Yet another dump o’random

This is Precious, Pap's dog. This is not her bed, it's Bosley's. He barely fits into it and she is larger than him, so it's especially funny to see her curled up like a rolypoly in it. She doesn't seem to mind and he knows better than to complain. 

Damon, waiting his turn at the eye doctor's office. It used to be a play area but thanks to Covid there are no toys or games in there anymore. So he just bounced around and flopped until they called him. Such a nut. Look how big those not-quite-12-year-old feet are. Sheesh. 

I especially love the light green of this tree against all the darker green surrounding it. I'm normally not a yellow-green fan, never have been, but this little tree makes it look glorious in the morning light or right after a rain. 

\

Found a new recipe that Dada and I enjoyed which the kids wouldn't touch- chicken breasts with tasty cherry tomatoes, baked garlic and chickpeas. It was easy and reheated pretty well too, wins in my book.

Bos loves being outside in the sunshine. He doesn't care how hot it is. If he finds a sunny spot, he stretches out and turns into a sun dog. I think he must be related to me. Of course there's the added benefit of chasing any squirrels stupid enough to come into his reach, and we have an amazing  number of stupid squirrels. I don't know if he knows what he'd do with one if he did actually catch one...

Speaking of dumb, we had a mourning dove I named Heather make a nest in the gutter outside the boys' bedroom. The father, Herbert, would come check on her. I think that's him on the edge and you may be able to see the top of Heather's head in the gutter if you click on the picture. The screen makes it hard to see. Sure enough, they had a chick that the boys couldn't agree on a name for. Damon voted Hershey and Liam wanted Hogarth, I think? Hrothgar? Hmmm... at any rate, Heather was smart enough to build her nest on the far side of the downspout, but she did look pretty silly sitting there in the rain with a waterfall coming down on her head at times. Good thing the baby didn't get washed down the drain!

And the robins also had a little one, who is out of the nest and was perched all alone, beak agape, in the middle of our front landscaping. I'd sit on the porch swing, hear rustlerustlerustle and a robin would hop up into the landscaping from lower down in the yard, wrestle through the bushes, feed the baby and take off again. I suppose that's one way to try to be stealthy and not draw attention to the sitting duck...?

Goofing off with the firstborn

Marvin the Martian goofing off on my oven controls

The firstborn and I went to see the senior art studio downtown and discovered there was also elementary art in a separate venue down the street. I'm ashamed to say I didn't get the artist's name in this photo to give proper credit, but we both giggled over the adorably smiling bug. Such cuteness! Well done, artists. 

 

The Murphy bed

Before:

Our downstairs guest bedroom has become Dada's office since he now works from home. We found various tables around the house and got them in there months ago so he'd have someplace to put his computer with multiple monitors, his microscopes, and so forth. There was also a night stand, a rocking chair (which Pap made) and a corner hutch (also made by Pap). Dada has plenty of boxes of broken glass mailed to him in the hopes that he can determine the hows and whys of the breakage. He'd gotten good at yeeting (okay, not really) stuff onto the bed, but somehow the idea of a space-saving Murphy bed surfaced, and Pap went to work. As is often the case with home improvements, it turned into a whole-house project: 

Right about here was the part where there was some grumbling about it not fitting and "maybe we need to saw some off" and "maybe we need to try ____ ," at which point I beat feet elsewhere and tried not to panic at the thought of it becoming a Farmhouse Project and thus having our house torn up for the foreseeable future. 

 There were some breaks in the work, like for Damon's first day of real school since last March. Pap and Precious escorted him to the bus stop, but though we waited for 20 minutes the bus didn't show and he needed to get to another elementary school for his gifted class that day, so I took him. We had preschool flashbacks as it's the same route we took way back then. I got him there on time, the bus brought him home, and later in the week everybody seemed to know where to be when. We'll see how it works out tomorrow when we do it again...

You can see the ironing board on the far left. It had been kept under the bed as I don't iron. Not sure where to put it now!

Below: This is the back of the corner hutch, which has been relocated to the Old Lady Room, taking the corner where the Teething Chair used to reside. Why do we call it that? There are teeth marks all along the arms from where Hinrew was just tall enough to gnaw on them when he was small. 

