake that I was doing it. Hmmmmmm, that sounds like trying to justify my overdoing. Yep, it sure was. DD and I went and finished taking apart the rest of the old decking and driving it home here to our place. So now finally everything is ready for the building of the chicken house. First was collecting it all in the backyard so we could build it. So the building part finally begins tomorrow. Prep work always takes the longest but if that is done right then the rest is sure to follow. Sometimes it can be the tedious part but the most important. There are no shortcuts when it comes to good working habits and prep work. So now that my part is done, I am back to resting and giving this body a chance to recoup. Hope each of you do the same, take some time to rest and enjoy your quiet moments.
cs

This is my sweet
old grumpy
hubby.

We tell
him he reminds
us of Eeyore and
Grumpy of the
Seven dwarfs!!!

He was playing with Caleb last night and tried to get a couple of decent pictures. I got one whole picture because they were playing and moving so much. I took 15 and got one. Hey, at least I got one good picture. I count myself lucky.

He may be grumpy at times, drive me crazy at others, but there is a sweetness in side when he lets it out that is worth it. He also loves a good joke and a good laugh and I have given him plenty of opportunties..... I think the words he fears the most are......Honey, I have been thinking and I have an idea.....that means to him, oh my gosh she has come up with another project, someone help me please!!!!!!

Yes, I can make fun of myself because that is so true. Sitting and thinking and mulling things over for me brings with it ideas and ways to make my home and yard more ours. In the end, he enjoys the benefits of more creative spaces but the work, now there is a dirty word at times. Not just for him but for me too, because it takes the two of us and lots of elbow grease to get somewhere sometimes.
Thankfully he has been in the trades for a long time before he had the accident on the job that changed our lives forever. His advice for others, don't try flying off ladders because eventually you have to land. And land he did. For him to even be alive after all that happened 18 years ago is miraculous. Now I didn't say the journey was easy, nope, it has been downright hard for both of us. When your mate has a head injury of any kind, your life changes, how you handle circumstances changes, what they can or can't do changes, how you respond to it all changes as well. It can be a roller coaster ride at times. It means I appreciate the calm moments all the more. Being grateful helps as well, because grate fullness tends to change our perspective on how we will look at life.

Here was my musing from yesterday morning. My shoulders and collar bone have been in a great deal of pain. Happens with FM. But I realized that I was holding my shoulders up, they were not in a relaxed position at all. No wonder they hurt, but here is more to the point, why was I doing that? What burdens was I carrying that I didn't need to be, why was I worrying, what cares had I taken on that I didn't need to? I was worrying about all the projects that needed to be done, how was I going to do them when my body was giving me fits, now that may sound silly but it is what goes on with me. So standing in the shower going I am letting it go,I AM letting it go. You see sometimes I just have to talk to myself to get it through my thick head at times......lol My shoulders were more relaxed and I enjoyed my day more.
How often do you or I need to let things go that we are hanging on too. I know I surely do that to often. So here is to us letting go and giving our shoulders a break.....
cs

This is my
prewar bike.
I was
thinking
proably WWII.

I got it
at a sale
a ways back.
The man
wasn't going
to do bikes anymore. She needs tlc but I love her. Have to get her new tires, oil her up and she definitly needs a paint job. I was thinking pink, then I say Bev's bike which she recently purchased. In fact she is on my blog list. Bee Haven Acres. I will have to look up and see on which of her blogs it was on. Got my wheels a spinning, no pun intended. One of these days soon hope to be a peddling on that beauty. Yes, that would be another project, laughing yet, you should be. Good thing my dear hubby is going to do it for me. He wants to do it just because I love the bike. Sweet isn't he....I certainly think so.

And this would be
another picture of
my lovely chickie
girls who I love
sitting and
listening to.

It sure makes you appreciate what they give us, a nice peaceful place to sit and listen in the later afternoon. Listeing to the rooster crow in the morning, and watching them contentedly scratching for bugs. They remind me that life is really much simplier if I just slow down. I do go at a much slower pace with having the Fm, but even that pace can be too fast.

It was last week anyway. I thought I had been pacing myself well. I was not doing at all what I would in the past and wasn't feeling too bad until the beginning of last week. Oooopppppssss was on Tuesday, when my left leg went numb. Drat buckets, indeed. My left leg has numb spots from back injury 26 years ago. So the left leg has had numb spots ever since then, but not my whole leg!!!!!!! My niece, who is my dd's age, came into town for a doctor's appointment. She said how about you come out to my place and spend the night. Well, ended up spending all the way through Friday at her place and didn't do a dang thing. It was a nice mini vacation of literally doing nothing. Came home to see some more wonderful flowers in bloom. My trumpet vine has the most delightful red flowers that yep, look like trumpets.
I have 2 small crockneck squashes coming on, and some tiny green tomatoes. It was good to be back home again. Still have to majorly behave myself and don't have much energy. When thinking about that, it is frustrating but maybe a wiser event. No energy to overdo it!!!!! LOL Learning to live with a new normal every day can be downright maddening at times, but this is my life and it is still good.

Here is to hoping that you are enjoying your summer days no matter what they bring,
cs

Here are my very first attmepts at pinkeeps. I needed to feel creative today, to do a project that was simple and had some good memory with it.
The green glass was from my niece. I love the color of it but didn't really have a use for it until now. As my friend said, "Are you sure you didn't need it that big so you wouldn't lose it in your sewing room?" Or how very true that statement is. LOL A person could get lost in this sewing room even thought it is only 9 x 11. You take a risk when you come in here.

The other one is a cup that I bought long ago and loved but haven't really drank out of it. This way I can gaze upon it and it has a use besides. Beauty and function, now that is a great combination.

So here is too allowing our creative sounds come out!!!!!!!
cs

Here is a not so great picture of the 3 oldest chickens which are 4 months so we think since they are they rescued/adopted by us ones.

Yep that would be Mister, who was Jersey girl until he crowed. Suppose to be hens but you know how that can go sometimes. LOL Yep, ain't life just grand and funny at times. How did we find out it went from Jersey girl to Mister? Simple, dh went out for his morning pipe and heard you guessed it, this kinda quiet crow and then he let er rip.................I laughed so hard when he told me. So he will be a busy boy with 10 hens. Ahhh the wonders of the unexpected.

Like walking out and seeing the starts of your blooms open up. The surprize for me this last weekend was seeing my orange tiger lilies open over night with the heat that we have been having. My pink tipped ones are open today. What beauties they are too. Seeing everything growing so well makes me smile, yep that includes some of those weeds to, but life is like that weeds, dirt, work, and then the beauty comes. I have to remind myself of this as the weeds get plucked out of my life, the dirt gets moved around and the seeds get planted, and then surprize one day parts of your life are in full bloom. No mind you other parts of you are in different parts of the process so there is always something to hope for. Hope, it keeps me going when I don't know if I can take one more step, when I want to give in and up with the pain, I remember that I have friends and family who give me hope when I don't think I have any. They encourage me so I can get back on the road again. To each of you that are my hope, thank you.
cs

Yes, these are
flowers from my
gardens. I
took the pictures
at dusk.

I like seeing
the blooms at the dusk of the day, as the sun is almost gone out of the sky.
The light makes you see then in a completely different view.
At times I need to see life in a complete different view, it is a reminder for me about perspective. My perspective can become quite narrow, especially when my pain levels are up. So walking about my small compact yard reminds me that the light does shine again, giving me a different view.
Here is to seeing new light and views in each of our lives.
cs