My Life is Good

 I dislike when people wear "busy" like a martyr or a hero. We live as we choose and we do what we really want to do: work, social events, play, eat, sleep, complain, or have a good attitude. We should not even try to deny it. 
Right now, we are running at full speed...so much we WANT to do.  And I have to say, we're trying to do ALL of it. Elv usually says "enough" before I do, but this time I think he's enjoying it as much as I am. 
Brad is graduating this spring with honors. We plan to celebrate soon. Stay tuned. 
Not be trite, but it went so fast. 
   Thanks Brad for the great school days with you. And for studying hard and staying with it till the end. You did well! 
This morning, summer vacation underway and there's nobody home here.  "Empty Nester" has got to be the silliest term for where we are these days. 
   Mostly, we are busy with work: our own daily work, projects on the house that are still in the very early stages, helping Francis and Josh with their new property, and my work at the store is rich and varied just now with all the new stuff arriving daily to be priced and displayed. Besides, the lawn needs mowing and the garden weeding.  



This is me trying to write for Dad's story. Dad, are you praying about this project? My stack of papers is not yet this numerous but it will be soon, a pile of false starts. The deadline marches steadily closer day by day. 

    
The Martin reunion is ten days away and I am still laboring on a picture presentation. We've been collecting pictures such as these. Take a good look, if you know Aletha Martin Kauffman and her three sisters, Mildred, Ella, and Rhoda. This is a sister group, yes.
  Piles of black and white photos to sort through and scan in to change them to something that will project from my computer to a large white space for viewing by the 28th. Another deadline that I'm a little nervous about.
    I just have to say that Grandma Kauffman always wore that style of shoes just like she is wearing here: heels and pointy toes and all. I remember. Maybe this is the reason I like pretty shoes.
   

Monday

   This will be a messy Monday post of food opinions and plans, groceries shopping, and maybe a few recent photographs. Lisl said I should say something profound and post my shopping list, as well.  We shall see what comes of it. 
    To begin with, on a quest for a better meal plan for this household of three working adults, a serendipitous moment completely sidetracked me in the form of a video that came up on the subject of food that I have wondered about. I don't say it was correct scientific information. But I will say that it took a healthy crack at nonsense about labeling that we see all the time: "light", "low carbs", "100% natural", and other such claims. And the adage: "If you can't read it, don't eat it!" was there as well. I like that one. 
    The solution to the sandwich meat problem may lie in last nights supper. A planned, gracious meal at supper could yield some pretty decent sandwich materials.  Hamburger meatballs and rice.  Chicken breasts and rice. Meatloaf and baked potatoes. Home made baked beans and fresh baked biscuits. And steamed mixed vegetables with each meal. 

 These are tamarack buds. I think they're very lovely and precious. Elv had to run the canoe straight into the bush to reach a branch for me. My eyes aren't the best for seeing detail unless it is right under my nose. So he obliged. Soon the tamarack swamp will be a green haze overlooking the blue water of the channel where the bass are spawning right now. 

 Saturday.  So much for a messy Monday post. Most of what I had written got lobbed off. So Lisl, I have nothing profound to say at the end of this busy, eventful week. The garden is planted in zinnia, cosmos, straw flower, and other kinds, as well. I wanted to plant poppies. 
I used Clark's rider and mowed most of the lawn. Then I lifted the weed eater down from its hooks in the mini-barn and it started right up for the first time this season. Woohoo! Everything is trimmed and tidy now. 
    The long list of spring cleanup is considerably shorter thanks to our children and Elv and me. Amy cleaned and painted the walls in the Boy's Cabin. Clark took the wood stove away to his shop. I used Lance's lawn fertilizer spreader, pushing it round and round till we used up a whole bag of little white granules that will supposedly make the grass green and thick. We'll see about that.
  

                                                        Blessings Tally-Up

~ Tickets to Thailand have dropped to a seemingly attainable price. Suddenly the sky opens and Elv and I may get to go.  Thank You, God. 
~  Spring work happened around here.
~  Two "fat" envelopes in the car after church. Praising the Lord for that timely-ness.
~  After praying for a lost book of Grandma Skrivseth's memoirs; I found it under the couch, possibly right where I left it.
~  Getting ready for a picture slide presentation for a reunion makes the reunion for me already! It's amazing. Talking to cousins I never have before to collect those prints. 
~ A lovely date with my man at Blackwoods last night. 
~ Amy and I get to go to Nebraska and help Francis paint and clean in their new house. 
~ Reading the fourth book on my list of 32 books-to-read this summer. 

                          The Books I'm Reading

  I read Second Suns by David Oliver Relin and was inspired to realize that God is still miraculously making the blind to see through the work of two skilled doctors willing to work in the poorest, most needy places on earth. 
    From there I moved on to reading the other two books I had out on library loan, simultaneously. It was not confusing because both books were set in New England during the years of the making of the Declaration of Independence.   The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island was fascinating. It gave me a window into the world that then was when my Kauffman ancestors came over from Switzerland to settle in PA. I didn't read Dear Abigail nearly as closely since it was a document of letters written between Abigail Adams and her two sisters. But there were pieces of interest. 
   The book I am reading now is The Lost Art of Dress with a subtitle of The Women Who Once Made America Stylish. This book has my full attention. Linda Przybyszewski did her home work. It is packed with documented history and well researched information and plenty of candid observation.  I quote: Tight skirts also ignore the fact that a skirt with walking ease done up in a fabric that drapes well will make a woman's figure look more slender and infinitely more graceful than it appears in a straight skirt. The skirt will swing, ever so gently, as she walks. And when she sits down, she does not have to worry about it hiking up her thighs. End of quote.  She is more forthright and unapologetic than most of us Christian women in her approach. 
      And now it is time to close this epistle.  Have a good Sunday.