June 2018 – Asbery's Echoes

Stitching The Heat Away

Olde Crows Nest Farm by Lori Rippey. Love those crows!

It’s been so excessively hot and humid these past couple days – we’ve stayed inside as much as we can. And I’ve been staying up later than usual to get some much needed stitching time in. I went through a short dry spell where I just wasn’t wanting to stitch. I did a little embroidery but as usual, I enjoyed a small project or two and then I was done. Then I ordered some patterns from Lori Rippey and Tina Woltman and I’m back into my stitching again.

In my quest to be more organized, I’m putting every new pattern I get from now on in a binder and I think I’ll group them according to designer. That beats throwing them all willy nilly into a tub where I can’t find any specific one. Someday I hope to get through all those tubs and get all my patterns put into binders. That will be a huge job!

I’m loving the drab prim colors, the alphabets, the simple motifs. I haven’t stitched any samplers in quite awhile and I’m enjoying getting back into that too. I feel grounded again.

I Love To Gather Tansy – Pattern by Lori Rippey

Joe has the first three days off work next week for the holiday and he’s taking Thursday and Friday off as well. We’ll sell shave ice again on Tuesday and Wednesday and then our plan is to camp after that. It should be a fun week, nothing too pressing, hopefully get a few more things done around here the next couple days, the fun 4th of July festivities and then a little getaway. Although we’ll be running home now and then to check on the chickens and gather eggs!

Slowing Down

Slowing down – one thing we as older parents have learned to do. We have more patience. We definitely don’t sweat the small stuff. We are more willing to take the time to work with Drew more at a much younger age than we did with the older kids. Joe especially. Not because we didn’t want to with the other kids – we just didn’t have the time. Or we thought we didn’t anyway. Joe would have set a certain pace and worked hard to get a project done. The boys would have stayed out of his way. But Drew is different. For one, he’s always right in the middle of whatever we are doing. At all times. Raising him is in many ways like raising an only child. He demands attention! Aaron might have been watching, analyzing, learning in his own way but staying back. Eric would not have been anywhere around. He was usually with Abby and Jeremy. But Drew, he’s going to be right here, demanding to be a part of this, and Joe is so much more willing to slow down and work with him, show him, teach him and allow him to do this. And I love it. Do I now have deck boards with a few extra dents in them from a drill slipping off the screw? Definitely. Are some of the screws in a little deeper than they should be? Of course. But you know what – that’s okay. I don’t need perfection. Everytime I look down at these boards I’ll see my little boy on his knees, concentrating so hard, working his heart out and being so proud of himself because he helped build this deck. And I’ll see his daddy right there with him, taking the time to teach him this very valuable skill.

Making Progress

We’re making progress on the deck. Yeah!!! The last two nights when Joe has gotten home from work the weather has been beatufiul and we’ve been able to go out and work away. It’s coming along a lot faster than I thought it would, especially considering we aren’t as young as we once were and we don’t move quite like we used to! All that’s left is to screw the floor in place. Hopefully someday we can put a railing around it but that will have to wait a year or two (or more). I’m just happy to have the deck itself! And I’m looking foward to being able to just spend time enjoying it rather than working on it!

Taking a break to show Drew how to use the drill. This child is so curious – he wants to know how to do everything!

Planning Ahead

I was wanting to embroider a couple of pillowcases for the bedroom and/or camper when I ran across this adorable pattern of an old red truck. So I’ve put the pillowcases for me on the back burner and started on Christmas gifts instead! I ordered two of these thinking I could do one for Braxton and one for Drew. I changed the license plate to say IA and personalized it with Braxton’s name and I really like how it came out. But my plan for Drew’s pillowcase has changed as he saw this, asked for one for himself, but of course he wants a train on his. So, I guess I’ll be looking for a train pattern or at least a train picture that I can modify to fit on a pillowcase. Since I won’t be able to work on it until school starts when Drew won’t be around to see me working on it I’ll need to find something for Bayah to work on now. That shouldn’t be hard and it will be fun to work on something girlie in pretty pastel colors for a change!

Weekend Randomness

We had no set plans for the weekend. Joe was gone all last week – gone for a couple nights then home one night then called out again the following day. He was exhausted. I’m glad we didn’t have anything planned so that he could relax a little after such a grueling week.

Dad brought over a bowl of wild black raspberries he had picked from the timber. I love them, nobody else here cares too much for them. So I made a cobbler. Drew ate one helping. I ate the rest. It was so good. I didn’t eat it all in one sitting – I did stretch it out over a couple, three days!

