Thank You, God, For Sundays!

As a child I noted my parents relishing the respite Sunday offered with confusion, not understanding how any self-respecting human being could lay around half the day and stay sane. Sundays were so boring! In reality, the Sundays spent actually napping were very few, but I now find myself more often than not in some state of lethargy Sunday afternoons. And I relish it! No guilt restful afternoons! What a dream! We spent time outside today soaking up some sun and being lazy. Judging by the warm prickly feeling in my legs, I may have overdone the sun exposure a tad. Eli got out the pool and the boys had a blast splashing around. They were even joined for a while by their little neighbor friend, Henry. While I didn't get a photo, Liam and Henry are as thick as thieves.

Ian was not a fan of the water...just sitting close enough to watch everyone else enjoy it!

Mom took the lazy way out for lunch!

I almost moved my chair to the other side of the pool so I couldn't see the lush vegetation in the garden. I didn't realize how bad the weed situation had gotten! Add that to this week's To Do List.

My wildflower bed just keeps on giving!

Last week I lost myself in projects. Literally. I lost a day. I may have accidentally had two Tuesdays, but I'm not entirely certain. Friday I was so convinced it was Thursday that I thought Eli was teasing me when he said he wasn't going in to work that day. (He works four ten-hour days.) I may or may not have cried when I realized my mistake. I've been asked several times how do I do it all? It's so simple: I don't. While I'm getting a lot of one thing done there is a host of other things piling up. The plan was to catch up on Saturday with the housework, but that doesn't work very well when you find yourself accidentally a day short.

With only a couple weeks till my future sister-in-law's bridal shower, I spent one day cutting up colored cardstock and punching out flower shapes. It was arts and crafts day in the Berst house. I used up an entire glue stick out of the boys' pencil box and more puff paint. Three cards into this project I was berating myself and wondering what in the world I was thinking making 45 invitations by hand. After reasoning with myself that I only spent $10 in supplies and ordering invitations would ultimately cost more and take longer, I was ok with the situation.

The next day (one of my Tuesdays?) I got the invites in envelopes and addressed them. I finished the ladder project that's been waiting for me in the garage (more on that in a different post), then the boys and I walked to the post office to mail them. We sat on a bench across from the post office, each with our own pile of envelopes to stick stamps on. After that was finished the boys begged to walk to the library. Since we were within three blocks and hadn't been there in several weeks, I agreed.

My little squirrel!

Ian was so excited! 

Did I mention they love the library?

On Thursday and Friday (Wednesday and Thursday in my mind) I worked on an order of peg dolls, which will be my last until some of the craziness dies down around here. I'm not sure what was wrong with me, but every time I sprayed these dolls with sealant I dropped them or smudged them, causing me to have to repaint spots several times. Despite this, the St. Philomena doll was the funnest yet to paint! (Is funnest a word by now?)

St. Philomena

St. Anne(s)

Friday Eli went to pick up his car from the shop, and came back in this.

1992 GMC Vandura, 107,000 miles, $800. A steal.

Look at that TV! This thing was top-of-the-line!

And a queen-sized bed in the back that converts into two "sofas" (accordingly to the button). Seats 10.

I married a Berst. You never know what each day will bring. Eli busted into the house as excited as a kid at Christmas, proclaiming, "I bought it! You gotta check this thing out!" I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So I did both. And then slouched down in my seat while we test-drove it. It smelled like Elmers glue inside....

Liam, what do you think of the van?

As we drove, Eli laid out his plans for the van: camping trips and trips to Mass in Minnesota and how she (it already had a gender!) would take his car's place in the driveway. I was thinking if nothing else we could park it in the yard and the boys could use it as a playhouse? On our way back from the test drive smoke started pouring into the van from the vents. It turns out that thankfully Eli hadn't really bought it yet, but was so sold on it that he was able to reason away any negative aspect of it. He finally agreed to walk away from the deal, which proves how much he really loves me. I don't think he's completely over her yet. I may still awake some morning to find her grinning slyly at me from the driveway.

Silence is Golden - or Wrapped in Burlap and Lace

I've started six blog posts over the last few weeks, all of which are now sitting in draft form waiting to be "fixed". I start them in the mornings when I'm sorting out my thoughts for the day, so they run a bit deeper than my average posts, touching on things that bother me or convictions I have. I need to put more thought into the way I worded things, and until I have time to do that, you all get the fluff from the top of my brain. So sorry!

I always forget how busy our summers end up being. In my fantasy world, summer is relaxing in a hammock, reading a book while enjoying an iced tea, or sitting by a campfire with an adult drink. In reality there's a lot of hard work keeping up the garden and yard, weddings, graduations, family get-togethers, DIY projects for our home, and a lot of scrubbing up after dirty little boys. And a lot of grilling, which is totally fine by me!

I hit my "original" goal weight yesterday! That's a total of 51 pounds lost. I'll post on that later...but I hope to lose another 15-20 lbs. and then work on maintaining that by lifestyle changes for hopefully the rest of my life.

A before Mass selfie, waiting for little boys to get out of the tub...

I've been working on another order of peg dolls...this one is four of the same, so it's going faster in a type of production-line manner.

I'm also working on napkin rings, some of which are for my Etsy shop.

My parents celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary this past weekend. I am so blessed to have such wonderful, loving parents, and to still have them here with us yet. I made their anniversary card...the inside is a summary of their "romance". Mom laughed and Dad just shook his head at me. :)

We've been reaping the abundant fruits of the season lately, namely piles and piles of asparagus, garden greens (loose leaf lettuce, Swiss chard, spinach), rhubarb and radishes. A lot of this is generously given to us by my parents, who have a garden large enough to feed a small village. I got enough rhubarb diced last Saturday to make several batches of bread and crisp, plus more to freeze for winter enjoyment.

Rhubarb

Fish tacos with fresh pico de gallo, and a glass of Chateau Blanc from the Amana Colonies

Incidentally, I discovered last week that I cannot eat avocados when I was immobilized by intense stomach pain after having only half of one. I've had this reaction the past three times eating guacamole, but thought plain avocado would be ok. It was not.

And of course, I'm enjoying the beautiful flowers from the beds around our house. It may be small and cluttered, but if there are fresh flowers it always feels like home!

Wildflowers

 Poppies

Lupines

Lilies of the valley

And lastly, the biggest event of our busy season: my brother's wedding! They tentatively set the wedding date for July 24th, so time is of the essence. I'm hosting a bridal shower for the bride-elect, planned for June 20th, little more than two weeks from now. I recently ordered my dress for the wedding from amazon.com, in navy blue. It has shipped, so we'll soon see if it's as flattering on me as on the model. I have my doubts...but at least it's stretchy!