The Long-Awaited Report!

It's hard to believe Mom and Dad have been gone from here for two weeks already. We all had a very, very lovely time while they were with us. The length of their stay allowed us to go from their usual visit of four adrenaline-filled, exciting, exhausting, and emotion-filled days ... to a week of comfortable, 'paced', relatively normal 'living together' which was, IMO, more beneficial, under the circumstances in which we find ourselves, for all parties. You can ask those other parties their opinions when/if an opportunity arises. heehee

These are in no specific order....

One evening Mom and Dad carved pumpkins for the children while Jeremy and I prepped supper.



Justus helped me roast the seeds. Mmm....



There were a couple days of outside work for mostly the guys. In this picture (taken with Jeremy's phone) Justus was taking a turn with the leaf blower/sucker, my new favorite toy.





Natasha rrrrreally wanted to make a marionnette. She decided to use her raccoon pelt to do it. She worked on it, very focused, for about two or three hours one afternoon and encountered many obstacles and much frustration. It was a good exercise in ... patience ... for everyone.



Oh, and how funny are these two pictures??! Finishing off their steaks at the Morts' the night they hosted us, Jeremy & Mom were demonstrating for us their skills at getting every last delicious morsel off the bone! LOL!!





Dad took the following two pictures when we were arriving at the church building on Wednesday evening. They might be of some interest to some blog readers. :) L to R below: Justus (already at the door on the L), N (stairs), Jeremy, me, Mom, and then Elaine on her way to the door on the R.





Jeremy had N & J do the wrapping and presenting of a small gift we bought for Dad, since he lost his leatherman somewhere along the way. This was a HUGE deal for our children and they put 100% into their effort!! (pic from Jeremy's phone)



Remember that I won a family quilt last summer? A picture of our family has been requested, for record's sake. We hadn't yet taken shot that picture, so my idea was to hang the quilt at some point during Mom and Dad's visit so a.) they could enjoy it, too; b.) Dad could take our family's picture in front of it; and c.) I could take a picture of Mom and Dad in front of it, too! :) Mission accomplished.



This picture will be meaningful to only those who know Mom well enough to know about her mid-afternoon fruit snack routine. Here she and Justus are sharing the moment.



WE MADE APPLESAUCE. Two days' worth. It was really fun and really productive and really ... wonderful for me. :) We made 12 pts. the first day and even more the second day, from fell-off-the-tree Jonathan apples brought to us from a local orchard. The color in the peels turned the applesauce THE MOST BEAUTIFUL shade of pink!!!!!







Oh, this picture I took because it was just WAAAAY too familiar, from my childhood: Mom brushing a little white dog. >>FLASHBACK!<<



Mom played games with the children a couple mornings. Yahtzee!! (along with not-yet-put-away laundry on the table...!)



Here are some pictures of the birds Mom and Dad got to see at the feeder. First, two efforts at pictures of bluejays. When Mom first saw one at the feeder it all-but took her breath away. My initial reaction, years ago in Blair, was similar. Their colors are so much brighter in real life than a picture can show...!! The way they eat looks painful. They positively JERK each bite down, with at least three upward jerks of their beak. Is that 'swallowing'????



I kept thinking, all summer, that we had an inordinate number of female cardinals sharing our feeder. I have learned that cardinals mate for life and tend to stay in roughly the same area their whole lives, and that one couple gets a certain number of square acres, and that couples don't intrude on other couples' areas. So ... why all the female cardinals?? It wasn't until I saw all the bright red coming in on this 'female' cardinal that I think I figured it out. It's been a whole FAMILY of cardinals feeding all summer! At this point the male fledglings are starting to get their adult feathers!! ?? Right? I think!?