Happenings...

The moments for peace and quiet and contemplation have been few and far between lately. It's 9pm now and Kris and I are sitting on the couch reflecting on the fact that we have either had people over or been to other people's houses for the past 6 nights in a row. I'm tired now - I have so much to do... And yet it will be next Tuesday before I have another free evening of "nothing" to do. Ugh. Its funny how during busy times you wish things would just quiet down, then they do and you wonder when they will ever pick up again. Ahh - if only to learn to be content!

We (Garner kids etc...) went hiking on the 5th - up Monument Mt. in Mass. It wasn't a long hike, but was so much fun. Ty and Beth were here for a week and we tried to get in as much fun stuff as possible. I have just one lovely picture below. Counterclockwise - starting with the bottom center: Kris, Beth, Ty, Amy, Mark, Me, Peter, Linea, Morgan - and you can just barely see Zoe in the bottom right corner. :)



So on our way to the hike, we passed the Berkshire Botanical Gardens... I was so excited - I've always wanted to go to some botanical gardens, but haven't been yet and didn't know that there were any that close! (only about an hour away) So Kris and I went on the 12th and got to take a bunch of pictures etc. It was soooooo hot that day though! When the sun was out we were burning up, then the sun would go behind a cloud and the bugs were fierce! We still had fun though and got some cool pictures.

Probably about 10 years ago (for my graduation gift) my grandfather bought me a collection of 10 different colors of day-lillies that I planted in a garden at the farm. Sadly - I left home right after that and I've never seen them bloom. On the same note - thankfully, my mom has kept my old garden weeded and I was just able to go dig them up last week. We have a lovely fenced in back yard and I plan to plant them all along the back fence. I finally had a chance to go buy some mulch and "dehydrated" manure today so hopefully I can get them all planted this week before they all dye! I'm excited though - I think that they will look really good. I have so many ideas for things that I want to do with this house! I'm so glad that I have the next 30 years cause it will take that long!

We are working on getting our home-group started back up again for the year. We've decided on studying a book for the fall - I have to get that ordered soon! We got together with everyone for a BBQ on Friday which was nice as we have a few new members who had not met everyone yet. We were so blessed - last year 2 couples left the group (either moved away or couldn't make it) and we going to advertise in the church bulletin. But we didn't have to because these new couples found us without our even trying and we are really excited about them! We're really excited to be getting started again and we're feeling pretty refreshed after the summer off. We had actually joined another group just for the summer, which has really given us some encouragement and strengthening and new ideas. I just pray that we will be able to keep up the enthusiasm...