Summer Drag

This happens to me almost every summer, I get sooo bored, and so do my kids.  This isn't complaining for the most part, because things have run pretty smoothly thus far, but I am finding it hard to keep the kids occupied whether it be work or pleasure.  There is only so much housework 3 boys, 1 girl and a momma can do.  We are in the south, although it may not be the deep south someone needs to inform the thermometer and humidity.  The 2 youngest will still brave the heat to ride bikes, visit the creek, pick blackberries, etc.  The teen man and the almost teen man are through with most of their playing.  There have been lots of playing with neighborhood children, which has its ups and downs.  Yesterday the 10 yr old neighbor girl gave Dania her old DS (whatever that is), she had just purchased a new DSI, so the old DS was outdated and passed to Dania.  I came into the sunroom to see them sitting next to each other texting not talking.  I mentioned how strange and not fun that looked, to which she replied that she could do this for hours. 

The saving grace is that all of my kids like to read, Evan the most, Luke and Dania tie for second and Austin last, but he will still read a fair amount.  I took the kids to the library yesterday and Evan was so excited to find a book on English Fairy tales, did I mention how awesome I think that kid is.  I have found him on several occasions around the house today reading those stories, he even snuck down last night after bedtime to get the book and ask if he couldn't please read some more quietly in bed.  It has quite difficult vocab and he will often have to stop and ask what a phrase means or a particular word is regarding.

I am in heaven over new carpet in the master bedroom.  The old carpet must have been original (20yr) and it was off white and did not match the room at all.  We have kind of a gaudy, flamboyant room,(it was not our design) there are curtains that look like a clown jesters suit (burgundy,gold,olive) there is scroll work along the ceiling, a recessed ceiling that is painted chocolate, high ceilings, and crown molding that is ornate as well.  So needless to say dirty, filthy, off white carpet needed to go.  My feet delight every time I step in my room, and we have managed to keep the room spotless now that we have overhauled the carpet.  I wonder how long that will last.  My second joy is the tomatoes on the back deck, I have so far had no problems with them, although they are not at peak production yet, we have had many a tasty one.  The cherry tomatoes are the only plant that doesn't look to healthy, it is a little yellow and has had to have quite a few dead branches pruned off.

I am desperate to get some baby chicks even though it is against neighborhood covenants, since we have 13 acres and no one to the left of us I am thinking of appealing to the powers that be.

I have just started to read a book that my mother highly recommended "The Shepherd of the Hills" I have not read enough to comment yet.  I also read (did not purchase) Love Wins by Rob Bell.  I have liked many of his videos and some of his earlier work, I would need to spend a whole day blogging about it to cover all the bases, but I just don't feel like it was worth it.  He made some good points, asked a few relevant questions,but overall it was incredibly weak.  I expected to be stumped and pouring over scripture, but alas that was not the case.