Mid May

 

Kevin and the children worked on our garden the last few days. He planted tomato plants yesterday! Hopefully they do well this year.

That is chocolate; namely, Sam's Club's chocolate almond crisps. I love them.

More chocolate. 72% cocoa so quite bitter but still wonderful. 

Trader Joe's has these dark chocolate peanut butter cups that I have zero control over. I mean, I love them so much. I eat them too much. I love them.  They have too much sugar for me to eat with abandon so I really shouldn't eat them at all if I can't control myself.

I have been putting peanut butter on my very dark chocolate and that is tasty (not as good as the peanut butter cups) and I can control myself.

Eating carefully is annoying sometimes.

But I am blessed to have good chocolate and good food for a diabetic.

All the kids were at church so we had a picture. Rose is trying to smile but she is working on her smiling.

Six of the children wrote letters about me and gave them to the church; there was a Mother's Day thing where certain mothers got a gift card based on the letters their kids wrote about them. I won for Isaac's letter. I got all the letters and they are sweet and delightful and all of them were deserving, but of course they weren't going to give me more than one gift card.

It is nice to be appreciated!

New Shelves

 

Kevin is super handy. I am not. It is just one of the many ways that our marriage is a union of different skills!

This is in our pantry; he added shelves. I am so happy! I like organized spaces. Also, we eat a lot and have a lot of food stored so yes, delightful!

Thanks, honey!

Parental Visit

 

My parents visited us for a few days.

We went to Pearl's Fen, which is a little park near us. There was rain off and on the entire visit and the boardwalk was nice. I don't like wet feet.

Then we had a little celebratory experience for Miriam and Joseph for their graduation from formal schooling.

It is rather extraordinary that two of our teens are now working full time in IT, but so it is. 

We are proud of them. They worked hard to pass the Security Plus Exam.

It was a very nice weekend with my folks.

Warm, Early Summer Days

 It is about 80 degrees outside, which is warm! I took a shower this morning and will take another tonight. Those pesky chiggers are doutbless stirring, and eager to bite me!

Except for chiggers, summer is awesome. The pool will be open, and we will take a break from school, and it will be wonderful.

The pool is not open yet. We usually open it late May - early June.

I finished this Jane Austen inspired1000 piece puzzle a few days ago! I usually go for fewer pieces in my puzzles, but this puzzle had lots of little people (all dressed up in Regency attire) and lots of buildings with different colors, so it was a ton of fun and not too wretchedly difficult!

Isaac started his internship at the Air Force base on Monday of this week, and Miriam started her IT job on Tuesday of this week. Joseph just got word that he will be starting his IT job at the same place Miriam is working in the middle of this month!

So that is pretty awesome! I am proud of and happy for our kids.

Soon, there will be only four kids home during the day during the work week. That is gonna be kinda weird but good, because legally, we have five adult children so it makes sense they are all off working and doing things.

For now, Isaac and Joseph and Miriam plan to live at home for at least a while. Isaac is finishing up his engineering degree in the next year or so, and Joseph and Miriam are still very young to be off on their own.

Things are changing in our lives and that is a good thing, but also a trifle stressful because I find change to be difficult.

But it is good. It is God's plan that they grow up and work and live independently when the time is right.