I have been doing things in fits and spurts the last few days. The unsettled, rainy weather doesn’t help my energy levels, but has meant that I am forced to be a little more restrained in the garden. So, the hip that has hurt for over a week has had some time to rest and heal.
There is still a lot to do! But in between extended sessions of Babble and reading lots of news articles, Grant and I managed to do a lot.
Pitting and freezing pie cherries (ten pounds!) on Tuesday and hanging out with teens, quick trip to Mt. St. Helens on Wednesday (more teens), recovering on Thursday, canning on Friday and today spray painting three more chairs. We did a quick — and somewhat sloppy job on the chairs, but it’s good enough for this year and will extend the life of the chairs considerably. You can see the missing slats on two of the chairs, which will be covered with cushions anyway.
Here are a few pictures.
Mt. St. Helens: the mountain showed only briefly that day, while I was driving so I got no pictures of it, but I did get one of the kids and Grant took one of me.
In the picture above, you can see how low the clouds were at the Johnston Ridge parking lot! Occasionally they would lift enough to see the tree line looking the other way (at the mountain), but never enough to see the crater.
CHAIRS! Same colors as the wicker chair, but we decided to give each one its own flavor.
For reference, the wicker chair:
The two plain chairs:
yellow and blue … there is a theme going on here!
And finally, the one painted when we knew we were running out of paint…
Camouflage!
Or, sort of — the four chairs are all different in personality, and will all look good together in the yard, whether in the veggie garden or up near the house.
And then, to make things nice, Tom baked a peach and marionberry pie last night which I am enjoying as the pictures upload. The peaches were last-minute purchases at our favorite farm/fruit stand, Madrona Grove which is at Building Earth Farm and the marionberries (as well as the raspberries yesterday) are from our local Spooner’s stand. There are also Spooner’s farms in places like Puyallup — kin to the local family!
I think I am teaching Grant a lot about just getting things done. He is a great worker and does things to the best of his ability. He naturally has a strong work ethic and follows directions well. He is learning to make jams, to clean, to work in the yard and garden and to find a balance between work and play (he is still very much about play, of course!). Part of parenting is helping your children learn how to do things. I have discovered that not all children are coachable — our other son does not take direction from me at all — but all children seem to learn by example. So… when I can, I am up and “doing” and when I can’t I try to model patience and how to make the most of whatever the day offers.
Wednesday I was not able to walk very far at all, and you can just see the top of one my crutches in the picture of me. But I was able to drive, to walk a little ways on paved paths, and to visit with our friends. What do I hope Grant learns from that? That one should be honest about limitations and still do as much as possible!
By the way, one last plug for someone else: On the way home, we stopped at the 19-mile House on Highway 504. It is a wonderful, home-style restaurant with good food. We stopped just for the cobbler, which I was told was very good, and to take a break from the car. The service was friendly, refills on coffee and cocoa were free, and the view was beautiful. If you are headed to or from the mountain, it’s a good place!
One Interaction on “Lazy Days…”