Last Thursday, Andy and I went over to Dawn & Tommy's for dinner.  Dawn served her own homemade spaghetti sauce that she had canned, as well as applesauce - also her own.  It was a lovely dinner, not only because of the food, but also the company!  Tommy and Andy checked out the basement to see how Andy could help with the room they want to build down there.  Kira was constant entertainment.  And of course, she has a willing and captive audience in her Grammy & Poppop.  Although I took a picture of her when she crawled inside her daddy's t-shirt (yes, while he was wearing it), but it turned out blurry and can't be used (probably because I was laughing so hard).

On Saturday I met Dawn at the Farmer's Market again, walking around together and buying some fresh produce.  I bought about 20 honeycrisp apples.  Wow!  They are super delicious.  The rest of the day was spent in puttering around the house, nothing pressing that needed to be done.

Sunday was a different story, though.  Of course, there was church all morning.  Andy and I both attended the Welcome Class to acquaint the new folks on some of the ministries we are involved with.  Then in the afternoon, I went to Stacey's bridal shower.  I am so happy for her, she met the man of her dreams!  God graciously gave her the desire of her heart.

I returned home from the shower in time to eat a little something, then go back to church for our annual meeting.  It was non-eventful and over in about 45 minutes. Now that's a good meeting!

Monday was a regular day of work, but afterwards I tried to get some of my cleaning done because we were planning to be away most of the day on Tuesday.  I got the laundry done and 2 of the bathrooms cleaned, so Tuesday morning wasn't so rushed before we left.

Yesterday we went over to C & C's so Andy could help Christian put in a new window in their attic.  The old one had been leaking and causing some water damage in the house so it was a very necessary repair.  Andy and Christian worked all day even in the rain.

 

I helped Christy with some homeschooling, doing what I do best with the grandkids:  Reading!

I also had time to play with Claire.

For supper, Christy made pizza and it was delicious.  I had made apple crisp on Monday afternoon and took that along for our dessert.

Claire was "helping" Christy on the computer!

So it was a good day:  work was accomplished, we interacted with 5 grandkids, a daughter and son-in-law and ate well.  What more is there?!

Yesterday was my idea of a perfect day. 

Outing to Morris Arboretum

Blue skies,sunshine, cool breeze

flowers blooming

all our daughters together

all the grandkids together

Dawn was able to get free passes that covered all of us except one adult.  So instead of costing $129 for all of us, we only had to pay $16.00 (of course, this added to the perfection!).

Enjoying God's beautiful creation in a garden!

I really would like to blog a little more frequently but lately I just haven't had time.  We continue to fill our calendar with things to do and places to go.  Well, I guess on the positive side, that makes for more interest on the blog when I finally do get to it.

Last Tuesday on our day off, Dawn came over and went on a bike ride with Andy.  I watched Kira while they were out.  Here she is with all the dolls I have in the house.  After she left, I had to throw one of them away because it had seen better days.  When she was littler, she had chewed a hole in the hat and torn off one of the legs.  Then this time, the doll lost an arm.  I guess I could have sent her to the doll hospital, but I'm not the nurse/doctor type, even for fake people!

We decided to have a sprinkler system installed in our yard.  We have so many bushes, perennials, flowers that need to be watered all summer long.  This requires a lot of time spent every day when it's extra hot making sure that nothing dies.  Then when we go on vacation for 2 weeks mid-summer, we either have to pay someone to water for us or worry the whole time we're gone about our dear gardens.  So in preparation for the sprinkler system being installed, Andy cut down 2 dogwood trees on the edge of our property.  I know it seems a crime to cut down dogwoods, but they were old, had lots of dead branches on them and were in the way of some of the sprinkler heads we needed to put in.  My consolation was that we can plant new stuff there, maybe more dogwoods or forsythia or...

One down

It was a different feeling to have someone else do the work.  It seems like every time we do a project, Andy is doing it.  But this one involved a lot of digging and would have taken him days.  The contractor we hired had machinery and a crew that did the work in a day and a half.  So it was worth it.  The sprinklers come on every other day for 10 minutes.

 

 The weather this past weekend was beautiful...finally the heat and humidity broke.  I was thinking I could finally get outside to work in my gardens.  Then early Saturday morning, Dawn called to ask if I had plans and would I want to go with her and Kira to Princeton for Apple Day.  Sounded like fun, so Andy and I went with her.  Tommy also went with us, although we took 2 cars, so he could leave from there to go surfing when we were done with the festival.

The Terhune Orchards in Princeton was a fun place to be on Saturday.  We got there as it opened at 10:00 and beat the crowds.  There was lots to do:

milk the cow

 Farmer Andy!

ride Poppop's back

  

eat cider donuts

 

 ride the pony

 ride the John Deere tricycle

 see how tall you are

 look at the goats

 walk the maze

We also took a wagon ride and picked some apples.  We stayed till around 12:30.  It was great fun and a beautiful day to be outside.

That evening we went with our singles group to Pitch and Putt.  I have never been good at sports or athletics, but Andy, who is very good at those, gave me some pointers.  No one could believe how good I did at the golfing, especially me!  Andy's score was 63 and I had a 69!
 

And of course, we had to go out to eat afterwards.  There just happened to be an Applebee's across the street from the golf place.

 Andy's mom and dad went to the shore on Saturday and are there for 3 weeks.  So since Sunday was such a beautiful day, Andy and I packed our bags and drove down to enjoy the shore.  We stayed overnight and all Monday morning.  It is such a restful, relaxing place to be, it is easy to feel your troubles all melt away (not that I have any troubles!).  There's no compulsion to get up and tend the laundry, clean up the dishes, mow the lawn, whatever - just sit and veg!

the waves were huge

I'm not sure what triggered the thought, but I got this idea for making peach cobbler.  I know it's a little late in the season, but Andy loves peaches and I hardly ever make anything using them.  So on the way home from the shore yesterday, we stopped at several fruit stands asking for peaches.  The third place we stopped finally had some white peaches.  I found a great recipe on the internet (Paula Deen) and voila:

It was the most delicious peach cobbler I have ever eaten.  How's that for dramatic!

We were scheduled to go to Morris Arboretum today but because of the forecasted rain and storms, we are postponing till next week.

Our life is full and blessed, which gives me lots to write about.