Our Weekend in Town!

We came home from the ranch last Saturday so I guess this is our second weekend at home.

Summer continues to recover and has done exceedingly well considering the few pain meds she has taken. Sometimes the pain pills can make one so sick, you would prefer the pain. 

That's Summer's thoughts on them and, while she has taken a few over the last 7 days, it's not been very many. This crab salad with butternut squash soup was her supper tray on Friday night.

Sabrina made the soup and froze it in serving size bags back in January when they were here in Texas.

It was delicious!!

I'm in the sewing room as I write this journal entry on this Sunday night.

We just came in from working outside in the front - we worked until dark!

Louis Dean is taking a hot bath - I love that he is a bath guy.

Did you know there has been a run on bath stuff at the stores?

I could not find any bath salts, bubble bath (other than a child's one that I thought I best not get!) OR even any bath oils. I looked in three different stores on Saturday!

Summer is in the den and I can hear her talking to Rayne on speaker phone.

I dearly love hearing Rayne's sweet voice. And I so admire how Summer - aka Mummers - keeps their relationship going long distance. They talk on the phone a lot and even watch movies together. They play games and read books and I think it is awesome!

Summer is so creative and sends a box every month to Rayne with bits and bobs of things for her.

Back to Friday. Once we finished working out in the front yard, Louis Dean started our makeshift campfire. It burned for several hours while I did some sewing and Louis Dean worked in his garden. Lots of healthy tomato plants with many flowers but no baby tomatoes yet. The vines are all real pretty. But we are hoping for tomatoes! 

 We settled down in the gazebo with a glass of wine just as the air started cooling and by the time we went to bed we had put on a light jacket and sat out a little longer as it had started to rain.

No better way to close out a Friday night!

It was so cool, we slept with the attic fan on all night!

Saturday was a beautiful day - if you like rain and I do!

 No need for AC!

It literally rained. all.day.long.

Louis Dean was still sleeping soundly when I woke up and slipped out of the bedroom.

Summer's door was closed so she was still asleep.

I took my coffee out to the gazebo and had an hour all to myself to spend in prayer, meditation and reading.

For pleasure, I am reading one of my all time favorite books again!

Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher.

I feel like I am back in time when I open up the pages.

Crow Killer by Raymond Thorp was the other book the movie, Jeremiah Johnson,  was partially  based on.

It's a biography of John Johnson.

I have read it before but no longer have a copy of it.

I need to change that!

We are gearing up for the Quad's birthday party!

I've had so much fun finding their unique gifts with each child in mind.

This one is Harrison's and I wrapped it in a big square of black denim.

Inside are three gifts for him to unwrap.

A pair of binoculars.

A good waterproof compass.

A nice watch.

I've got Harrison all wrapped up!

Logan's gift arrived so I started working on hers!

It's a mini sewing machine!

An electric sewing machine that is NOT a toy.

You can also use batteries when you need it to be portable.

I opened it all up to make sure it worked.

In this photo you can see how small it is.

I took this pic so I will have it to refer back to when I need to help Logan thread it.

I unthreaded it and put it back again just to make sure I could.

It's not a Swiss made machine like my Bernia but it does sew a firm sticth that I could not pull out.

She will need supervision when she uses it - at least for awhile.

I'm thinking of giving her some denim squares to cut into smaller squares.

She can sew them together to make bean bags.

That was the first sewing project Amber ever did - and I still have those denim bean bags to this day!

Another gift for Logan is a sewing basket.

Her first sewing machine and sewing basket!

So perfect for her!

At least I hope so!

I looked online for a new one for her but after reading all the reviews and looking them over,

I decided to make her up one myself using one of my very own sewing baskets, pincushion, scissors, some spools of thread, a packet of self threading needles (from Summer) and a tin of buttons.

Plus a fat roll of fabric squares that I had in my stash. I think my friend, Louise, gave them to me.

It's nice to have an assortment of things that you can put together an entire sewing kit with what you already have on hand.

While I haven't wrapped Logan's yet - I think I am ready to get that done.

So only two more to go.

We already have Kailey's guitar and are waiting for the silver personalized pick we ordered to come in. 

Then there's Trystan! She was more of a challenge but I think I have hit on the perfect theme for her!

Fashion!

The kids recently did little videos as a schoool project where they picked someone in history to do  a report on. Trystan chose Vera Wang.

She was adorable as she told about Vera Wang being famous for her wedding dresses.

Trystan was all dressed up like a little fashion model herself and had a tiny mannequin sitting on the table beside her!

Hard to believe these 'babies' are going to be 8 years old on May 31st!

This photo came up on my Facebook memories yeterday.

Amber was holding onto the babies for as long as she could - to the detriment of her own health - to give them a better chance of survival.

She held on for another 15 days.

Saturday I filled all our med boxes up and had to make a flying trip up to Walgreens to get more calcium and vitamins. I'm always glad when I get that chore done and thankful for enough boxes that I only have to do this once a month.

Saturday night, Louis Dean made good old fashioned hamburgers for our supper.

My contribution was the roasted potatoes.

I don't have an air fryer or any of the new fangled cooking things.

I just peel the potatoes, rinse and dry them, place them on a foil covered sheet and drizzle a good olive oil over them. Sprinkle with garlic salt and add a stem or two of rosemary.

Bake at 400* for 20 minutes. Delicious!

I also tried my hand at a home made margarita!

Using some of my Patron Tequila. 

Not bad but it can't compare to one at a Mexican restaurant!

Sunday has been good.

We watched Fellowship Church live online.

It will be a good while before we will be going in person.

I only took one picture today.

Hamburgers last night and hot dogs today!

I finished the big flower bed we were working on.

Honeysuckle all hacked back off of the roof, stone wall and stone fence.

Mint has been pulled up left and right.

It will come back but hopefully prettier and not as long and gangly.

I spread three bags of mulch and pulled up one rosemary bush that had been ailing.

Tomorrow I will move on to the other flower bed behind Louis Dean's truck.

This once was a pretty area with established bushes in the back and a Dynamite crepe mrtle tree and lined in front with liriope.

Louis Dean hacked all that down the first year we were married!

It's just now getting pretty again with knock out roses and lantana.

That bed won't be nearly as much work as the other one was.

AND I have my weed burner to get the weeds between the bricks on the little walkway to the gate.

But that's work for another day and I am ready to kick back and relax for a bit before going to bed,

Hope YOUR weekend was good and that the coming week will be all you hope for......