Living Intentionally

 Having always secretly smiled at the "live intentionally" saying; it must be time to "eat crow". I must have missed my quiet time several days last week. There are not enough days in a week now to get done everything I want to do. Oh, they're all good things and mostly happy things, too. There just isn't time for all of them.
    "You'll just have to prioritize", is the sagacious and not unkindly wisdom offered to me from my husby and friends and children. Prioritizing is another one of those nice, glibly offered solutions. What if my whole list is precisely ordered and alphabetized and prioritized already so that if even one interruption occurs the whole thing falls into a completely different order like tetras blocks? Then what?
    Actually, I don't want to hear tried and true methods of having more time or less stuff or fewer obligations or even about learning how to say "no" more often. I am good at all of those tricks. Ask any of my friends or children; they'll vouch for my heartless ability to pull in the latch string.
     I just need to feel okay with the level of crazy for which I did, in fact, sign up.  It is my own fault that I leapt at the chance to sing in a new choir this fall. I knew full well that I would have to sit me down for a designated amount of time, daily, to listen and learn sixty-seven pages of music when I signed up. But, I have always wanted to do something like this. This is a dream fulfilled. I've changed my mind back and forth about the wisdom of doing it. Yet I can't not stay in.
  

 I am the one who also signed up to be part of a writers group. I've said all of this before about writing.
  It's my own fault that I  started this job that I love working in a gift and furniture store. It is extra income, of course, but just as important, it is full of interest and charm for me and my love of home decor. So I've prioritized, yes.
   And keeping our own home beautiful is a given. It can hardly be named as chores. I enjoy it so much. Keeping our house clean and the laundry done is all part of the dance of life that just is. And it's good.
   The garden is not about saving money, because I don't really can vegetables for our winter supply. The green beans are adding up and it appears that we will harvest a few tomatoes and squash, but you can hardly consider zinnia and mallow a "crop" in any sense of the word.
    What I didn't know I signed up for was being a mom to seven children who have, to date, made us grandparents fourteen times over already. It nearly takes my breath away some days to think of all the time I could spend just enjoying them had I the freedom and money and time to do that all I wanted for them and with them. Speaking of being overwhelmingly blessed abundantly above!

 So I conclude that if I wait until a quieter time of life to have a calm brain and deep sleep and an orderly mind, I'll never get there. It ain't gonna happen. Life is full and rich. Maybe I'll just go read that book Mom Graber gave to me last week when I was there.
   Elv told me to throw away the worms and leeches that have been living in the refrigerator for a week because there won't be any fishing this week. But so far, I haven't done it. I really want to paddle across Windigo and nestle in under the lee of the island and fetch up another bass or two. The phone is quiet out there. The only sounds are the vehicles far away on the highway, the train whistling through the woods toward Stone Lake even farther away, the loons calling, the grumping of bullfrogs, and the laughter of swimmers on the shorelines. 
   On the other hand, I'm looking forward to the married family showing up this evening for supper outside under the lights strung between trees. I'm planning to make an oven supper but we'll eat it gathered outside around the fire.  I'm looking forward to visiting with the girls while the men work on car and boat repairs.
   I'll admit it right here. I'm getting my cake and eating it, too. So richly blessed am I!

Jube and Benny

Sawyer eating constantly and growing like a weed.

Morning Coffee with Amy

Summer Scenes

 The garden is finally producing a few flowers at this late date in August for our table bouquets. Wet, cool spring results. But I've learned a thing or two about this garden.
  A thing or two about using regular feedings of Miracle Gro and plenty of mulch and now even some sprays. It's a funny thing. I forgot about dusting for black spots and bugs and rust until out of desperation, watching the rust take over the hollyhocks, again, I bought and applied spray accordingly.
While I was spraying the affected foliage I caught a whiff of it and remembered what Mom used to do for this. That white powder and the spray can that worked on a pumps system all came flooding back from some corner of my memory, triggered by a certain odor. Interesting.
   And a thing or two about the importance of compost and mulch and the miracle of dead, organic materials. Even oak leaves become dark, moist soil with the help of a few worms, years of rotting, and turnings. We have a large pile of this gold at our disposal with which the squash and tomatoes are growing richly green and fruitful.
   We're even figuring out that a twenty dollar bottle of animal repellent granules can go a long way toward getting a crop of green beans. It's most amazing how many green beans come from unmolested plants.

Rian, Our Redheaded JoyBoy

Grace Bible Church

 Not everyone is here. Another time next summer we'll do this again, and the next, and over time we'll all be on one or the other of these photos.
This little congregation knows how to cooperate and make a photo shoot work. We might have had ten minutes into this shot. Yes, we had a couple people doing some brain work on arranging us, and planning ahead work on the right camera. We kept it to one camera on a tripod and Clark is huffing on this picture from running to his place and getting grins for his drama on the way. He's a fun photographer. Everybody gets the files emailed to them and as many copies as they wish.