And for some I reason decided to make sun tea for Joe and Drew. Drew had asked me to buy a jug of Arnold Palmer tea for them and as I was filling a glass for him it dawned on me, I bet I could make this a lot cheaper if I made sun tea and put lemon in with it. So I got on Pinterest and guess what, I wasn’t the first to think of this! (I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be before getting on Pinterest – I was wanting to see how others made theirs) Drew thought it was a neat process and Joe enjoyed the tea although next time I’m not supposed to use quite as much lemon! I didn’t realize until I read up on sun tea that it is mostly a Midwest thing. I remember Mom making it a lot for Dad when I was growing up and we saw someone at the camp grounds awhile back making some. I’ll be making sun tea a lot I think the rest of the summer – it sure is cheaper than buying the jugs at the store and it’s so pretty to see sitting outside in the sun. I just wish I liked to drink it. I try but I just can’t get it down.

As you can see – way too many toys and stuff. We don’t have picture perfect bedrooms – we let the kids decorate their own rooms and really make them theirs.

On Saturday Joe mowed, I weeded and put down some more mulch and then we headed to Ottumwa and bought Drew a bunkbed. It’s a long story but he hasn’t had a bed for the last few months and had been begging for a bunk bed. We had shopped around earlier in the month so we knew what we wanted and where to get it. We brought it home and spent the rest of the evening putting it together and lo and behold – Drew slept in it! And he slept in it last night. He has not been one to sleep by himself for a very long time so this was huge – for all of us! If I had known a bunk bed would have been all it took, we would have done this a long, long time ago. I don’t know why but with Abby and Aaron we had no trouble with them sleeping in their own beds. Eric and Drew not so much.

Hopefully some day soon this will be deck instead of an eyesore!

Sunday we decided to finally start working on extending the deck. And of course we discovered that while we thought we had some of the boards we needed up in Joe’s woodpile, we actually did not. So after starting in on the project, we had to make a Menards run for more supplies. This was absolutely not in the budget which means we’ll be putting the pergola project on hold until next year. Which is fine. I can wait. But that also means less work for Joe this summer which is not a bad thing. We didn’t get as much done on the deck as we had hoped and it looks like there’s a lot of rain in the forcast for this week so we might not get much done but we’ll work on it as we can and eventually it will get finished.

And slowly but surely, this will be a useful and pretty space too.

While Joe was working on the deck doing things I couldn’t really help him with, I transplanted some hosta and day lillies that were going to be covered up by the new deck. Since we won’t be working on the pergola this year, I went ahead and planted the daylillies by it. Joe wasn’t wanting me to plant anything more around it until he got the sides put up but I didn’t have anyplace else to put the plants. Plus, we have the mulch to put around it and I don’t want it to set too much longer in the bags for fear it will mildew so this week I plan to put the mulch down too. We’ll just have to work around things the best we can next year and I won’t put anymore plants in until we’re done. We put the pergola up a few years ago thinking we would use it a lot but we just don’t so our plan is to use the old, rusty, corrugated tin we have to put a roof on and put sides about halfway up all the way around with more of the tin and we also plan to put a floor in instead of the loose rock that’s there now. Then it will be shaded, free from rain and somewhat secluded. Hopefully we will use it more this way.

That was our weekend. Nothing too exciting but we did get a few things accomplished. Now onto the week ahead. I’m thankful Joe doesn’t have any scheudled days to be gone overnight this week or for the the next few weeks. Unless some emergency crops up again. I don’t mind a day or two here and there but being gone the majority of the week just isn’t fun.

A Perfect Day For Wandering

After being cooped up in the house the last couple of days with all the rain, Drew and I decided to go for a walk around the yard. We ended up in the neighbor’s field! I’m thankful they haven’t planted anything here for the past couple of years. Although I enjoy the corn fields I really enjoy the beauty of it just growing wild. The sky was beautiful while we were out and the wildflowers are really blooming. All the colors just amaze me. You can’t enjoy the beauty of it without walking out in it and really looking though. I enjoy the flower beds around the house but I just love the wild beauty of a field overgrown with grasses, wildflowers and weeds.

While I was enjoying the flowers and the view Drew of course was exploring what he calls his favorite place – the hay bales. He loves to play around and on these hay bales. They are lined up along a fence line between our place and the neighbor’s field and he makes forts and secret places between the fence and the bales. It’s a great place for a little boy to use his imagination! I’m very grateful we’ve been able to raise the kids out here in the country!

Playing In The Rain

We went from 100 degree weather with humidity you could cut with a knife to rain, lots and lots of rain the past two days. And yesterday we had tornado warnings. At one point Drew and I went to the basement just to be safe. After the warning was past it cooled down and rained, again. (Not that I’m complaining – I’m so very thankful for the rain!) And Drew decided to play in the rain. I love to watch kids play with abandon and until he caught me watching, that is exactly what he did. He was out there enjoying himself with not a care in the world. I wish I could just let go like that and play in the rain!

