… a lovely lake.
… lots and lots of exploring.
… sharing ice cream.
… a peaceful walk in the woods.
… more lovely lake scenery.
… mountaintop views.
Beautiful old fashioned Day Lilies, tall and gorgeous as usual.
Loosestrife – The bane of my gardens’ existence because it’s growing everywhere and I did not plant it (notice the plural – this bugger even followed a transplant). But the blooms are bright and yellow and lovely.
This just screams ‘summer’. Not sure of its name… an annual of some sort.
Hello Mr. Bee. I’m sure miss liatris thanks you.
Plain old marigold looking oh-so-pretty in the sunshine!
More liatris blooms – I love the tight look of the little buds before they bloom out.
Dime-a-dozen calibrachoa looking quite lovely.
Sunday found us celebrating a birthday (surprise-style) at Aunt Ali’s house. A perfectly hot and sunny summery day calls for what else… bubbles!
Bubbles everywhere!
With the birthday girl…
Are you kidding me, mommy?!
I can reach out and touch them!
And, always the helpful child, putting the cap back on when we’re done!
It really does amaze me how quickly Oliver is picking up new words. I know part of that is the interaction he has with older kids at the sitter’s but I like to think it is also due to all of our reading time. Even the current distraction technique during butt-changing is to hand Oliver a little book that he can flip through. It works every time – he talks and points while I’m wiping him up and interacting with him.
Today I grabbed a knock knock book that goes on and on with cheesy knock knock jokes like “Olive… Olive who? … Olive you so much”. Apparently it is just the right amount of repetitive since Oliver surprised me this morning by saying “Naw naw” after only reading it a couple of times.
Directly following the struggle that is changing and dressing, Oliver picked up another fave book about ‘Bumble’ the bee. He didn’t like this one at first but I would point out the bee on every page and it became a game of hide and seek… “beeee!”. (And we never forget the cow of course… “Mooo”).
And another book from the same author is about a green caterpillar wishing she could be a different, brighter color. On the last page, where she has turned into a butterfly of many colors, I said, “Look at the beautiful butterfly”, to which Oliver said, “buh-fly”, as matter-of-factly as if he’s been saying it for months now.
Something about that “buh-fly” made my heart melt a little!
I’ve always loved the idea of a cleaning schedule. It’s the simple idea that I chip away one day at a time at the mundane list of four chores that are always circling. And then, in theory, the weekend comes around and my bathroom isn’t the stuff of nightmares and my feet don’t stick to my floors. Of course this all makes more time for trips to the park with the boy, travelling, cooking, etc (and yes, likely even more household chores). In theory.
So here is my plan of attack. Tonight is easy since I cleaned the bathroom yesterday but I can’t say I’m looking forward to the task of weeding the lawn garden tomorrow night! Eeek!
| Cleaning Schedule | |
| Monday | Bathroom – toilet, shower, tub, sink |
| Tuesday | Garden – Weeding |
| Wednesday | Kitchen – Scour sink, clean counters, windowsill, cabinet fronts |
| Thursday | Dust all surfaces and wipe glass |
| Friday | Vacuum & mop floors |
| Daily |
General tidy of main rooms, bed making, laundry, dishes, watering garden and flowers, meals, lunches, etc |
| Weekend | Wash bedding, house cleaning items, yard work, etc |
Good thing I have a helper who doesn’t mind the odd bit of vaccuuming …
… and even a little bit of laundry!
