oh!

Tonight I saw this, a towel stuffed under Tim's door.

Hmmm.

What could be the meaning of this?

I knocked and then asked him about it.

"Ohhh, well. There was a silverfish in here, and it went out the door. Don't want it coming back in."

Well.

I love you Tim, so much.

Good night.

Love, MOM

feeling like summer

 Today it did.  After the rain, it felt good to be outside.

 Hair blowing in the breeze.

 This is called, "Hot dog" on two swings. First she fell off and I told her that was melted marshmallow.  We laughed.

 So many problems with the shoes. If it's just dirt, ignore it.  Only take off your shoes if there's a rock inside or something sharp.

Well, at some point, barefoot seemed less complicated.

It was a beautiful day.

Love, Grandma

more of the same

 We kept working around the house this weekend.   Jay got the fountain going.  My parents gave this to us years ago, and this is the perfect spot for it.

Renee said to put a rock in so the birds don't drown in it.  They normally do not, but one did last year.

 And this-- I saw a cake mix at the grocery store yesterday and remembered I have a Bundt pan from my grandma, so I dug through the cupboard and found it.

It's a lemon cake with blueberries and lemon icing.

 And this:

This scaffolding is kind of a nightmare to put up.  It's kind of an elegant invention the way it goes together and works, but it also feels hazardous as he's hanging from it, strapping down the boards and so forth. 

It's up now.  Woo hoo. Window's getting cleaned up and re-painted.  Last time was when John and Dan were in college, so like 20 years ago?  Maybe longer.  This should last a while once it's done.  My friend Jody has described our house as 100% maintenance.  She's right. There's not an inch here that is maintenance free.

All right.

It's the end of Sunday night and we're going to clean the turtle tank next.

Onward to a new week.

Love, Val

springbrook nature center

 I've been missing these kids quite a bit, so they agreed to meet outside, safely distance and go for a walk around the nature center.  It was almost  70 degrees out, perfect day for a walk in the woods.

 They were very squirrely and silly, lots of energy.  At one point we entered a memorial meditation garden and the oldest one went running as fast as he could.   Dan muttered, "Sprinting into a meditation garden, sigh."

I told Dan if he ever feels the need to create a memorial for me, do NOT create a meditation garden, make it play ground, and please have squirrel feeders.

 Beavers cut down these trees.

And then we ate a little lunch and came home again.

My purse had a little tiny stuffed gorilla key ring attached to it.  Tiny little stuffed gorillas  are not really my thing so I gave it to the kids to enjoy, said they could have it.  They did enjoy it. And they argued and they dropped it.  I attached it back to my purse so we wouldn't lose it.  At the end, in the parking lot I ran back to their truck with it to take home. I'm sure that little gorilla will have a good home over there, lots of fun adventures

Thanks guys.  I love you all, Grandma, aka MOM

friday afternoon

Love, Val

happy eighth birthday

 There you are, taking off on the motorcycle.

Here are some from when you were so little:

But not anymore. Now you're eight!

I love talking with you on the phone. You always have things to tell me, ideas--fun ideas.

You are just a great guy, and always have been.

We love you like crazy.  Thanks for being ours,  Love Grandma and Grandpa and Everybody

a pretty good monday

Love, Grandma

staying at home

Here we are, doing more of that.  The fire was nice.  Last night was too windy.  This old sandbox came in handy.

They've been working on these diamond art things Kirsten ordered for them, and they've turned out really pretty. So time consuming, but really pretty.

And that's the end of Sunday.

Love, Val