New furniture

I ordered new furniture today. Specifically, I ordered a new sofa and a new recliner. They are supposed to arrive Sunday. Hopefully I'll convince my husband to take our old stuff to the dump tomorrow.

The old furniture is far too awful to give to Goodwill. Part of the back cushion on the couch that isn't removable has come unattached. We've tried sewing it back several times without success. The fabric part of the couch and love seat are fraying. Several places it is entirely gone and foam and wood are showing. Some of the cushions have slits in them. The support for the cushions was shot long before we ever got the couch. We just put up with it because it was free and we were so poor when we got married.

The recliner is small. It is very comfortable to me. My husband is over 6 feet tall. I don't think he'll find it comfortable. I mentioned that to him. He said comfortable furniture is furniture he doesn't have to shop for. Hopefully he'll remember that when he sits in it.

A friend of mine from playgroup watched my kids at her house while I went furniture shopping. I'm certain I didn't get a bargain, although both pieces were on sale or clearance. I only went to one store, and even though I changed my mind about the color I wanted the recliner a bunch of times, I was back to my friend's house in less than an hour from when I left. I hate shopping so much, it was just a relief to find stuff that was acceptable to me at the first place I shopped. I'm a horrid bargain shopper.

The kids will hate the new furniture. While I don't let them jump on the old stuff (but I catch them doing it anyway), I don't stop them from putting their feet on it, and I quite often let them eat on it. Those days are over once the new stuff arrives.

K is watching his Dukes of Hazzard DVD in the family room. The kids are in bed. I'm glad I had the chance to write. Time alone at the computer is hard to come by around here.

Tomorrow we have a bunch of things to do. I think we might get a couple rabbits from a town about 45 minutes away. They are supposed to be ready this weekend. I'll have to call in the morning to be sure. The bookstore near me is having a sale, so I want to go get Eleven On Top at a better price if they have it in stock. K told the kids we may go fishing. I've told the kids we will let them play in the sprinkler to cool off for a little bit (high in the low 90s °F). I want K to go to the dump. The church is having a yard sale I'd like to attend. I've got some pork tenderloin I'd like to have K grill outside.

Midweek

K came home a little early from work today. He's out in the yard playing with J. N is watching Cyberchase on PBS.

The kids and I used markers and playdough outside on our picnic table this morning. Doing those things only outdoors greatly reduces the mess we used to get in the house before K assembled the picnic table last summer.

Tomorrow is playgroup. Hopefully we'll get the chance afterwards to use the church's playground. I think that's really what the kids like anyway. The schools are out for the summer now, so there will be a lot of older kids at playgroup this week.

Janet Evanovich's new book was supposed to come out yesterday (Eleven on Top). I didn't rush to buy it because I'm re-reading (I've lost count of how many times) the series, and I'm only on six. I think if I wait until Saturday, there is a sale at the book store closest to me, so I can get it at a better price if any are left.

Monday Morning

Suprisingly the weather is cool today. It sprinkled a little, but I doubt we'll get the rain we could use pretty badly. K and I began watering the gardens last night. We will have more to do this evening if we don't get rain.

Since preschool is over, I don't have anywhere to go today. It's kind of nice, but it's a lot harder to keep two kids entertained than just one. Every time they get bored, they fight.

Tomorrow is the first day of summer. After that the days begin getting shorter again. I like it staying light later. It gives me more motivation to run errands in the evenings if it's still light out.

I'm out of time to write now because the kids have begun to fight.

Vacation's over

I'm back, and I finally have time to write for a bit. K is outside with N, and J is watching a DVD.

I just got done with the paperwork for my husband's business. His office manager did it all while I was gone. She only had a few invoices she hadn't had time to enter that I needed to do to get caught up. Apparently she had trouble making a backup of QuickBooks with the new computer for the monthly report we do, but she and the accountant finally figured out what they needed to do. She had tried to reach me while I was on vacation, but I didn't get the message until the evening when I called my husband. It wasn't until late the next day before I called her back, and by that time the problem had been worked out. I called her from the zoo. I had almost forgotten to call her until I remembered while my dad and I took the kids to the zoo when her workday was nearly over.

