I was going to get this up much sooner today, but we had a lot of running around to do. A week from Saturday we have a wedding at our church and three of our children are part of the wedding party. So today in between a piano tuning at our home and the church and some minor renovations in our home we squeezed in dress fittings for two of our daughters and buying suits for some of our sons. I was rather dreading all the busyness that was going to be today, but in the end everything went very smoothly and faster than I imagined. I even got to do a little gardening when we finally arrived home. Yeah. ☺

Last week when we went to the library I borrowed a craft magazine that was specifically for children. I didn’t have time to check out the crafts while we were out the library or I would have never bothered with the magazine. Honestly, I don’t have time for crafts that need a bunch of extra things that I don’t normally have on hand. There wasn’t a single craft in the magazine that I could see us doing with ease – and this was a magazine for children.

Anyway, my children showed me they don’t need a magazine to come up with something crafty. My eight and six year old took clothes pins and pine needles and daisies and made play people. The full daisy flower pins are girls, and the ones with only the centres of the daisies are boys. Then they had fun playing with them. Double the fun – fun in the making and the playing.

One day we took the children about an hour away to a tourist site called “The Big Apple“. There’s a huge apple on site – several stories tall – you can climb up to the top where there is an observatory. As well, there is a very tiny zoo with llamas, goats, sheep, rabbits, ducks, geese. The children had fun petting the animals and feeding them. The baby was beyond delighted squealing with joy and pointing at everything. And of course, we couldn’t leave without getting some of their yummy apple pies.

My garden is going so well. We’ll be eating beans soon. Big smile. The zucchini are getting blossoms so there will be fruit there soon. The watermelons are still growing. And I had to stake the tomatoes today. Next week I’ll start pinching suckers off. There are blossoms on the tomatoes so soon we should see baby tomatoes growing! My mint plant is getting bigger, but I’m thinking about transplanting it to a pot I have. Mint can be invasive, and I don’t want it taking over.

Gardening, for me, even though I’m not super good at it is so relaxing. Even just standing and looking at my garden calms me down. My family couldn’t survive even a week on the little bit I grow, but it sure brings me joy.

I hope you had a good week and are enjoying the summer.