Pirate Trivia

I keep forgetting to tell you this funny Allison story:

About a week ago Ed went into Allison's room in the morning to get her up for breakfast. She was just waking up and the first thing she said to Ed was: "Daddy, pirates sleep with one eye open. That's kind of tricky."

We don't know what prompted this bit of pirate trivia but she felt inclined to clue us in with her first words of the day. The child sure does make us smile!

This and That

Kind of a low key week. Becky had b-ball camp all week in the morning. Katie had a couple of sleepovers and they had friends over to swim. Mostly we hung around the house, swam, and ate ice cream. Not a bad way to spend the day...

I love this picture of the goose family. The babies are so fuzzy. We saw them Father's Day where we went fishing. So cute.

This is the view all around Onota Lake. As you can see, the water was pretty choppy but it was warm and sunny, and oh so pretty.

We went strawberry picking last week. The berries were SO juicy and red - YUM! We picked about 11 pounds, then came home and made two dozen jars of freezer jam. Katie was so helpful making the jam. She did all the chopping and stirred the pectin on the stove. It was nice to spend time with her that way. Here's some pics from the Strawberry Field.

I tried out a mom trick I read about a long time ago. Yesterday, the house needed to be dusted. I figured that since my little dumplings were home maybe they could help. I dread asking them to do that kind of thing because I'm usually met with lots of hemming and hawing. BUT, when I explained that there were coins hidden among the furniture to be dusted it seemed to be just the incentive to WANT to help. I hid quarters under lamps, behind picture frames, between photo albums, on top of shelves. I even got Allison involved by placing coins on TOP of the baseboards so she could 'find' them while she wiped the baseboards down. They were actually asking for more rooms to dust! So, I got some help, they got some cash, and I think we all made out pretty well!

Next week is pretty busy for us. I'm not sure I'll be posting much but I'll try. We'll have house guests from tomorrow until next weekend. I'm looking forward to visiting. My parents are coming down. It will be good to see my mom. She seems to be doing well. I'll get to see for myself that she's getting better and stronger. Then my brother in law and his family; then 'my friend since fourth grade' and her family. Should be a fun week!

I'm having trouble finding time to do my writing work. I think we need to work on some sort of routine that includes the girls having some quiet time and me doing my writing stuff. When I think about it, the girls really do spend some quiet time in their rooms already BUT instead of working on my writing work I'm doing OTHER stuff like laundry or surfing the web or countless other things that really could wait! SO. Perhaps I need to be a little more disciplined in using the time I have to do what I NEED to do. My next assignment is due Aug. 3. I really need to get it done before we head to Sebago Lake at the end of July. That shouldn't be any problem if I just buckle down and DO it!!

If I don't post before hand, HAPPY FOURTH!

A Boating Day

What a beautiful weekend to be out on the lake. We took Lucy with us. I don't think she'd ever been on a boat before. She didn't HATE it but she seemed a little unsure of the whole thing. At one point she seemed to be enjoying herself but overall I think she could take it or leave it. I just wanted to post some of the pics we took.

It's supposed to be Hot and Humid this week. YAY! Can you believe next week is Fourth of July?! I love the 4th. We'll do what we did last year...parade, baseball game, fireworks. This year Ed's brother and his family will be here so that will make it even more fun.

Rebecca is doing basketball camp this week in the morning. I'm so proud of her. She was so OKAY when I dropped her off and left. Those of you who've know Becky for any length of time know how difficult it's been for her to be independent and away from me. She used to cry and carry on and it was very hard for both of us. Even at the beginning of the school year she insisted that I walk her to her class and she was a little weepy. It seems we've turned a corner. I guess it's proof that those difficulties that we think will plague us and our children indefinitely really do work themselves out.

Fishing

We went fishing on Father's Day. Katie got right into it. She almost worked up the courage to grab the fish and take the hook out but she couldn't quite do it. I don't blame her. I think she caught four or five fish. Becky was not impressed with fishing. She didn't like the fish to be too close to her and she found the whole thing kind of boring. Allison spent the afternoon wading in the water finding shells. She never fished. Ed was enjoying every minute. He caught like six fish and I caught one. The weather was beautiful so it was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Here's Katie and one of her fishes.
Notice Becky isn't getting too close.
I had to post this picture of Allison super star! She's raring to go at her soccer game.