Life Lately ✽ A Little Chat

Why is it that whenever I actually feel like it would be fun to do a month wrap up post, there is no reason for one? What is this strange irony? Why do I do this to myself? Haha...

Also, I just realized that sometime last January I stopped using the double title with the flower emoticon in the middle. I didn't mean to, it just happened. Hmmmm... Why? I didn't really want to use it for every one... but I meant to use it for ones that didn't have an obvious main title, because I kind of thought it was cute.
I just realized why it was. I haven't had a real "scattered" post since January, other than month wrap ups (although I mean those to be in this style as well). I always have an agenda when I blog, because I rarely blog. Oops. Oh well.

I have a lot that I could be doing right now... I have letters to write and crocheting to do and I don't even remember the last time I journaled... those little productively quiet activities that always sound like the perfect way to fill a Sunday afternoon with before I do my evening bible study. But I kind of wanted to blog about nothing in particular, haha... so here I am, sitting in our comfortable new chairs given us by a moving church member, enjoying so cold tea, and laughing at our wet little birds across the room. They always look dirtier wet than they do beforehand, but they are so FLUFFY when they dry!

I guess while I am here, I could share those garden snippets I was gonna share weeks ago... the only issue is, now it's all outdated, haha. Oh well. I don't have recent pictures!

Looking back on this pictures is kind of fun, because I feel like our garden is still so small, but looking at these, the basil is twice that size now and ready to dry! Basil smells delicious. I love to water it on a hot day and get to enjoy it's aroma!

And these tomatoes? They have to be three times this size now! I haven't seen them flower yet, though, and I am getting impatient. (Like patience has ever been my strongest virtue anyway, why would that fact be surprising ;P?)

This is the bell pepper bed. No, that big plant dominating the bed is not a bell pepper. The bell peppers came up a week later than they were expected, while a cucumber plant, that should NOT have been there, merrily grew as fast as it could, haha!

I didn't think the bell peppers would make it since they took so long to come up, but the plants look good now, we'll just have to see if we actually get vegetables from them!

It's seriously hilarious looking at these pictures. These cucumber plants in live time can't stand up right anymore, are probably a couple feet long, and flowering! I am expecting (or at least hoping) to see little cucumbers any time now. The cucumbers we planted last time we had a real garden were the best plants we had, so I'm not surprised these are doing so well!

Our squash did so well at first, and even flowered, I was so excited. But I am guessing they didn't have enough moisture for the flowering stage, because as soon as they'd flower, they'd wither, it was sad. Our lettuce didn't make it either, and we're still trying to determine the carrots and green onions.

Okay. These plants. I am so proud of myself, and feel like there is a lesson in here somewhere, haha. I asked Mama one evening f she had planted something new in the mailbox bed, and she told me no, just what we had planted in May.
"There's just some really cute plants in there... I wondered if you put something in there..."
"Still?" she asked. "You just weeded."
"Yeah, but I left those. They were cute."
She told me I should pull them before they took over, and I did, but without telling anyone but Bethi (who I could tell agreed with me that they were too cute to throw out), I planted them in an empty pot in the vegetable garden. Mind you, they were just leaves at this time. I truly thought they were weeds, although cute weeds.
Yes. I transplant weeds, y'all. That's the kind of gardener I am.
ANYWAY, fast forward two weeks to when I actually took these pictures to admit to y'all that I was cultivating weeds, and I noticed... those little feathery cone shaped buds...

These are flowers the girls gave Mama last year. We decided these weren't coming back because they should have been up by that point, plowed all the mailbox dirt up, removed giant weeds that ripped up the soil, laid down SOOOOOO. MUCH. ant killer, and planted new flowers in May. And then mid June, I throw out about fifteen of these, save the biggest even though they are weeds, and then find out they were actually our flowers.
I transplanted another three from the mailbox last week, too. They were obviously ground spreaders, haha! (Or we just really mixed them all up into the dirt, who knows.) But our five last year became ten this year, despite throwing out so many small ones!

