Here's just a list of stuff going on - my feeble attempt to explain why posting is light....
* Power washing and a bit of carpentry being done on the house. (This is the only part we've hired someone else to do.)
* Butt scraping. (Removing the old paint from the bottoms, or butts, of the shingles.)
* Replacing really bad shingles.
* Priming with brushes, the old-fashioned way. Bill up on the really high ladder because frankly, I'm too short to do much good up there.
* Removing the planks that pass as wood siding on the front of our house and replacing all that with shingles. Because we like how shingles look. And because it will be more fun than scraping the lousy paint job off all the planks and replacing the rotted ones. Plus - hammering! (So, no, we're not jingling the roof, really. But I love that sentence.)
* Gardens are desperate to be weeded, so we've got the kids working on some of that.
* Harvested the garlic today - yay! Garlic!
* Swim Banquet last night.
* Alex's last ballgame today.
* Julia's Gymnastics demonstration/show tomorrow.
* Banana-peach bread in the oven. Lots of dishes still to be done.
* Laundry. More in the summer than in the winter, it seems. All those damp towels.
* Butt scraping is messy, dusty work, especially when the temp and the humidity level are over 90, as they were.
* Trying to get more stuff made for Etsy and a little craft fair I'll be participating in next month. GOOD LUCK WITH THAT, JAYNE!
* Bought the kids each a notebook - a journal - so they can write and think and practice spelling over the summer. So far they enjoy it.
* So many posts, so far behind in writing.
* There will be lots of canning this summer. I don't think I'll bother sleeping.
* All the plants that bloomed recently need to be cut back at some point.
* I'd like to harvest a bunch of lavender and dry it. I also plan to make a bunch of different compound butters to make use of all the fresh herbs we have.
* Tonight - some squash blossoms stuffed with herbed goat cheese. Can't wait.
* We are going to be overtaken by the squash plants, so I don't know why we're even bothering to paint the house, since it will be strangled by rampant butternuts, black futsu, pattypan, and zucchini.
* I love our gardens. It's crazy time, but I am so glad for this kind of crazy.
That's all I can think of now. Gotta run.