The rocking chair that Pap made is still sitting beside the kitchen, but at least it's not in there anymore like it was when I rounded the corner and lo and behold there was Pap, taking a break, rocking away while reading a book in the middle of the kitchen floor! We are making progress.

I was prepping to make homemade Pioneer Woman meatballs when the guys brought an air compressor through from the garage, cord and all. Things were a little bit nuts for awhile, but they cleaned up after themselves and the meatballs were made and devoured. I think they lasted two days. Might be a record.

Ta da! Newly installed Murphy bed and Teething Chair in its new corner. I told Pap he needed to sleep in it at least once to make sure it wouldn't close up on anyone, like my mother, like they do in the cartoons. He just laughed. I hope that means he's confident in his carpentry skills, haha! Time will tell! 

Maybe it'll be a good hiding place for me the next time I need to escape... I'll have to think about that.

                                               After:

Just don't try to open it expecting to get to Narnia. We have a closet for that. 

End of summer visitors

For those of you reaching for the pumpkin spice, you can just cut that out. Until next Sunday night, it is still officially summer. 

I was stealthy and got close to a groundhog who had his back to me, contentedly munching away on our apples out back. He wasn't quite sure what to do when he did figure out I was there, haha!

Pap came with his dog, Precious, to celebrate his 76th birthday. We love having both of them around. Pap gets into mischief with Dada while Precious helps wear Bosley out. Everybody wins! Except Pap, who then ends up in the doghouse...

I told Aunt Chris we were borrowing her monsoon. We received warnings on our home phone and cell phones about "severe weather alert" and "severe thunderstorms in your area" and sure enough, it came down pretty hard for about two minutes. 

Then the sun showed up again and I scurried outside because I just knew there'd be a great chance for a rainbow, and I was right! Woohoo!

And then it rained some more.

We decided to take off with an idea our friends Randy and Jess had success from and started Friday Night Games to kick off the fall season for small groups. We want to be a fun, safe place for kids of all ages to hang out, especially the ones who aren't interested in sitting through football games. Two families came over to play with us so we got some Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan action along with snacks and fellowship. I should have taken pictures...

Anyway, bring your favorite games to Lalaith Havens at 6:30 on Friday nights. Or you can play some of ours. Or both. Just come play with us!

Then the almost full moon came out in all its gorgeousness.

Sunday we had to almost call the fire department over Pap's candles...

We had a chuckle over Pap being the one on the smartphone while both the boys were reading actual books. Don't despair for those Generation Z kids; they're better than you hear.

Happy birthday, Pap! We're glad you came to see us and that you're home safe, too. 

Everybody enjoy your last few days of summer!

SitRep

It's just after 9 AM. I have a load of boy laundry in the washer, a dish full of dishes but the dishwasher is half full, dinner is in the crock pot, and the cookie dough for Damon's presentation tomorrow is chilling in the fridge. I figured I better blog now before I get busy again with the latest project. What dummy decided removing wallpaper and painting during the end of the school year would be a good idea, again? 

I blame Delores.

Before-ish

The boys are definitely related to me in that they appreciate destruction. Teehee. 

Carrie, and Precious, unfazed by the mess.

The current state of affairs:

Having a hard time removing the adhesive at the top of that wine colored wall where the border had affixed straight to the paint. We've tried the water-and-fabric-softener route, and plain water, and soapy water, and the Goo Gone followed by soapy water already. Guess it's time to tear down the wall and start over.

If you need me, I'll be chiseling away the last  (hopefully) of the dried glue, sanding (yes, Mommee, I have a dust mask), scrubbing, and otherwise dancing around on my step ladder.

At least until it's time to drop everything to run Carrie to karate, bake Damon's cookies and help him put the finishing touches on his presentation for tomorrow and then the wax museum one on Friday, along with the myriad of other things that I hope to cross off my list. Yesterday I got all the sunroom curtains washed and hung outside to dry. They're on the guest bed in the hopes that they'll stay tidy until we've painted, but as we have at least one boy who vaults on big beds to do backflips no matter how many times we've admonished him not to, my hopes are not terribly high for them staying wrinkle-free. At least they smell good.