Around here

My calendar pages are generally pretty boring, blank for the most part with a random appointment here or there. But this month...oh boy. I sat down with a pen two nights ago to make sure I had everything down, because commitments left to the safe keeping of my mind alone are really not very safe. I still feel overwhelmed when I look at my calendar, but at least now I know (or hope) that nothing will be overlooked or forgotten.

Darren's birthday ended as beautifully as it had begun, with his favorite meal of green chile chicken enchiladas, a tall pitcher of cold iced tea, a sinfully rich chocolate cake, and a stack of presents including new framed pictures for his office and an absolutely precious piggy bank that Dylan saw in a craft book yesterday and just had to make for his Daddy.

I've been working at a frenzied pace these past few days on a wedding gift for my mom, who will be getting married this Saturday. I don't know what on earth possessed me to think that I could start a project on Sunday and actually have it finished by Saturday...but I'm not about to quit now! Is it enough that my kids have been dressed and well fed but otherwise left to their own devices for long portions of the day? I keep telling myself: this is just one week. As soon as I get this finished we can resume normalcy. In the meantime, they seem to be happy and are actually quite enjoying having free reign of the house! I just turn a blind eye to the havoc wreaked in their wake, and we tidy it all up again before bed each night. It works for me!

My mind is swimming with all the wonderful ideas that Celeste and Crafty Mom so kindly suggested in response to the amazing things happening in our backyard. I am getting more and more excited about homeschooling, and what a perfect opportunity we have right now for some incredible nature studies! We've been hearing the unmistakable hum of cicadas for a while now, but could never quite pinpoint the source of any until a few days ago, when we finally found one on one of our Ocotillos. Dylan and Caitlyn were both so excited to actually see one close up, but, though we stood very still for quite some time, he never did "sing" for us!We are also finding more and more little caterpillars every day, and others, such as this one, are growing so fast!Our vitex is in bloom now, too, and I can only hope that it will be as frequently visited as Jennifer's. I foresee many more summer meals being enjoyed out at our picnic table, particularly if we are as successful at attracting butterflies as I hope we will be!You know what else is really nice? The sunflowers we planted just below our kitchen window are finally tall enough now that their bright, cheerful heads peek shyly in at me when I'm standing at the sink. What a beautiful sight to see! I have my sweet son to thank for choosing them, and my darling husband for planning their pleasant placement. Such thoughtful boys!
Hungry children are now awaiting breakfast, but I promise to return soon to address a couple other topics I just didn't get to this morning, including my camera, about which some of you have recently inquired, and a meme I've been tagged for and have been thinking about ever since! And there are blog posts I've read while holding squirmy children that I just haven't been able to comment on, but desperately want to! Hopefully I'll get to that later today, too. I really don't mean to be a neglectful friend! I think of so many of you so often; I hope you all have a wonderful day!