God is good

Our real estate agent gave us a chrysalis.  Thursday morning, the Monarch had emerged!  God is good, He made so many fascinating things that grow and change.

We returned these empty jars to Rooted juicery and got $ .50 credit for each one, then got a goji berry smoothie.

A visit to a knight's castle with friends.  The multiple archways are beautiful.

They liked the swords and armor on display.

Olivia had her 1st colorguard performance with the University of Cincinnati!  Below with my mom afterwards:

We have gone to three Orthodox churches in our area this past month.  This is the smallest one and today we went for the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos.

Blessing fruit

one of my favorite days is when we bring baskets and bless fruit at church

below, is my 3 year old niece...that phase where "cheese" looks like they are just showing all their teeth, makes me laugh

Fruit this season

from our back door steps, I see the black-eyed Susans in their prime, a pear tree, fig + apple on the far right and peach on the left, grapes beside me

small helping hands with smiles

our grapes are ready, but are pulpy + have many dark spots and so, we are letting the birds feast, saw a bright red cardinal enjoying them and our chickens peck what has fallen to the ground.

We have just a couple apples.  Our fig looks nice, I hope the new owners will get to pick them as they'll be ripe in another month.  Sadly, the squirrels got almost all our peaches.  A year ago right now, we had many sweet ripe peaches and we ate them fresh, I made peach crisp.

Many pears are falling off the tree right now and they are not soft, but I read that to make poached pears, one wants hard pears.  I also found this recipe for preserved peaches:  https://southernforager.blogspot.com/2013/08/what-to-do-with-hard-pears.html?m=1

Our nearby public school started today.  We will be homeschooling starting after the move.  Nothing intense, mostly reading books and working on math.  Life is full of science opportunities outdoors.  One of our daughters will start university classes next week and the other is moving to the west coast.  Having two children who are adults, now, is hard, I still worry about them, but remind myself that I was once like them, wishing to spread my wings and see the world, so I pray.

Colorful

An art lesson today with friends, using colorful clay.

Yesterday, we went to the zoo with friends who have a guest pass!  It was George's first time ever at the zoo.  He was really interested in all of the animals, especially the giraffes.

We got to ride the train, which takes you past the wolves, flamingo, goats and alpacas, etc and the botanical gardens.

A day at the pool, not too busy and perfect temperature.  

Identifying poison ivy is a good thing, especially if you hike.

We went out for ice cream with Hannah!  She won the Graeter's coloring contest.

NEW Amazonite bracelet!  My husband got these beads as a birthday gift for me.  A friend gave me this bouquet.

And we spent time at the lake for my birthday!

Practicing writing with chalk in our driveway.  I'm getting emotional and sentimental about all these things during this last month in this house.  

Concert in the park is one of our fav Tues. evening spots.  This week was the Pete Wagner band.  They played great tunes, like the one that goes "I see skies of blue..."

7am sunrise now.  It was 6am a month ago.  The days are getting shorter, but we can still stay up until 9pm and catch fireflies.

Black eyed Susans are blooming here!  How is your colorful summer?