Summer Breeze, Makes Me Feel Fine

School planning is practically done. I fit all the books without us having to buy new bookshelves. Woohoo! That is always a concern. I don't think I'll be able to do that next year. But you never know. Maybe Jonathan will take some books to college which will give us some room. 

I was most proud of my book collection when I went to college. Not that I had that many, but I did have to buy a bookshelf. 

Well.... I made a bookshelf. 

Mr. Browning was getting rid of bricks and I bought some cheaply from him (or did he give them to me?) And Justin DeVries was working at the lumberyard in town, so I gave him money to buy me a board (which was much cheaper back then!). I stacked bricks on my bed shelf above the bolster and put the board down and stacked more bricks to keep the board from moving. Bam. I had two shelves of space for the books I had brought from home. Simple and effective.

Anyway, lots going on around here! 

We do get a lot of Summer Breeze around our house and it does Feel Fine.

Look at those crazy cats.

We sent 4 of the black kittens to a farm down the road to live in the barn and catch mice with another kitten from Christy. We haven't seen John Quincy or the Male Black lately. Could be they've taken off for other lands. Yay!

I believe Phoebe named this one Bubba. 

We have a striped one she named Pickle, and the one with white paws is Frog.

I think we've figured out how to tell males from females now, so our male-named cats will stop turning up pregnant. Or rather, our cats will still turn up pregnant, but they will have generic names. 

Phoebe is taking after her sister in that she likes to draw on herself. 

The girls do some beautiful work. And it washes off ~ win-win!

Mexico, MO opened a new aquatic center a few weeks ago. I met a friend and our kids took friends, and we had a really good time. 

VBS decorations were what was happening last week. We are doing cactus of all sorts - paddle cactus, agave, barrel cactus.... Harrison worked for many hours tracing and painting those pieces of styrofoam. 

It's pretty cool to use the heat knife, but it's also really hot outside. 

The kids and I stayed in.

Colored poster board cut down, folded, trimmed....

.....and glued onto water bottles, to be shaped into agave later. 

I figured up that we cut out over a 1,000 spikes and made over 80 agave plants.

Phillip did so much work on the porch and it is done! It looks so nice. We love sitting out there in the evening, in the morning. On coolish days (when there's a breeze), Phillip works out there too.

We are planning to rip up the sidewalks and push in the cellar, so the boys got out there and pulled up all the landscape bricks. Phillip sold them online, and we met a guy from St. Louis area who knew a guy from our church. Always seems to happen. 

We tried to include a free cat with purchase, but the brick buyer wasn't having any of it. 

Like father, like son. 

They truly don't plan to match.

Jack photography

Jonathan is at CIY this week. 

He and Gabry are sitting together there in the back of the bus.

Phoebe didn't go because her older siblings' spouting about loud music has scared her off.

Phoebe and Harrison got routine vaccinations today, and then we found a cute quilt shop off the main road and behind an old farmhouse. Phoebe and I are going to work on a small quilt this year, and we found the three prints and colors we needed.

This was on the door, and I love it so much! 

The owner was actually there when we arrived. She was watching her grandkids and was still able to be helpful. 

I'm learning from Phillip about corn. The corn is tasseling on top.

And now it's getting silk (silking?).

The pollen from the tassels will reach the silk (helped by wind or insects) which then fertilizes the corn cobs. I think each kernel has its own silk strand. The lady in charge of VBS decorations was talking about using the corn silk for her Barbie doll's hair when she was a girl. 

I see why. It's pretty.

🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶

See the smile awaitin' in the kitchen
Through cookin' and the plates for two
Feel the arms that reach out to hold me
In the evening when the day is through

Summer breeze makes me feel fine
Blowin' through the jasmine in my mind

                                                                  Seals and Crofts