Happy Anniversary!

To ME!!  My man and I have been married 17 yrs today and we're still going strong :)  I love him more than I ever thought I would.  So Happy Anniversary, my love!  Here's to many, many more!

The Plan...

I'm sure most of you are familiar with the following axiom:

If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans! 

I should wake up fully conscious of this before I even attempt making plans for the day!  The wild man rules whatever plans are going to be made and he is great for changing things midway through.  Whether it's due to changing his mind, temper tantrums, weather or forgotten obligations suddenly coming to mind, we never seem to get where we originally planned to go!  This morning, I admit, was a goof off kind of morning.  I had great plans to bake and clean and maybe, if early enough, hit the beach for some morning fun in the sun.  Needless to say, here I sit in the early afternoon having accomplished none of the "plan" - other than the necessary task of baking zucchini bread.  Necessary because I will soon be inundated with more zucchini than I can keep up with!  What exactly does one do with so much zucchini?  There's only so much bread and muffins or sauteing one can do!  I need a new "plan" - one that will handle the overflow of squash!  I will end up "Googling" zucchini recipes, searching for that one great delicious alternative requiring dozens of squash.  Oh were it so *sigh*...

The other great distraction of the day, for me anyway, is this darned computer and facebook.  It's life-sucking games and features could easily take me away for the rest of the day.  When I pull myself away, my poor bleary dry eyes are visible evidence of my addiction - LOL! Oh, and hand cramps from all the typing and mouse-work!  The wild man's current addiction is an off-shoot of mine, the Nintendo DS and in particular, Super Mario Bros.  At 4, he has already mastered the first of a dozen worlds, which means at least a dozen levels within each world, and he's several levels into the second world!  I know, I know - BAD MUMMA!!!  At least I set the timer on him so he won't get too carried away!  Right now he's comfortably ensconced in our green cushy recliner watching Iceage: The Meltdown and laughing his little buns off :)  

In any case, the "plan" also called for some crochet time and some journaling, none of which has even been looked at.  In fact, the last two journal entries stop suddenly because I was called away by the wild man and never got back to finishing my thoughts!  The crochet?  Let's just say I hope to have it finished before the little guys first birthday - never mind finishing before he's even born!  It might get done in time for his birth, if I'm lucky!  Not to mention the other babies due by the end of this year/start of next...  As I was saying, so much for the "plan".

I can't believe it's the end of July already!  My 17 year anniversary is this weekend and the wild man will be staying with his beloved Memere' and cousin for three days.  I'm excited, yet I know I will miss him :)  The quality time with my dear hubby will be much appreciated, though!  We plan on taking in several movies, having a lovely dinner out and staking out a small corner of beach to slug in for the better part of a day.  My Dad is actually happy we'll be out of his hair for a while.  I think he needs peace and quiet, too.  When he asked about the wild man staying at his Mem's house, he questioned my comment about spending quality time with my hubby saying, "what about quality time with (the wild man)?"  To which I replied, "I spend quality time with him every day - now it's time for (hubby)."  After harrumphing at me he seemed to think about it for a minute, then said he would be happy to have the kitchen all to himself so he could can some piccalilli.  HA!!!

My chickens are loving their new home!  They happily peck and scratch around, entertaining themselves and me, whenever I get the chance to watch them.  Their feathers have grown in and they look like miniature hens now.  They have gotten used to me, not so much the wild man because he's just, well, too wild!  But they will come to me when he's otherwise occupied and I get the chance to love them up.  Sounds funny but chickens can be quite affectionate!  I've been tossing them clover and grass and this morning gave them the added treat of some apple scraps.  Wow, does that ever get them excited!  Soon I'll start giving them more bits of scrap, like cucumber peelings and bits of gone-by fruit.  

It's a balmy 92.5 degrees so I think I'll dress my little man in his trunks and take him for a refreshing dunk in the river.  Perks of living riverside!  I loved it when I was growing up here and now I get to share it with my beloved wild man...I just love how life can turn you in circles!  Had we stayed in our old home we wouldn't have any of this type of life.  I quite frankly don't know what we'd be doing but I'm guessing it wouldn't be this fun!

Here's hoping you all have a lovely day!

