Mantra: be thankful!

Things have been ... well, pretty rough lately. Notice my blog posts are few!

But I am thankful for my digital camera ... it takes really good pictures.

I am also thankful for. . .

Stella the beauty. She's working so hard in swimming lessons and staying very busy with pool therapy, horseback riding, OT and speech therapy. I'm working very hard at getting her to all those places on time.


A.J. the adorable. He insists on feeding himself, sitting in the "big chairs" at the table, putting on his Crocs and digging in my tomato patch! His nickname at daycare is "Apple Jacks" (for AJ), and he says "Apple Jacks!" all the time. He says it kind of like a super-hero -- "Apppple Jaaaacks!" (to the rescue). He also says it when he's ornery. I guess Apple Jacks is his evil twin.


Both blond babes . . .


Their dad. He's very sweet. He takes A.J. to swimming lessons now, and last night he put grub control all over our lawn so it wouldn't get eaten. This picture is from Father's Day. I made him a T-bone steak that left a lot to be desired. He didn't complain though. Isn't he looking slim & trim?



The surprise visit we got from Joe and Kathy on Sunday. John sent me a text message while I was in church, saying that they were coming to spend the afternoon with us. Joe brought hamburgers and sweet corn and we had a feast! Albert demonstrated for his grandparents just how ornery he is.



The bounty at the Farmer's Market. The early June peas and the spring onions I bought today were just awesome.

Summer begins

The warm weather is finally here. It seems like just a few weeks ago, we were wishing away the snow. Now it's a different world. It's getting hot, too hot for Michigan in June, so we have to water the young trees. A.J. likes to participate in this.



Stella does, too.



Drowned rat.


Here is Stella in her horseback lesson. It's not a very good picture, but at least you can see she's on the horse and she's not crying. They work on her balance and coordination a lot, so she often has to grab something out of the instructors' hands and pass it to the other one. It forces her to lean forward, sideways, back and maintain her balance.



Stella is off all next week and then she starts summer school on the 16th. It's only Monday-Thursday, though. I'm trying to come up with things for her to do on Friday, her "day off." It's best not to let her get bored. Now I just wish I could figure out what to do with her energetic young brother, who's completely ornery. He's going to take a parent/child swimming class with his dad this summer. John promised me he would do it without complaint!