august happenings

we have been soaking up every last minute of summer break! you'd think after a solid 5 months of no school and activities that we would be ready to jump back in... but no, we are not. or maybe I should say that I am not. the kids are ready to be with friends again, but if they could leave out the school and the schedules parts they would :).

here are some things we've been up to the past couple weeks, not in order:

our hydrangeas are in full, glorious, bloom!

Ellie started a succulent garden!

she definitely has a green thumb and if we ever get a garden going, she will be the first and last in the dirt, I am sure of it!

she's also been trying to catch a chipmunk ever since her cousin louie was here. they hatched a plan and she has been trying hard since and come very close!

sunflowers, sunflowers, sunflowers!

yesterday was jack's last official day working with the Powells at 22 Acres Farm. when I drove up to get him after a 9 hour day, they said i'd find him with the newborn calf... he was bottle feeding it. he told me that when we dropped him off earlier that morning he was supposed to check on the calves and when he went into the stall he found one of them dead. we were standing in front of one of the owners when he told me and I was of course very sad and asked him, "oh no! were you pretty sad?" and he was super mature with, "that's all part of farming". but when we got in the car I said "so really, how was it finding the calf this morning? and he said "super sad".

jack will probably go work a few more times before fall, but not on a set schedule.

his best buddy from school, Everett, came to visit him at work one day.

Everett and his sister Addy are moving to Atlanta tomorrow. jack is feeling melancholy about it. he was the one person jack looked forward to hanging out with at school. Addy is a year younger than Ellie but they became good friends as our families hung out. we will definitely miss them!!! 

now, in the back of jack's head, is the question: who will I sit with at lunch?

brother Powell gave Owen a whole bag of "magic sunflower seeds" when we went for our pictures! he quickly found a good spot and he and I spent an hour or so planting. we have several little sprouts, so fingers crossed we get some blooms!

we found this beauty in our garage one morning and it made my eyes water. such a beautiful creature. guessing it got trapped in the garage and overheated.

I recently tried baking Martin's Bagels from King Arthur flour. SO GOOD! yes it does take a couple days, but it was pretty easy and definitely worth it.

ive also been making wheat bread for the sacrament each week since the pandemic began. I usually make 4 loaves, cut them into smaller sections, then freeze them. we pull out a small section on Sunday morning to use. its a wonderful way for me to contribute to our worship.

we went peach picking (in the rain) a couple weeks ago at Legend Hills Orchard in Utica and have been enjoying SO MANY PEACHES

im not a canning type person, which would be the normal thing to do with an abundance of peaches. plus, my kids don't even like to eat canned fruit. so besides snacking and sides for meals, we've made pies, cobblers, peach lemonade and fried peaches with fresh whipped cream

grandpa doesn't do too much mountain biking anymore so he surprised us by shipping his bike up here for the kids to use. they LOVE it!

Owen thinks he's a pretty tough kid on his bike and here's a video proving it!

this sunset took my breath away the other evening. within 4 minutes it went from blazing orange to the most intense pinkish cotton candy color. beautiful! it was a great night for jack and chris to help our neighbor with his yard work.

sports have begun once more! Ellie has been doing cross country since June and soccer started back up this week for the boys! we've been tossed back and forth regarding whether or not the health department will allow soccer to start up again, plus many of the age groups don't have coaches, but things are coming together this week to get things started. Charlie had his first practice last night and he is on coach Jon's team again this season and was pretty happy when he discovered that!

Owen is still waiting for a coach, so right now he is having the big boys set up drills for him to practice. this morning he was out in his boots, a shirt, and no pants doing some drills!

we celebrated my birthday a couple weeks ago! 35! I dragged everyone to shake shack and Gap so I could grab a new shirt. they were thrilled. lol.

I had to include a picture of this card from my folks because it made me laugh so hard. my mom knows how much mice torment me. since moving to ohio, they have become my biggest fear. we haven't had any mice since the three we had when we first moved in (besides one in a trap in the garage this summer), but I still have chris set traps all over our house. around every corner and in ever cranny you will find a trap, just in case! they even haunt my dreams. im 100% paranoid.

this card was perfectly picked.

after playing horseshoes and badminton, chris surprised me with a Whit's frozen custard cake. yum!

a few weeks ago Owen walked behind Charlie while we were playing horse shoes right as Charlie was winding up for a toss. the horse shoe made contact... with Owens eye. we've enjoyed seeing many shades of purple and green on his eyelid ever since. 

school starts on Monday next week. 

we were in denial that our summer is almost over, but this week decided it was time to do school supply and shoe shopping. 

we will have one kid at the elementary school (its about darn time! Owen has been ready for kinder for years it seems haha!), one at the intermediate, and two in middle school. 

our district gave each family the choice of going back to school in person or doing school online. we decided to go in person, but I won't lie and say we didn't go back and forth on that when coming to our decision. quite a few factors went into our decision but ultimately, our kids seem to do best academically when they are physically with their teachers (and peers). we feel that our district has done a great job putting safety measures in place, plus our kids are healthy and active. so we will give it a go and have said a few prayers that all will go well. 

this week we are doing individual dates with each of the kids as a last hurrah for summer! Ellie wanted to go get Key Lime Pie custard at Whit's, Owen got burgers and shakes at five guys, jack is going to go mountain biking, and Charlie wants to get pancakes at Bob Evans.