From my phone …

Just for fun, here are some recent pictures from my phone.

During all-star season, each player had a pennant that we hung on the fence – our team Mom rocks the creative department and I thought they were very cool. Here is Hadden’s – we often call him Haddo while he is on the field because it is easier to say. One of his coaches calls him HK – I guess that is even easier for him. Ha!

Hadden got to pitch a fair bit and he did a great job. He is very accurate and didn’t walk many batters. He throws quite a few in the strike zone, but after about 2 strikes, the batters sometimes got wise and hit the ball. It was a LOT of fun watching him pitch. He has an amazing amount of confidence on the mound and we were very proud of his season overall. He is maturing and only got frustrated when he got out while batting.

We had about a dozen barn swallows show up the other day for a few hours. These were the young ones and the parent would come and feed them. They were a lot of fun to watch.

Here is Savannah at the splash pad. So proud of her – she made the d2 competitive soccer team. They have started practice 3 times per week and she is LOVING it. All of the girls on this team are motivated and dedicated to playing soccer. With that, the level of play has gone way up – fun to watch them getting better and better. Most of them are playing an age level up, so this first year might be kind of rough, but I am sure they will still have a great time together.

It is HOT!!! We are doing little projects and activities everyday to beat the heat. They painted these pictures today. The picture on the right is from a sunrise earlier this spring.

The other day, we made gak – they have enjoyed hours of playing with it. Gak is similar to silly putty, but a little more slimy.

 

An incredible sunset from a while ago.

I am just now feeling like I can breathe. All-star baseball is a big time commitment. I love every minute of it, but somehow it feels like I can’t get anything else done. Now that it is over, I miss it :) Soccer has a consistent schedule – same time, same days, same place and somehow only three days a week seems easy. We also did VBS for 5 days in the midst of all-stars. Whew!

So – how have you been?

Recent projects

I scored this antique armoire at an auction a few years ago, but I never really liked the color. From pinterest, I discovered a new primer that doesn’t require sanding down the piece before painting it. I decided to give it a try.

Before – see the color is a little on the orange side.

After – now it is black and has been moved to a different room. It looks ok, but I have since learned how to do it better. Now, I need to find time to do another piece. The trick is to use a smooth roller for both the primer and the final paint application to achieve a smooth finish and alleviate brush lines.

Sweet potato starts. I had lots of dinky sweet potatoes left from last year, so I decided to start my own slips this year. They did great. However, I have just discovered that the goats have been in the garden and I don’t have any plants in the ground right now. I am personally ready to get rid of the goats, except that they are still kind of cute.

Homemade yogurt. Again, found the idea on pinterest. The yogurt is very easy to make, but I haven’t perfected the process of flavoring it. If I add flavoring after it sets, the yogurt gets runny. If I add favoring before it sets, it doesn’t set. Anybody have any ideas?

Before. Now, for one of John’s projects. Each of the bedrooms has a walk-out balcony, but the floor joists just look rough and unfinished.

After – he wrapped the underside with metal to give it a finished look. Doesn’t it look a lot better? 1 down, 2 to go. He also constructed it so that any rain water coming through the deck would shed away from the house. If you look really closely at the hummingbird feeder, there is a little buddy hovering there.