Memorial Day Weekend at the Farmhouse

!Gettin Ready For Summertime!

Well girls we're gettin ready for summertime livin here at the farmhouse this Memorial Day weekend. We will be spending this long weekend getting our yard spiffed up and ready to go for the warm months. We have some property here and it is near impossible to find the time to get it all done when we are left with one day a week. Running for our kids sports 4 nights a week and soccer games on the weekend really take up alot of the time and leaves us with little energy!

There is a trellis that spans our back deck that I'm just dreading painting it. It is a large project and has been looming over our heads for the past two years but there is no more avoiding the fact that painting is now necessary. The part that stinks is that we have a grape vine that grows over a portion of it and now that we are starting to paint it later than we have in previous years we are going to have to cut the vine off of it in order for it to be painted. I hope that it grows back quickly over the top because I love the vine growing in and out of it. It provides a shady spot on our back deck over our patio table.

Not to mention that chicken wire still needs to be put around the garden to keep our woodland creatures from snacking on the fruits of our labors. There is also an old shed on our property that we are STILL in the process of turning into a coop....we had to tear off the old siding and it is waiting to be resided and painted...not a pretty site right now and taking much longer than expected. We also have torn down our old pool and will be replacing that over the next couple of weeks as well. The upper deck that goes around half of the pool also needs repairing and we have to replace some of the railing as well.

More importantly though.......

while we are doing all of the things that need to be done to keep our farmhouse up and running...we will also be reflecting on how grateful we are to live in this beautiful free country of ours. We are so Grateful to all those soldiers who have fought for our freedom and especially to those who have made the greatest sacrafice of all. In spite of all the hardships our country is facing today I am aware that we are very fortunate to live here and am confident that the amercian spirit will pull us through in the end!

And so............

Boy, do we have our work cut out for us! I will post some pictures once our backyard has been cleaned up! I hope that we can get alot of it accomplished over the long weekend.....and that I'm still standing when Tuesday rolls around! Wish me luck!

In the meantime....during all of the rain that we had I was able to put up a few summertime decorations inside my home...here's a photo of my magazine cabinet. I purchased this cabinet unfinished a long time ago and finished it myself. It has been several different colors over the years but probably has been green the longest. Alway's changin things here at the farmhouse!

Anyway, I keep my magazine subscriptions inside this cabinet and rotate them out every couple of years. I may have mentioned that I have a problem with collecting them, I'm a magazine aholic!

This picture is my daughter Sage and niece Alea taken when they were about 5 years old. Another summer hose incident! I printed it out in black and white and out it goes every summer. It is one of my favorites!

Here is a figurine of a children playing in the summer sand, I keep it under my cloche that I rotate out for the seasons. It is from an illustration originally by Jessie Wilcox Smith. She is my favorite children's illustrator of all time and I have collected some of her things. When I saw this on ebay for $5 you bet I had to have it! Apparently there was a collection made by Avon some years back, and now I am on a mission to collect as many as I can (afford)!!

With all of that said.....we were able to get outside yesterday afternoon and run around a little in the front yard. (BTW, Please disregard the lack of weedwacking that needs to be done, something else we have to do this weekend).

My two younger kids got a hold of the hose while I was watering my flowers and had a blast! Jake had his sister soaked to the bone in two seconds flat! He sure is fast! They were so cute running around with the hose I snapped a few pictures of them.

Jake chasin his sister with that hose....
fun---e!!

Do you see this lil guy of mine? He has the most devilish laugh to match that cute face when he is getting himself into some trouble! I set that hose down for a split second and he was off terrorizing me and his sister and gigglin all the way. (note the post that is missing the birdhouse that blew off during the recent storms? Just another thing to fix this weekend!)

My sister in law (my partner in crime) finally got a hold of that hose and gave it right back to them...all in good fun!

Now that is some healthy fun, kids running around in the sunshine playin..gotta love it!

We all headed in for dinner and then some homemade pound cake and strawberries, yum! A simple and easy summer time dessert.

I hope that you and your families have a wonderful weekend! Please feel free to leave a comment about how you will be spending your weekend!

PS. I will be posting a giveaway next week so be sure to check back for it on Wednesday!


Take Care,
Dee