Yahoo and her Personal Assistant

It's summertime and that means swim lessons! 

Our town pool is only a block away from our house and last year we practically lived at the pool. I was accused by one of the teenage lifeguards of being there all the time last summer...like that's a bad thing! 

Hey, I think I can justify "living" at the pool when we our first full summer in Kansas was one of the hottest and driest on record. I mean, 104 degrees was an average temperature last year!! (It seemed to me anyway.) 

Moving on...swim lessons. If we are going to live so close to the pool I would just feel a lot more comfortable if my kids are taking swim lessons. Not that my boys would agree. They think swim lessons are too much like being taught something, heaven forbid, and swim lessons cut into their playtime! 

Not Yahoo though. Yahoo is in LOVE with the water! 

She has. no. fear.

She's the only one in her class that doesn't mind getting dunked. She can't wait to get to her swim lessons everyday which makes it kind of difficult since her lessons are right after lunch. She gets so excited it's tough getting her to eat. And after every activity they would do Yahoo would pipe up, "That was awesome!" LOL...I'm pretty sure the lifeguards are tired of hearing that! 

The funniest thing about lessons is that Yahoo gets so excited about swimming that she ends up talking and bouncing all the time and drifting around the pool, not paying attention to the instructor.

Therefore one lifeguard has the job of holding Yahoo's hand and keeping her still and listening. 

Well look at you Miss Thing! Aren't you special? You have your very own Personal Assistant by your side. 

(Hmmm. Where can I get one of those?)

Car Talk will end this year. NOOOOOO!!!!!

I came across some devastating news this week on my Reader feed.

Car Talk will end this year!

What??? You don't know what car talk is? What do you live in a cave? Haven't you seen the movie Cars? 

Remember these two guys from the movie CARS?
They were the Rust-eze guys, Lightning McQueens sponsors. 
A short part but unforgettable. 

In real life they are brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi and they have had the popular show Car Talk on NPR for 25 years. 

Hey I hardly know anything about cars and even I love tuning in to listen to these two guys talk about cars on the weekend. These two are hilarious! They sure make learning about cars a lot of fun as they talk through car problems with callers. 

If you've never listened to Car Talk take a minute and check this one out. 
It's classic! 

Short on Crafts, Long on Fun

My boys have been out of school for four weeks. I kept anticipating that once summer vacation was here the boys and I would be able to sit down and do all kinds of fun awesome crafts and experiments that I could share on Marker Monday. No such luck. 

Four weeks into summer vacation and 4-H camp, library program, swim lessons, preparing for Vacation Bible School and road trips have consumed all of our time. On Saturday I finally felt like I could take a deep breath and slow down...a little. 

I asked the boys if there was anything special they wanted to make or do that day, silently crossing my fingers that they'd want to do something from my Pinterest boards, but they decided on a tree house. 

Voila! 

Actually they did most of it without me. They nailed up most of the boards on their own; I just came in at the end to help sturdy things up. Just trying to prevent a trip to the ER here folks. 

A beautiful piece of art it isn't but they sure have had fun in their tree house. 

I do believe Yap spent most of his Saturday afternoon in the tree house despite the 95 degree heat. 

One more week of swim lessons and I "should" have my Vacation Bible School project done this week (can't wait to show you!). Hopefully then we'll have a bit more free time to get really creative. 

But I'm not complaining if we don't because we're all smiles here. 

As long as everyone is having summer fun I'm not too worried what kind of Marker Monday projects we get done. 

If any. 

Sunday Devotions - Troubled Hearts and Saying Goodbye

"Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father's home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going." John 14:1 - 4

A couple weeks ago when we were home in Indiana visiting family my grandfather passed away. I suppose it wasn't totally unexpected because he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's about four years ago and had gone downhill quickly in the last year. Still, losing a grandparent is always hard. Grandpa Asa was the fourth grandparent that has passed away but, for me, definitely the hardest to lose. 


You see, I lived with Grandpa and Grandma for four years while I attended college. My college was small and they lived within driving distance so I commuted to help save money. Grandpa was a special character. He fed me peanut butter and ice cream for breakfast when I was little. He could drink coffee at all hours of the day or night and he always offered you a cup of coffee no matter when you stopped by. Grandpa always wore bib overalls and seed corn hats, except to church. I'll never forget the time, when I was living with him,  when I went to do laundry only to find that Grandpa had washed a pair of his bib overalls with a full package of chewing tobacco in the pocket. I had to clean out washed Red Man out of the washing machine!! 


After I was married with kids, DR and I would return and stay with Grandpa Asa on visits. Grandpa once let my twin boys, aged 2 or 3 at the time, play with a big bucket of field corn on the living room carpet! 


I've cried a lot for Grandpa Asa. My heart has been troubled. 


