The good stuff

I can't believe it's August already. Where has the year gone? We are in a lull right now with farming. The past few weeks have been spent just doing the basics: mechanicing equipment, running pivots, testing a well, etc. We will start swathing third crop tomorrow which means Joseph and the other boys will be working almost non-stop for the next two weeks or so getting the hay up. I'm going to try to remember to take pictures of the whole process this crop so our non-farming friends can see how we make a living.

The girls are still busy reading away for the bookmobile's summer reading program. Eve and Marie have also been putting a 1000 piece puzzle together in their bedroom. Sara has been working on a Sew-doku quilt. She got the kit as part of her eighth birthday present from Grandma V. It is darling. We'll post pictures when she is done. Abby, Debbie, and Laura have spent their days doing I don't know what - playing dolls, running through the sprinklers, drawing pictures, watching movies. Ira crawls along following them around messing up their lego castles, tangling their dolls' hair, and basically being a boy. I keep telling them it will only get worse.

Last week we all thought someone else was keeping an eye on Ira when in reality no one was so Ira ended up falling down the stairs. Our stairs are wooden and the landing is rock. It took a good 15 minutes for my heart to stop beating so fast. He only cried for about a minute and then tried to suck on the frozen butter we were putting on the goose egg that was above his eye. I asked the girls to bring me some ice for the bump and that was the first thing they grabbed from the freezer - a pound of frozen butter. He then wanted to get down and crawl around again. Thank goodness he didn't have any broken bones. The next morning when he woke up the goose egg was completely gone. There was no trace of him falling down the stairs. I couldn't believe it! We think he was watched from up above even while we weren't doing our job of watching him. We've also installed a gate at the top of the stairs.

I've been working on the quilt for our bed. I decided to do the Unnamed #2 with the red accents. I've sewed half the blocks together and will finish sewing the other blocks tomorrow. My plan is to sew all the blocks together on Saturday and then sew on the borders next week just in time for me to take it with us to Utah the following week. I'm going to have it machine quilted there.

Tuesday night I made mine and Joseph's nightly magic milkshake to drink. He drank his down while I fed spoonfuls to Ira. Then Joseph started to feed Ira while I drank mine. I noticed something floating in my shake. I thought it was a piece of ice but it turned out to be one of the blades from the blender. It had completely broken off. We immediately stopped feeding Ira his milkshake for fear there were small bits of metal in it. He was not a happy boy! He takes after his mama who loves chocolate.

Over the weekend we had two family friends from Fallon (don't you just love my alliteration there?) come and visit. The Blackwaters came up Saturday evening and went to church on Sunday. The Schanks came with their camping trailer Sunday night and stayed until Tuesday. It was fun to visit with all of them and catch up on the latest news.

We received a huge shipment of school supplies from K12 for Eve and Marie. Nine boxes full of stuff! We've had to rearrange the office closet to make room for it all. I am excited for the new school year to start but I am also enjoying no school for the month of August.