Pinned It, Made It: Soap Cloud

It has been a wild and crazy summer here. I am working on slowing things down. One of the things that I am being intentional about is doing things. It is easy to have a bunch of ideas, but what fun is that if you never use the ideas?! When I saw that Tammy was hosting Pinned It, Made It Monday I knew this was the motivation I needed to actually use my ideas.

The ironic thing about my first post to Pinned It, Made It is that I pinned this idea from Tammy's daughter Joy! :)

Anyway, I found the idea here.  One bar of Ivory Soap was placed on a piece of wax paper in the microwave. 

The timer was set for three minutes, but it was stopped when the cloud stopped growing.

Megan thought it was very cool, especially watching it grow. 

It can be messy since your cloud will flake apart when played with.  I think next time we will make it right before bath time and then she can play with it in the tub.

Be sure to stop by and visit Tammy for some more great ideas!

May your day be filled with joy and contentment!

Weekend Whirlwind

The weekend was full of non stop fun! We had family come in from Iowa for a family reunion. We started out Friday evening at my father-in-laws.   Chuck's dad is like a big kid himself.  He lives on several acres and took the kids for ride after ride in his cart. 



You can probably tell that Megan was having a blast!

There are woods at the back of his property and the kids spent lots of time walking the trails.

It was actually cool enough Friday evening for a bonfire and fireworks. 

I didn't take one picture while at the reunion.  I was too busy taking care of food and keeping an eye on Megan.  It was hot again Saturday and when things started to wind down I suggested we head back to our home.

A group of us went bowling Saturday evening. 

This was Megan's first time.  She is already asking when we can go again. 

After church on Sunday we headed back to my father-in-law's for some more family time.  Here are the cousins watching their crazy dads having a ping pong tournament. 

There were some crafts.

Again the cart rides were a hit. 

This is Chuck's cousin Melanie and her family.  They farm in Iowa and it had been three years since we had seen them.  We get along great and immediately clicked like we had seen each other last week.  We agreed that we don't want to go three years before getting together again.

It has taken me all day to recover from our whirlwind weekend, but I am thankful for family!

May your day be filled with joy and contentment!

Bake A Thon

Ready, set, here we go!

I started out making four loaves of zucchini bread.  Two for my father-in-law and two for us.

Sadly I may only have enough zucchini to make one more batch of bread. :( My zucchini plants are very stressed from the heat and lack of rain.  We did receive some more rain overnight and again this evening.  Thank you God!  If this continues just maybe they will be able to survive. 

I spent a good portion of the afternoon and evening baking.  I don't know how many dozens of cookies I made. 

Ms. Betty Crocker helped me to quickly whip up a batch of brownies. 

It has been a while since I have spent time baking.  It felt good to be back doing something I love! 

There is a family reunion this weekend. Tomorrow will be spent in the kitchen making some more good stuff for Saturday.  It has been about three years since we have seen Chuck's family from Iowa.  I am looking forward to catching up with them tomorrow evening. 

May your day be filled with joy and contentment!

Do You See...

what I see?

Oh yes, my friends, that is rain!!!  Today we ended the longest dry spell in more than 100 years. 

Things are bad here.  We have been declared a natural disaster area, farmers are starting to cut down their corn crop and there is a statewide water shortage warning.  Needless to say we really need rain.  Officially we received .24' of rain.  Just a drop in the bucket compared to what we need, but we are thankful!

May your day be filled with joy and contentment!

Peace

Although I wasn't completely still this verse

Be still, and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

keep coming to mind.  I was sitting outside and I was surrounded by beauty and felt a peacefulness that I really needed.

I was sitting at the table snapping green beans 

watching the children playing nicely.  Something that doesn't always occur. :) 

The temperatures have finally dropped from the triple digits and I think everyone was happy to be out enjoying it. 

As I snapped away my mind was relaxed and I was able to soak up the beauty around me. 

The birds were singing a beautiful tune as they enjoyed their morning snack.

There was a pleasant breeze making me sigh with pleasure and causing the laundry to flap on the line.

I have felt rushed, overwhelmed, tired and just plain busy this summer.  This was just the morning I needed to feel refreshed.

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Matthew 11:28

I have missed blogging and hope to make a regular appearance here again.  Thank you to everyone who takes the time to stop by.

May your day be filled with joy and contentment!

Happy Birthday, America!

This Fourth is a little different for us as we are under a fireworks ban. We are hot and dry, actually we are having a severe drought, and it just isn't safe. As disappointed as I am that we won't see fireworks I know it is for the best. This is how I spent my day.

I made a heat friendly snack.

Inspired by something on Pinterest.

Although we are having a drought the garden is doing well.  Lots of watering has been going on.  The first of the green beans are in.

Ready and waiting to fill tummies when the snow is flying.



This where I spent my afternoon.  Nothing like a cool pool and a good book on a 100* day!

We ended up having dinner with my sister at my parents.  The rest of the evening will be spent in the air conditioning reading, watching TV and getting ready for the rest of the week. 

I hope you have had a wonderful Fourth of July!

May your day be filled with joy and contentment!

Six!

Today my sweet girl turned six!
 

We celebrated with a candy themed party.  The cake was made by a lady my mom use to work with.  It is based on this cake.

Instead of using dot candy she used icing to make it look like candy.  I am thrilled with how it turned out.  It was also yummy!



To go with the candy theme there was a candy for everyone to bag and take home.

A huge hit!  Everyone keep asking if they could make a bag of candy. This is where I found the banner and decor for the candy buckets.

Of course I plan an outdoor party and we are experiencing record breaking heat!  We went out and played a couple of games.  Lifesaver Toss was the first one.

Then it was time for Gumball Wack. 

Some of the balloons were filled with water and we had lots of fun with this.

Then it was inside for snacks, cake and presents.

Happy Birthday Megan Moo!


May your day be filled with joy and contentment.  Happy Summer!