What a fantastic day today! So much got accomplished. We had loads of fun. The weather was absolutely terrific--hovering around 30 degrees all day. Here's some highlights.
Now to be fair, this picture was taken last night after church. The kids all wanted to eat their snacks out on the deck. So here are all 5, getting along WONDERFULLY, and just plain enjoying the amazing weather. Apparently this was the first weekend in the last 90 days that we did not see snow!
My dad showed up this morning much earlier than expected (6:30 am) to see how the chickens were doing. I made everyone some breakfast, we had a nice visit and soon thereafter he went home again. I like breakfast visitors :-)
By 8:30 we were ready to hit the books. The 2 oldest asked if they could work outside. That worked out well since the 3 youngest were playing out there as well and I could keep a good eye on all of them. The little ones were far enough away not to be a distraction, yet close enough to hear my voice if something wasn't quite going well.
Dan had some work to do with the tractor. This time he took Courtney with him. Tractor time with dad is greatly coveted!
As the day continued, the day got warmer. Dan had been filling up the pool and figured it would be ready by about Friday. Right now it is FREEZING cold. But of course, the boys wanted to show off their manliness and opted to jump into the frigid waters. Not to be outdone, Lindsay was determined to prove that girls could be 'tough' too and she jumped in right after them. The snapshot I got of them does not show the initial looks of shock and the desperate thrashing that occurred immediately upon contact. Nope, they definitely 'posed' for this shot.
By 3:00 I opted to shut the books. I wanted to get out to the garden and see how my strawberries had fared after the long, cold winter. I gently pulled the straw off of them to reveal the new growth. Almost every plant had made it! I was so thrilled!
Next I decided to take the girls to go see the Devonian Botanical gardens. Paul decided to come as well. What a beautiful place! They have a maze for the children and a large 'Rapunzel' lookout tower where you can oversee the entire 190 acres of themed gardens. We took the time to walk through the Japanese gardens, the butterfly house, and the greenhouses that housed many exotic plants. Just beautiful! Since I had bought a family pass for the year, it will be the perfect place for me to sit and read many evenings over the summer months.
Speaking of reading, I also picked up a package from the post office that contained 3 books that I've been wishing for:
--The Letters of Samuel Rutherford--yes, unabridged and complete with 742 pages. can't wait to eat that up!
--Faith on Trial by Martyn Lloyd Jones--an exposition on Psalm 73...my favorite psalm!
--The Valley of Vision--I haven't a CLUE why I haven't purchased this one earlier.
Anyways.......to go along with a great summer day, I figured we ought to have a real summer type of a supper. Chicken wings, garlic bread and coleslaw...with ice cream cones for dessert!
All day we noticed our poor husky dog, Lincoln, just panting up a storm. Being only 4 months old, he's never seen summer. You can just see him thinking, "Where did the snow go?" He is accustomed to sleeping in snow drifts. We have a dog house for him, but he prefers a nice snow bank. There is a bit of snow alongside the barn yet. We caught him meandering over there where he happily flopped down in his rapidly disappearing natural habitat.
So this evening I started reading the kids a new book. They are pretty hooked on the Chronicles of Narnia. We started the one entitled "Prince Caspian." Then off to bed. Finally, I sat on the deck by myself listening to frogs croaking, ducks quaking faintly in the distance, and Canada geese loudly squawking as they flew by. The sun was slowly going down and the clouds were an amazing swirl of pink, grey and white behind a darkening blue sky. I read until it was too dark to see the words in my book. It was a pretty sunset tonight.
How does one not offer thanks upon the completion of such a wonderful day....
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