Keeping Cool

Here is a fun way to keep cool-

Bathing a horse.

It was at least 100 when Brenna had her lesson on Tuesday, so we opted for a "bathing lesson."

Uhhhh. No. The horse, silly!

That's better.

We love this horse. Splash will let you do just about anything. As long as she gets to go back in her stall, she's o.k.

We like bath time 'cause there is lots of water involved.

The best part is spraying the horse.

Next comes the scrubbing.

and scrubbing.

Whew! Who knew a horse was so big?

And had so many places to scrub??

Next comes the "strange" part: squee-gee-ing off the water.

Nice job, Brenna!

Like I said, Splash doesn't mind.

She just likes to pretend there is something in her mouth that she can chew.

Chew and scrub, chew and scrub.

chew....

and chew...

Well, you get the idea.

Thanks for a fun day, Colleen!!

This and That

Hey, all.

Not much in the way of creativity is going on around here.

I tried beginning something with the lavender.

Pretty much all I did was make a big mess.

Then it all got tossed into a box and put in my "file." AKA: the floor.

Today we are just trying to figure out what season it is.

The weather man told us it was fall.

Today he told us to get ready for record-breaking temperatures.

Is it still summer?

Or fall?

These trees began their change on time.

But we used these in the pool yesterday:

The sky and the mountains still say summer.

But those darned trees are confusing me.

They don't look scorched, they look like fall!

Maybe I'll just go back to my filing system on the floor. 

That seems to make more sense!

More Baking

Quick!!! Turn on the oven before it hits 107!!!!!!!!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. It is supposed to get that hot next week.

Brenna and I got smart and baked before the heat sets in and  WITHOUT having to turn on the air conditioning!!

I don't know why the kick for baking lately. Maybe because it's SUPPOSED to be fall. Plus, it's just fun to do together. I wish there were cookbooks with big, easy to read words and numbers. And step by step pictures. With recipes for items other than pizza.

When I have Brenna read a recipe, she honestly can't see it, so she just has to trust me that I'm telling her to put in is the correct amount! 

Oooh. That would be another wish. I would make measuring spoons and cups with big, bold letters and numbers. I can barely make out what it says.....

This week we made Lemon Pound Cake.

It's very easy to make, and is delicious!

Sometimes I will put a glaze made out of powdered sugar and lemon juice and add pomegranate seeds on top. This time I left it plain and will add frozen, thawed berries.

Or not. Plain with a good cup of coffee is yummy as well!

I do have to send out a BIG THANK YOU for all your laughs and encouragement over my crazy 24 hours. You never cease to brighten my day. From great ideas like giving the gin to the dog to what goes in must come out, well...let's just say I felt justified in taking pictures of wet, soggy toilet paper and posting said pictures on the blog. You all totally relate!!!!

That said, shall I tell you that the next day, the  garage door broke for the 3rd time??

 Naahhh.

I'll just have another piece of cake.

Mamma Said There Would Be Days Like This.

I am just going to share the last 24 hours of my life with you.

I'm not going to hold much back.

Ready?

Two weeks ago, I asked the gardener to "clean up the ledge." He said he would work on the hill. Great. I have a lot of dead-ness going on due to the heat.

Seems they left that in all it's dead glory.

But took the salvia that looked like this:

to this:

Nice.

At least he left one of the Salvia plants. Maybe he is planning to kill the second one next week.

Well. Then I noticed the pool filter had not shut off. When I went to check it, it WAS off, technically. Just still running. ??????

Fast forward to today.

I came home to this mess:

SOMEone forgot to latch the cupboard before t(he)y left this morning.

And Party Girl had a blast.

Oh, sure. She looks innocent enough. But it was the dish washer soap that gave it away. She really has an affinity for it.

And, apparently, for foil that had meatballs cooked on it.

There is a lot of foil missing.

But the day isn't finished yet.

You think I'll find foil later?

I do.

Ah, well, I thought. I'll just go use the bathroom before I clean this up.

(I told you I would tell you everything.)

It would have been nice to be able to walk down the hall to the bathroom, but the laundry fairy apparently forgot to come while I was gone.

Anyway. Bathroom.

Of course, no toilet paper. But wait!! There is some in the cupboard.

But guess what? There is a leak under the sink. In the cupboard. Where the extra toilet paper is.

I thought my sweet husband had turned off the hot water that had been leaking.

Guess not.

This quote came to mind for the day, from Anne Lamott.

"I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish." 

Journal 3-project completed

Done.

Finished.

Completed.

This was a good one.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

It must have been a good journey to do this journal page, you should see my work space.

What do you think?

I love the photo of this statue.

My sister, Carol took it.

I believe it was from a church in Italy.

A bold statement, yes?

Here is the fun part:

Some times I have to search for this, other days, I know it inside and out.

Sometimes I think, "really? why?"

There I days I long for this look of serene contentment.

And there are times the light bulb goes on and I think:

I'm pretty sure that's what this lady is thinking.

Can't you see her saying, "Thank goodness that's figured out! It took long enough."

I can.

That gives me what I need to now go clean up my art room where a small bomb of creativity exploded.