Sunday...A day of rest??

While our Sunday was not actually a day of rest, it was a gorgeous day for getting some necessary things accomplished.

We did start our Sunday in the best way possible. At church, worshiping, singing, praising, giving thanks, and soaking in His word.

Once home, after eating a couple of fresh, delicious doughnuts, we all got to work on our to-do lists.

Doug finally had access to a working tractor and mower and spent the better part of the day mowing down long neglected sections of grass, weeds, and anything else that happened to be hidden in his path.






Billy, who really couldn't understand why he couldn't just go play golf all day, reluctantly accepted the fact that he had things to do too.

First on his list was school work from last week that for some mysterious reason, never got completed. He was thrilled to be working on school on a Sunday!




After school, he tackled his pile of dirty clothes that was covering the floor of his room.


Finally, he unloaded a large wagon load of sawdust for the stalls in the barn. Good, hard, physical work. Just what every 18 year old needs a daily dose of!


Tommy cut the grass in the front of the house, and mulched up all of the fallen leaves there.


He also tackled his dirty laundry.


He went out several times throughout the day and evening to ride his bike. It sure was the perfect day for that!


He actually did find some time for rest. It looks like he's contemplating something really important!!


I spent a good part of the day in the kitchen.
I made: brownies and granola bars,


Grape jelly

and bread and rolls for the week.


I planned a week's worth of school work for both boys.


I also wrote up a menu for the next two weeks. Maybe I'll share that tomorrow though.

I'm ready to go pack Doug's lunch and crawl under the covers to read my new book.

Here's a picture of the beautiful sunset. I took the picture while we were enjoying our dinner of chicken lasagna florentine. It was a recipe from my new cookbook Family Feasts .

It was a DELICIOUS dinner and will definitely be on our regular meal rotation.


Sleep well...

PUMPKIN CARVE

This week was our town's annual Great Pumpkin Carve. We've been really enjoying this tradition for the past couple of years. This year was extra special because we knew someone who would be participating. Our friend Kelly, along with her friend Madison, were going to be carvers/designers/creators/pumpkin artists, and they asked Andrew and Hannah to be on their team. Kelly and Madison are both artists and would be doing the designing.

This pumpkin carve started in the early 1970s when Andrew and Jamie Wyeth carved pumpkins for a local Inn. Our friends and family were in GOOD company!!!!

The team had 3 hours to complete their creation. They registered early so were given an awesome spot and the #1 pumpkin.


Their design was a scene from Where the Wild Things Are. It was a very popular pumpkin!!


Andrew did a lot of the grunt work while Kelly and Madison worked on the finer artistic details.




Hannah did a beautiful job carving the many tiny leaves on the trees.



It was an unusually warm night for late October, and there was a huge crowd. I kind of missed the crisp air, but it was enjoyable walking around without shivering!

Billy and Tommy were there with their friends Allie and Richie, having a great time together as always!


The creativity of these pumpkins amazes me every year. We'll be carving pumpkins later today. Maybe I'll be inspired to do more than cut out some triangles!















I think they were relieved to have it all finished with no mishaps. They did a great job!! I'm already looking forward to seeing what they come up with next year.

OUR LITTLE NATURE PRESERVE

This evening Doug and I enjoyed an absolutely delicious dinner for just the two of us. We had grilled steak with sauteed mushrooms, baked potatoes, caesar salad, and fresh picked today corn on the cob.

After dinner, we were in the kitchen doing the dishes, when Doug spotted a gorgeous deer browsing in our yard. I grabbed the camera and started taking some pictures that turned out a bit fuzzy because I was shooting through the screen.

When the deer moved into a different part of our yard, I snuck a peek out of our side door and took a little video. I thought I'd share it here for those of you who are nature freaks like me. The video gets a bit jumpy at the end when I was trying to keep my friend's dog, Beau, from pushing through the door to go "play" with the deer.

I hope you enjoy the video. It's time for our dessert now. Homemade peach cobbler!

SUMMER??

We've been enjoying the most amazing summer weather ever! We haven't had one horribly hot, humid day yet. I really hope I'm not jinxing things by writing this!!!!


Today, Tommy and I, along with Sofia and Vincent (my niece and nephew) decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and go for a hike in the woods. Of course I took along my camera and would like to share some pics from our day with you.

Usually by July this woods feels like some sort of tropical rain forest. Not today! We didn't even break out in a sweat on the way home when we were walking uphill the whole way.


There is an old, falling down, stone house in our woods that is always a fun place to explore and imagine who lived here so long ago. They would have been one of the closest neighbors to our house.
No matter which way we head out on a hike, and no matter which trail we take, the goal is always to get to a creek. Today we visited the creek at the bottom of "old house trail". On super hot days, this is always a great place to sit in the water and really cool off. We didn't need to do that today, but we did have fun exploring anyway.








We enjoyed eating our dinner out on our side patio. There was a very cool breeze blowing and it really didn't seem strange to be eating soup for dinner in July.
Boomer is definitely enjoying this gorgeous evening!

It's probably too much to wish for for this great weather to continue for the rest of the summer, but I'm sure planning on enjoying it while it lasts!