This Month...

The Lego Palette

 I lost my camera!   At a campground!   A new one is on the way, but August is almost all undocumented.   Lots of fun things, both quilting and everyday happened.  Let me catch you up.

• I got a bit distracted by the Palette Builder at Play Crafts one evening.  It is quite fun and I stayed up quite late building palettes based on my pictures.  Lego quilt anyone?   Seriously, you have to try it out - it is quite addictive.  In a good way.  ;)

At the Beach Palette

• The summer has been amazingly cool here and the garden has done great.  My counters are covered in tomatoes, peppers and onions.  It's salsa canning day tomorrow.   The garden is packed with carrots, beets and potatoes that can wait to be picked - thank goodness, I don't know what I would do with them at this point.

• We went to the fair and my quilt block took second!  Yea!  My tree quilt was mostly "acceptable" with a few "very goods" scattered in.  I have a whole post about competition and quilt shows shows in my noggin.  (In brief:  I like competition even if judging is weird sometimes.) 

Sweet Baby Palette

• The big girls are back at school and doing well.  The little girls have ear infections (grouchy baby!) but are starting to do better now.

Circus Club Parade Palette

• I am hoping life slows down a bit and isn't such a circus, but I don't think that will happen especially since I went and planned something big (with pictures) here for the month of September.  So keep hanging around and stop by if you want any tomatoes, or beets, or zucchini... :)

This Summer

Tomorrow the kids go to school.  Emily is in 8th grade, Aleah 3rd and Colleen in Kindergarten.  Everyone is excited/nervous.  I'm just rather excited to have a bit less going on at home.

If I had my druthers I would be an organized person, but that just doesn't happen when you have to work with other people - like your kids.  Let me tell you about My Summer Plan and then what really happened.

Monday - Spend the morning at the Ames library.   We never made it up to the Ames library (5 times as large as ours) and I only went to the library with the kids once or twice but I would send them up to the library by themselves (not with Kate and Becca) when books were overdue or when they were bored.  I even let Colleen and Aleah go up by themselves.  I can't decide whether that makes me a bad mom or laid back mom.  I guess they weren't kidnapped and the librarians didn't complain so it's all good.

Tues/Thurs - Work in the Garden and Yard for at Least an Hour.  I was hardly in the garden at all this year.  And unlike last year I can't blame it on the heat or being pregnant.  My only excuse is that it is harder to get everyone to the garden because it is a block away.   I think I just have to admit that I love having a beautiful yard and garden, but I don't really care for weeding and pulling up saplings.  I do get off on pruning which is good because it has to be done twice a year on a million bushes.

Wednesday - Have Friends Come Over.  I don't think we invited anyone over to play more than once or twice during the summer.  The girls did play with Mandy and Aleah-across-the-street regularly.

Friday - Field Trip Day.  A reward for doing all of the weeding on Tues/Thurs.  I was planning on going to the Amana Colonies, digging fossils, Ledges, Nauvoo, Pella, the State Capital, the Rose Gardens, the History Museum, the High Trestle Trail, the State Fair and the Science Center.  We went to Pella, Nauvoo and the State Fair.  Kind of a bummer.  There are cool things to do around here but we never seem to do them.

Also in the plans were swimming in the evening after naps - only happened twice.
Swimming lessons for Aleah and Colleen?  Check!
Horse riding lessons?  Check!
Cleaning up the kitchen after every meal to earn "Fair Money"?  Check for a month.
I think I lost my camera last month at our Pioneer Day activity!  Argg!

Not too bad, but not the beautifully organized balance of fun, work and rest that I had planned.  But I guess that is life.  But of course, now that the kids are in school I have a great plan for the fall.  ;)