Summertime

 Here it is late summer already. We have had a very mild and wet summer up until about a week or so ago. Temperatures are hitting the 100°+ mark regularly now, though. We did have a lovely rainstorm earlier this week, which is always welcome in August! I’m really thankful for the milder weather this year, but I am already looking forward to fall.

Since my last post we had a sleepover with Nam. He wanted me to teach him to crochet. We gave it a good go, but I think he’s still a little young to have the necessary left hand dexterity. You don’t realize how many things you need to think about and do at the same time when crocheting until you try to break it down to teach someone. Maybe in a year or so he’ll be ready, if he’s still interested.

Dennis had cataract surgery on his right eye back in late July and on his left eye this week. His right eye has done amazingly well! He could immediately see much better out of it. Things didn’t go as well on his left eye. The surgery went well, and all is good, but he’s had some swelling which has caused his vision to be blurry. It is slowly improving every day. He can see pretty well out of it now, but it isn’t nearly as sharp as his right eye yet. He has been amazed at how clear his vision is now, and how bright everything is. He’s never been one to wear sunglasses, but he has had to since his surgeries. My cataracts are due for removal next year. At my last eye appointment my ophthalmologist said they were getting close, but we could put it off another year. I can tell that they’ve gotten worse in the few months since then.

Since Dennis has been restricted (on lifting and doing anything that might get stuff in his eyes), he hasn’t gotten much done on the church house lately. He should be able to get back to it next week. He is close to finishing up the bathroom vanity in the men’s room. After that, he just has to finish out the trim in there. He won’t begin on the lady’s restroom until after Labor Day. The Young family is having their annual Labor Day get-together at the MW State Park this year, so we want both restrooms serviceable when we have the extra visitors. We are really looking forward to having it so close to us this year! We had to miss last year, since we were babysitting Archer and Kacey that weekend.

We kept the littles last Friday, because Amber had a very busy cake schedule that day. Since Ricky’s birthday was the next day, we fixed supper for them to celebrate. We fried fish, shrimp, French fries, and hushpuppies. We also had fresh cantaloupe and watermelon. After supper the guys went out to the shooting range. They hadn’t been gone 30 minutes before Kacey started throwing up. I was pretty sure (from her stomach contents) that it was a virus. Sure enough, Archer got sick the next day, then Amber another day or two later. It was a nasty bug! I really felt sorry for all of them. I couldn’t go help out, since I had to take Dennis for his surgery early Tuesday morning. I couldn't afford to get sick or get him sick. They made it through ok, but they really had a rough few days!

I’ve just been working on a couple of knitting and crocheting projects lately. I found this really pretty pattern for knitted dishcloths and towels. It works up looking like it is woven. It took me a couple of tries to finally get the hang of it. I still have to really focus on it while I’m working. I normally like to do handwork like that while watching tv, but I can’t with this pattern…otherwise, I mess up. My hands don’t hold up to doing much at a time either (my left hand goes numb on me), so it is really slow going. I’m trying to do a kitchen towel that is about 12”x18”. It is taking forever! When I don’t want to concentrate so hard, I’ve also been making a crocheted pouf out of t-shirt yarn. I’ve been going to a local thrift store, where I can get a paper grocery sack full of t-shirts for $5-6. I’m mainly doing it just to try something different. I figure the littles will enjoy climbing and wrestling with it once it is completed. It’s really ugly, so I’ll only pull it out when they are here. It keeps me busy though.

I did one other small crochet project last week. I love old-timey wooden blocks and keep some for the littles to play with. I’d had them in a paper sack, which finally bit the dust. So I needed a new container to keep them in. I decided to use bits and pieces of leftover yarn from my stash and make a basket just the size needed to hold them. It only took me a day or so to work it up. Kacey loves dumping and filling containers of stuff. She’s pretty good about putting things in their proper containers, too.

Amber told me a really sweet Kacey story from the weekend: when Archer started throwing up, Amber was trying to get him cleaned up and comfortable. Kacey ran and brought a bowl to him, then went and got his favorite blanket to cover him up with. Such a sweetie! She knew just what to do.

I ran out of pepper jelly (my favorite!) last week, so I made a new batch this week. I decided to go “hot” this time. The batch I made last year was very mild…could barely tell it had jalapenos in it at all. This batch definitely has some heat! I made a batch of sourdough hamburger buns yesterday. The recipe makes 8, so I always freeze the extra in pairs using my vacuum sealer. They hold up really well in the freezer that way. When Dennis grills burgers, I always have him make extra, so I can freeze them the same way. That way, we can have grilled hamburgers on homemade buns whenever we get the hankering for them! In my opinion, you can’t hardly beat a good burger!

Well, that’s been our summer. I hope yours has been going well and hasn’t been too hot. Stay cool and show kindness to all you come in contact with.

Col 3:12-13 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.