Can you tell it's a rainy week? I'm posting. The sun is coming out now...time to hang a load of clean, wet diapers on the line. :)

guest room/napping bed (theoretically)/good place to watch the rain with a cup of tea
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Through the screen: raindrops pattering in moss garden pool.

Mach 1

We saw this beauty on the way home from brother-in-law Ethan's baseball game on Sunday afternoon and had to stop for a picture!

"Fireside story, Say Good Night"

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Greta Rose is in bed, her favorite story book left where she was last reading it.

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She loves this cozy corner for looking at her books.

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"Die, die", she says.

"Night, Night."

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"Flannel kisses

By pale starlight."

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Flannel Kisses
by Linda Crotta Brennan

a story with Uncle Bill

bananas and blue trucks

Caleb got his blue truck running. It needed a battery and an oil change. It actually needs an engine rebuild, but he's thinking of making that a winter project (the summers go by too fast!) Rosie was his helper while he worked on it. She thought it so much fun to sit up on the seat. We went for a cruise around town and of course stopped at NAPA (our weekend home-away-from-home). It's a beautiful thing, his truck, and special because it was his Grandpa's farm truck.

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I guess you can pass on motor-head genes to your children. Greta definitely got them from her Daddy. When she found the big rock from Wyoming that Grandma Connie has on her lawn, she climbed up on it and made fast-moving car noises!
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{Greta eats bananas like a big girl now, holding it from the bottom!}
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*****


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*****

summer look

~ Making knotted thread necklaces ~

dishcloths

I'm crocheting a new set of dishcloths for myself. Creamy white cotton. The pattern possibilities are endless, and dishcloths are forgiving, so the making of them is relaxing for me.

the smoker

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My Caleb finished his smoker last weekend. It is really quite impressive. He designed the whole thing and made all of the components himself--grates, handles, doors to direct air flow and such. He finished it on Friday and we tried it out. A dry run of sorts to make sure it sealed and to burn off anything icky before we started cooking. Caleb has been reading Steven Raichlen’s Barbecue Bible to get inspired, so he had a recipe all picked out and a pork shoulder in the freezer. He decided to try his pork shoulder recipe first thing, so we invited his folks over for supper the next night and mixed up the rub.
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Saturday turned out to be a very rainy and rather chilly day, but he wasn’t deterred. After all, it might rain on vacation, and you’d still want to grill for supper! Greta rode on his back in the Ergo for most of the afternoon while they tended the smoker and cleaned the garage. :) The smoke from the hickory chips went nicely with the smoke from our woodstove chimney. It smelled good, like a day at the north woods cabin.
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Supper ended up being late in the evening, but it was well worth the wait. Caleb’s family helped put everything on when the pork was ready. Caleb mixed up a vinegar sauce for the meat and there were baked beans. It was delicious!

oaties

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Morning oatmeal with Greta and the siblings ~'::

Also: coffee, toast, milk and tea

Tuesday lovelies

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For the first time yesterday morning Greta Rose brought a book over to me, asking if I could read it to her. I was thrilled. She is always so busy that since she was tiny she hasn't wanted to sit still for a whole story. After the ABC book I went and got Flannel Kisses to read to her. I think she recognized it from last winter when I read it to her before naptimes. She loved the pictures and actually lingered over each page, finding the doggie, pointing out the the "pretties". She wanted me to read it again...and again.

In the afternoon she found it again and brought it to Mimi to read to her. She stroked the cozy fireside pictures and said "night-night" at the last pages. For being such a busy and spirited girl she can quiet down to sweet calmness.

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We drank tea and visited and showed each other some things on the computer.

Uncle Beni and Auntie Olivia even stayed over for the night then!

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"The bunnies drank their tea at night to give them sleepy heads..."

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Chamomile with honey and milk!

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(Did you see Rosie's laundry basket nest in the kitchen? She loves that spot so much. She goes to it first thing in the morning and looks at stories while I make breakfast for Caleb. If she needs comforting, she'll always cheer up if I cozy her in there with bear and a book.)