We've seen lots of relatives. We stayed with my husband's parents for three nights. They don't have air conditioning, and we were having some of the hottest days of the year while we were there. We slept upstairs, and the kids and I didn't get to bed until about 11 p.m. because the house was far too hot and humid until then. Everyone else had air conditioning.

One of the friends I was planning to see had a death in the family and wasn't around. I guess I'll have to try again next time, but it will probably be years before I go again. Flying costs too much money to do next year, but possibly in two years we could try again. Driving takes about 14 hours with kids, and I'm just not up to it if my husband can't go.

My garden had spectacular changes while I was away. Tiny tomato sprouts I potted now look like healthy plants. I have green tomatoes on plants in my garden. I made some pasta Friday, and managed to scrounge up (from the garden) a small pepper and a little Swiss chard to saute with the cooked pasta. My dill is blooming. My tiny zinna sprouts now have buds. I was
able to cut a large bouquet of goose-neck loosestrife mixed with purple-leafed basil. My lavendar is blooming. There were raspberries to pick. I have a huge confection squash on one of my squash plants. Also, our little chickens look a lot bigger and better feathered.

K just got an electric/carbon dioxide mosquito killer. He's testing it right now. I'm hoping it will greatly reduce our bug problem in the evening.

I need to go get caught up on paying the bills I missed while I was away.

VACATION

I leave tomorrow. I' ve got most of my packing done, and none of my kids'. I did all my laundry today, and we are all wearing stuff I don't want to take.

We made a stop by Books-A-Million today and got several items to amuse ourselves with on the trip. They are the Mystery Pen type books, coloring books, and sticker books. For J, she's got one with a marker that also makes color in the book. N's and mine are just black.

At Kroger last night, we loaded up on snacks. I heard Nortwest won't be serving any pretzels anymore. I'm not sure when that begins. I also think pillows are no longer available on the plane.

I got my sheets changed last night. Of course, they'll need changing when we get back since K is still using them. I'm not sure what he'll live on while we are gone. He said something about egg salad sandwiches. I think he'll probably spend lots of his time at work. I feel sorry for the cat. Brenna doesn't know we are going away. She'll just have K around, and he doesn't like her. He'll probably say things to her like, "Go away, Cat," and "Shut up, Cat."

I think our mulberries and the first of our raspberries will ripen while I'm gone. Also the lavendar is almost ready to bloom. I'll miss it at its best.

Yesterday we finally had to turn on the air conditioning for the summer. Hopefully it will be cooler in Michigan. I grew up without air conditioning, but I think my mom has it now.

I need to go. There is so much left to do.

This morning I took the kids to a local park. We got there early, before the playground was too crowded. Once the playground got crowded, we took a walk in the woods on the walking/jogging/biking trails. At one point we rested on a bench. It had some grafiti. My son wanted me to read it all to him when he couldn't sound it out. He found the phrase "F*** THE BENCH" (except there were letters instead of stars). He wanted to know what it said. I told him the first word was the bad F-word he's not allowed to say, and I helped him read the rest. He spent the next fifteen minutes wanting to know why anyone would write that word on the bench.

My daughter fell asleep on my livingroom floor this afternoon, and was awakened by a couple guys going door-to-door to drum up support for a guy running for political office. I refused to tell them if I had any plans to vote for their guy or to answer any of their survey questions. I don't know why they think I'd tell them--we have secret ballots here, and I don't discuss my business with people who show up, uninvited, at my door.

Tomorrow is playgroup. My son hasn't gone in a long time since he's been in preschool. He'll be one of the oldest there until regular school is over later this month and other people bring their school-aged kids.

Some small peppers are starting to form on a couple of my pepper plants. I think I have two zucchinis coming along. I hand-pollinated them. Hopefully I'll get to eat the zucchinis before we leave on vacation. Perhaps the peppers will be done when we get back.

Now I'm headed outside to play with my family until 7 p.m. when I begin cleaning my kitchen and then doing my husband's paperwork.