At Home in the Mountains

Not my usual, but I wanted to capture a little bit of today and that perfect summer day feeling : My kids wake me up at 7 a.m. I stagger out of bed and stumble into their room, blur still in my eyes. I lift the 16 month old from her crib and change her diaper as the six year old hyper-actively dumps her entire dress up bin onto the floor. The 16 month old chooses our morning meditation, Go, Dog. Go! . I read. We traipse upstairs. I grind coffee beans and the air soon ripples with the smell of wakeful magic. I pour a cup and take a sip. I dole out scrambled, farm fresh eggs and pieces of toast slathered in Earth Balance spread and cherry butter. The kids play. Somehow or another, we all end up dressed for the day. I clean house: vacuum, dust, sweep, mop, scrub toilets and showers, water plants,declutter. I look over my shoulder and everything's back to the way it was pre-cleaning. I turn down the AC, drink some ice water and grab my keys. I'm off to get a summer hair cut. ...

 Garden is going great! I fixed our second mess of super tender fresh green beans and made some fresh salsa with some cilantro from the garden.  Something has been chomping on my cabbages so I decided to try some lady bugs. Not sure what the pest is so not sure the lady bugs are the correct solution, but the kids had a great time releasing them. If the lady bugs don't help I may try some Praying Mantids next. The company I got the lady bugs from sells them as well and apparently they will eat anything smaller than themselves. Their cuteness factor is not nearly as high though.  Releasing the lady bugs. We did this part wrong. I didn't read the directions til after. We were supposed to spray the plants lightly with water so they could have a drink. Also we got 1500. They recommended releasing about 500 each day over several days. Lady bugs that weren't released right away could be stored in the fridge. I hope some stayed in the garden. Next time we'll know. ...

 But the Fletcher's house stood firm! Others were not so fortunate. The flooding over the past few weeks has been amazing and terrible. As of last night, there were still dozens of roads in DFW that were closed due to flooding. We had the wettest may ever, the coolest year to date ever (only three days 85 degrees or over and NO 90 degree days in May). We had the third wettest month ever. Lots of activities were canceled due to rain. We still managed to squeeze in some baseball, golf camp, tennis camp and swimming between storms.  DBU ended their season last night with a loss in game 7 to VCU. It was DBU's first time ever to host regionals. So fun! Also exhausting. Kelsay and I went to 2 games, Maddy went to 3, and Aaron went to 4. Maddy got glasses. She is far sighted. For now they are just for school and reading. Trouble with a capital T. The rain has been amazing for lettuce and green beans. We also went to Lubbock/Farwell for memorial day. We drove over ...