Handy Man

We’ve been wanting to get a tiller for awhile now. Right now I have a raised bed for tomatoes and peppers but I’ve really been wanting to start a garden. We didn’t want to pay someone to come work up a spot and tillers sure are expensive so the garden has been put on the back burner. Then over the weekend I saw on Facebook that our neighbor had a tiller she was wanting to give away for free. The kicker was it didn’t work. But – I’m married to a handyman! We ran right over and said we’d take it. She refused to accept anything for it, said she just wanted it gone, so we brought it home. Joe worked on it a little before we had to head out to visit Uncle Jerry and Aunt Konnie but he’s positive he’ll be able to get it running. After tinkering around he’s figured out what’s wrong. So we are now the proud owners of a used but new to us tiller and hopefully next spring I can plant onions and green beans and sweet corn and who knows what else. I guess it’s true – good things do come to those who wait!

Now I Remember

Drew found this puzzle the other day when we stopped at Orscheln Farm & Home to get chicken feed. He just knew he had to have it. Grandpa has a train puzzle hanging up in his train room and Drew wanted to have one for his bedroom. It was only $2.00 so we bought it and brought it home. I used to do puzzles a lot, I loved doing them but that was back before kids! And now I remember why I stopped doing puzzles after the kids started coming – once I started this darn thing I couldn’t stop! We started it on Saturday and finished it today. Drew wanted to help and he gave it a good try but it was just too hard for him. Now I need to get some puzzle glue and figure out how we’re going to frame it and Drew will be the happy owner of a train puzzle picture – just like Grandpa has! And I won’t be buying another puzzle anytime soon. That’s one thing I can’t just slowly work on and enjoy the process. There’s something in me that says once you start a puzzle – you have to finish it or else!

Weekend Wanderings

Since we celebrated Father’s Day last weekend with the whole family we didn’t really have any plans for this weekend. The one thing we did know was we were staying inside as much as possible – the forecast was calling for very hot and humid days and boy was it right. You would break a sweat just by standing outside in the shade! We’re supposed to get one more day of it today before it finally breaks. So we stayed inside as much as possible and did very little. We went out for supper with Dad and Mom Saturday night which was an adventure. We ended up eating at a restaurant called Four Corners that Mom had read about in the Our Iowa magazine and it was delicious! It was out in the middle of nowhere, about an hour from home with cornfields all around. The parking lot was full and there was a wait but it was so worth it. The best buffet we’ve had in a long, long time! Dad and Mom enjoy finding new restaurants in out of the way places and we hadnn’t done this with them in a long time. When we got home we sat outside at their house and Drew caught fireflies. Once the sun set the heat broke and it was a beautiful evening.

Beautiful picture my cousin Todd drew. It depicts the train depot in Richland, Iowa from days gone by. Todd is a history buff and a very talented artist. Richland is the town where his mom and my dad were born and raised.

On Sunday we went with Dad and Mom to visit my Uncle Jerry and Aunt Konnie. It was Uncle Jerry’s birthday so Mom took brownies to celebrate. My cousin Todd was home so we had a nice small family get together. They have a beautiful farm with the most breathtaking views. They live outside a little town called Rubio but now have a Richland address since there’s no longer a Post Office in Rubio. There’s nothing left in Rubio besides a small refurbished train depot which is now a community center and a handful of houses. I think Jerry and Konnie’s farm is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been (Not that I’ve traveled or spent much time out of Iowa!) We had a nice visit with them and then we drove into Richland. Dad wanted to check on the acreage he and Konnie have together. It was originally their home place with their house and their grandpa’s house but there’s no houses left – it’s just a corn field. We drove past the Friends Church where Dad and Mom got married and their old high school which is no longer used. We meandered into the cemetary and drove around there. And Dad took us on down the road past the cemetary that led to two very very old cemetaries that I never knew where there. When we got back to Sigourney we drove through another cemetary. One I hadn’t been to since grade school when we would walk there and see all the old gravestones for fifth grade history class. A friend of my mom’s had passed away about a year ago and Mom wanted to show me the gravesite. I didn’t realize this cemetary was still being used. It’s a small cemetary with lots of very old stones. Drew wanted to get out and explore so we decided we would run to town one day when it wasn’t so hot and walk around and look at all the old old stones together. It’s a very peaceful and pretty place and I look foward to exploring it one of these days!

I would love to have this view out my front window! It’s beautiful in all seasons!

Drew found the kittens of course!