sister love

Last week we were so excited to have my sister Jane and her girls in town visiting us! When we're together, it's non-stop talking and catching up. Lauren and Anna always like to do crafts with me so we pulled out some scrabble tiles and made lots of necklaces. We played The Game of Life, watched movies and the dog and cat got more play time than they ever remember! We also visited The Amish Village and learned more about the Amish who live around us...

Nathaniel, Lauren, Anna & Caroline

My beautiful sister Jane

Anna feeding the calf

Baa Baa Black Sheep... I love your wool!

Posing with Mr. Ed... Caroline is thrilled!

They couldn't imagine going to a one-room school house!

Of course, I see a classroom and I miss teaching!

Their visit wasn't long enough but they had other family in the area to see. Hopefully we can visit them at their home soon!

This week has been quiet so far-- lots of rain or hot, muggy days. I've been getting beautiful flowers out of my garden and especially from my CSA....

Right now Chloe is walking right in front of my face as I try to type this! I took some photos of her but she'd never hold still to let me...

We nicknamed her Kevin (after the white dog in "The Proposal") which makes me laugh every time... "Kevin, get off of the counter"... and she just looks at us like "you people are crazy!!!".

It's hard not to be a little worried right now about the state of our country's economy and also the state of our own economy here at home. Caroline will be starting her Freshman year in High School and we're already looking ahead to what college she might want to attend. Her interest in horses has suddenly come back in a big way (since being in Maine and she was dreaming of running stables there). She will start lessons again next week and soon enough soccer will start up again for Nathaniel and Craig. Craig gets busier with work all the time, which is actually really good. Me? Hmmn... I haven't had time to work on my illustrations at all so I guess that's on my plate for September. I started to look through the want ads for a part-time job but there's not much at all out there. I wish I could come up with things to put on etsy so I could just stay home and work. Right now it's all about running the kids around, keeping up with the housework and laundry, cooking and tending the tiny garden and yes, I'm exercising so that's one good thing! I'm looking forward to having more of a set schedule again though. Off to my CSA in a few minutes to pick up more fresh vegetables! :)