These are also "weeds", but I didn't transplant these ones. They are growing out behind the vegetable garden, so I left them ;). We also obviously have passion vine in the garden, but it was in between the beds, so I left it, because I loved passion vines when I was little, but they never flowered. Oh well! I love all the yard work, but even with Bethi and I together doing all the weeding, it seems we are never caught up! As soon as we finish all the different areas, I realize that the first beds are full again, and we start over. It's a good thing that weeding is Bethi's favorite part ;).

We believe we had some sort of nest near the house, but we never did find it. But as the babies got older, we started to hear them frequently when we would sit in the family room; I told Mama they sounded like little squeaky tire swings, haha :). I haven't heard them for a couple days. I think we started hearing them as they got bigger and started trying out their wings, because I saw tiny birds hopping around out there a couple of times, and my guess is they are now on their own! I'm happy to suspect a bird's family actually made it this year. We don't have a lot of luck discovering a nest that has a happy ending :P.

Life has been busy the past week. We've been working on thoroughly deep cleaning the house (like, Mama is steam cleaning chairs and we're washing walls, haha), and normal life always continues. I've also been helping with a summer program held by the church that I volunteer at, working with their special needs program. A lot of the participants also go to the monthly respites that I help with, and it's been really neat. I'm only there five days out of the program, but three of those days were all last week, and by the third day, it was obvious that several of them were beginning to look for me there. These same ones have always accepted me at the respites before, but now they have kind of adopted me as belonging there, as well, which I think it cute. They are developing patterns for when they see me, which has been interesting; for instance, one of the younger girls has been testing my artistic skills. Hint: I have none. But she doesn't care, she expects me to draw anyway. I have a challenge for you all: tell me how to draw imagination. Please. This has been a struggle, because she frequently wants me to try my hand at this one, and I HAVE NO IDEAS. She's currently gracious enough to allow me to write the word instead, but I am just waiting for the day that she's in a determined mood and that's not enough anymore ;)!

My instagram Friday: *login from an unusual device to your account*
Eh, odd. *changes password*
My instagram Saturday: *login from an unusual device to your account*
Okay, that's actually creepy. *changes password*
My instagram today: *login from an unusual device to your account*
WAIT A SECOND. *double checks* THAT IS MY DEVICE, YOU STUPID COMPUTER. The only one I EVER get on instagram with, might I add. Since when is the only device a person uses their unusual device?!

I'm also working on a project for Baby Bear, who is expected anytime after next week! I did a 19x19 inch granny sqaure in 48 hours last week, and I will admit I was a bit thrilled with how it was coming together, haha :). Of course, now that the rows are getting longer (I'm spiraling out) it's taking me a but longer to see it grow past that. as it's now taking me over half an hour to take it up by just 2 inches and I have to be careful not to overdo it, so that I don't have to stop ;). My wrist never has really cleared up in the last year, just stayed under control, so, I'm going with it, carefully, haha.

And I think I have discovered that my laptop monitor color is off, because that picture looks SO much more blue on my laptop than on my phone, and I am beginning to wonder if maybe that's why I have such a hard time editing pictures for Etsy?! Something to experiment with...

Speaking of Etsy, not only am I trying to keep a blog for my shop, which you can view at www.underthetapestryhandcrafts.blogspot.com, but there will be a new item listed this week! (Hopefully tomorrow, as long as I get home in time from the summer program... I have to post it about 2 for Etsy search reasons, and I often forget to do anything useful the first half hour I am back home, haha.)

That's about it around here, other than all the little moments that are worth holding on to but I feel probably boring to read about, haha. I'm hoping to be around a big more here soon... I have two tags I have yet to fill out, and a post I would love to share about a bible study I will be finishing up tonight :). But we shall see... I always make the best laid plans ;P.

Rejoicing in Hope,
Bri