I sure hadn't planned for a funeral during vacation; I had to buy a new dress and shoes. I was having a hard time dealing with the loss of Grandpa and I didn't know what we should do with our kids. My boys are almost 8 and remembered Grandpa well. Yahoo, I didn't know. Finally we decided that we would bring them early to the viewing for a few minutes before DR took them to play and the boys would attend the funeral while Yahoo was with a family friend. 


As we went to the casket during the viewing, my three year old daughter asked what was the matter with Papa. Trying my best not to cry, not succeeding, I answered that his body didn't work anymore and he went to live with Jesus and the angels. Yahoo exuberantly responded, "I want to go live with the angels too!!" 


My boys each went to the casket once or twice but I could tell that they weren't comfortable. I think mostly because Grandpa didn't look like the grandpa they remembered. Yahoo though kept asking over and over to go see Papa. She wasn't sad or upset standing at the casket. She just kept happily repeating to me that his body stopped working and Papa's was with the angels now. And she kept asking me why I was sad and crying. 


Yahoo taught me a lot that day. Papa's with the angels, which was a good thing and I shouldn't be sad. For Yahoo it was so simple. The facts were simple and she trusted that everything was fine. Papa was with Jesus, right? Why shouldn't everything be fine? Why couldn't I feel as happy as she? I learned I need to listen to the logic of my children more often. I think they understand God better than I do. 


Dear Lord, Make my heart like a child's today. Ever trusting and ever peaceful. You've promised us joy and gladness, peace of mind and heart. Help me not to be troubled but to look forward to eternity with You, when I'll see my loved ones again. Amen. 

Foody Friday - Monster Smoothies

Last Friday I returned from two weeks in Indiana to find my garden was huge and full of weeds. My Swiss Chard leaves had grown larger than my hand! It's no surprise Kansas is hot and dry. I've found that Swiss Chard handles the heat much better than spinach which bolts to seed quickly. Last summer it lasted well all summer long despite 100+ degree temps. Swiss Chard is very similar in taste to spinach if it is picked when it's small. But these leaves are bigger than my hand and the taste is starting to turn bitter. Even if everyone in my ate salads morning, noon and night it would take us a while to get through this amount of Swiss Chard. 

I just hate the idea of throwing away food from the garden.

I stumbled across this recipe for a Spinach Smoothie and figured Swiss Chard would work just as well. I mixed up a batch; it wasn't bad but it wasn't great either and it definitely wasn't anything my kids were impressed with. 

So I tweaked it and hit gold! 

Or green in this case. 

Monster Smoothies

Place the following in a blender. 

1 cup milk

1/2 cup yogurt

2 sliced bananas (frozen sliced if you prefer)

2 HEAPING tablespoons of peanut butter

3 T honey (or so, I didn't measure this)

Pack in the remaining blender space with spinach/swiss chard. 

Blend until liquified. 

May the Wild Rumpus BEGIN! 

"Let me try!!" 

"Mmmmm....yummy!" 

Yap: "Hey let me have some!"

Yahoo: "NO!!" *gulp gulp*

Yap: "Ah maaaan!"

Yahoo: "Oh, okay...Here you go!"

Yap: "Yum yum!" 

Yap: "Do I look like a monster yet?"

We took half of this batch and made popsicles from them. They were even better than the smoothie. 

I know, I know...it really looks gross. Honestly though it doesn't taste any different than a peanut butter banana smoothie. Anyway, calling it a Monster Smoothie makes it a whole lot more fun to eat! 

Most importantly though...I'm making a huge dent in my garden's Swiss Chard!! 

Weeks 21 and 22; Rest and Architecture

Vacation put me a bit behind on my 52 week project. I think this week is actually week 23. I'll get caught up eventually :) For the themes Rest and Architecture I took some photos during vacation. 

Week 22 - Architecture 

1/3 sec, f9, ISO 1600

This one was taken in the Mad Anthony Brewing Company in Warsaw, Indiana during a date with my husband. I LOVE their SCOTCH EGGS and Harry Baals Irish Stout! I slowed my shutter speed way down to get the fans to blur and then I desaturated the color of the beams and increased the vibrance of the lights themselves. I really like all the lines and angles in this photo that direct your eye to the lights. 

Week 21 - Rest 

1/200 sec, f14, ISO 800

After a very busy couple of days Yahoo fell asleep in a wagon at the zoo. Even in the bright sunshine being hauled over some bumpy paths she found some rest. I wish I could have joined her for her nap :) 

I've been trying to shoot at an high ISO at all times lately (800,1600) even outside after I read an article about combining a high ISO with a fast shutter speed to create sharper images. I think it worked well to make Yahoo sharp but maybe I should have lowered my f-stop to 6.3 or so to make it out of focus in the background. Rest and sharpness don't really go together. 

Next week I'll try to have Week 23 - Coil and Week 24 - Stop posted. Hopefully that should get me caught up and back on schedule. 

Thistles

I love thistles. I know weird. But I just like the bushy purple flowery part. 

Anyway, these were taken behind my sister's house during our visit home to Inidiana.