Miscellaneous Friday!

Fallen maple - just missed barn but smooshed turkey pen (no turkeys were harmed!)

Big storm came through the other night and tore up the neighborhood!  Trees fell on cars and houses and we lost power Wednesday night.  Power didn't come on until 5:15am Thursday morning.  Thank goodness the evening was nice and cool - if it had been hot like the previous weeks we would have baked in our beds!

Wild man's 4th Birthday on Tues the 13th!

He was so excited to have cake in the middle of the week!  He couldn't stop telling me he was a big boy now that he's 4 :)

Special Caillou cake for his party last Saturday!

He loved his special cake!  The day was pretty brutal in temperature (mid-90's and humid) but we all managed to have a really great time!  Swimming in the river, bouncing in the bouncy house, eating lots of good salads, drinks, and good friends :)  Family was a godsend that weekend, too!

Wild man's favorite person, MEMERE'!!!

Go Sox!!!

Roma tomatoes - I have a ton!

Our garden took quite a beating from Wednesday evenings storm.  We even had hail mixed in with the torrential downpour.  There were several confirmed reports of tornado's in the area, too!  In Southern Maine, of all places!  Anyway, the garden has rebounded and I don't see that the hail damaged any of the fruit.  I should have quite the harvest of tomatoes what with all the bunches hanging off their vines!

Mmm...Zucchini!

My Barred Rock chicks :)

This pic is several days old - they have since been moved into their brand spanking new, fancy shmancy, Taj Mahal sized hen house!  (Pics will follow soon :))  They are in chicken heaven with all the room to flit around!  They were given some handfuls of grass and clover today for the first time and there is little evidence left on the hen house floor.  The house needs a permanent door and finish work on the outside, like shingles on the roof and shiplap siding.  But it's buttoned up enough for them to hang out in with no danger of wildlife getting to them.  I just love my little ladies!

Haven't done much in the way of knitting or crochet for the last month or so.  Been too darned hot to think of yarn.  I need to get my buns in gear though...I have several friends and a relative all expecting babies at the end of the year or beginning of next.  Whew!  Better get crackin'!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Stay safe!

Photo Monday

My darling man checking his lobsters on Father's Day :)

Doing what he loves to do best!

My beautiful boy :)

Hot Hot Hot!!!

Holy Monkey - it's like a bizillion degrees out there!  We are recording 96 degrees in the shade, the SHADE!  It's over 100 in the sun.  I don't know about you but this heat belongs in Arizona or Florida, not little ol' Maine.  There's a little tiny breeze blowing the hotness all about, and thank the good Lord for what little breeze there is, but it's still ineffectual *sigh*...  This is the only kind of weather I simply can't function in.  My poor little man is bored to tears and begging to go outside and play.  I had to tell him it was just too hot out.  I have his little wading pool out but it's right in the blazing sun.  We'll have to wait until later in the afternoon when the shade begins to cover it.  Whew!  I'm sitting in an A/C'd house and I'm still sweating!

Speaking of suffering in this heat, my poor dear hubby has a blistering case of poison ivy and the heat only makes it worse.  It's all over his arms, neck, and chest and it's taking every ounce of his considerable self control to not itch at the stuff!  I sent him to work with a bag of lotions, sprays and gauze's hoping he can get some relief.  He just called to let me know he's gotten in at the Dr's to hopefully get a shot and find some relief that way.  The poor man - he has no idea how he got it because he's been so careful.  Yet with all the projects we've had going on I'm really not surprised.  He's weed whacked the crap out of all kinds of undergrowth and cleaned it all up so he's bound to have picked it up from there.  Unfortunately we are a haven for tons of the nasty stuff.

The wild man has been doing good lately.  We've beached it the last couple days trying to beat this heat.  He LOVES it!!!  So we may attempt it again tonight when the dear man comes home. 

Which brings me to another point - the truck has died.  Big time bummer because we are using it a lot these days.  Hubby goes to and from softball and also uses it for hauling lumber for our screen house project.  It's going to cost $1,500 to fix and that's money we don't have.  So it's just going to have to sit there until we can fix it ourselves or save up the money to do it properly.  This means back to carpooling and the loss of hubbys independence - BLECH!