Eric is out mowing the lawn and the smell of fresh cut grass is a slice of heaven. This truly is one of life's simple pleasures. Today I dead headed some roses and then cleaned and I mean tear apart cleaned the basement. Ellen and Dan will be here at the end of the week so need to get things a little more organized.

Am reading alot on the internet regarding peak oil, living green and simply. I have been trying several of the ideas, like collecting the water in the shower while it is warming up, bailing out the tub water and using this for the garden and flower pots. it is not as much work as I thought, and I am savinf about 2-4 gallons of water each time. We also have not yet turned on the air. This summer has been very pleasantly cool with rain. Yeah for us.

Well we took Caitlin to DIA and off she went to China. OK it was not that easy, we all cried, and it was so hard to say good bye for 2 years. I know we have been waiting for this and it was soo cool when she received her invitation, but oh soo hard to say good bye. She is stopping in Washington D.C. for her "staging" and then on to China the 30th.  

I did well till I came home then I lost it, all day to all I think about is Caitlin!! Who am I going to stop in and see after work, have a beer....

Hopefully 2+ years will go by fast for us. Hope to fly to China next summer to spend a couple of weeks with her at the university she will teaching English. Oh my life is going to get quite. Eric said to me this morning this is what we raised the kids to do, be independent , follow their dreams, live with courage etc, and I replied yes but do they all have to leave their hometown to do these things???

Here are a few things I have been working on, cleaning up the ragged edges of these kitchen rugs. I decided to put binding around them after trimming up the opposite ends. The Santa quilt is off today to Denver for quilting, and I made pies an apple  and lemon meringue. 

Have been looking at houses for my sister, they need to be here in 2 weeks and have no house because theirs has not sold in Chicago. They have to be stressed because I get stressed just thinking about their situation. 

Yesterday I quilted (machine) and I have the Bernina 440 machine. I am soo disappointed with this machine. When it runs it's great, but it is so picky that I spend more time trying to get it to run. It does not like delicate threads, and it is an embroidery machine! I think Bernina is just making cheap machines, not in price but in workmanship. I have several older Berninas that are all metal and I never have trouble with them, this new machine is plastic and runs like a cheap machine one would buy at Sears. No more fancy machines for me. Only the heavy metal tried and true.

Today is Fathers day and we are going to have a small family BBQ, just the girls , Eric and I. 

This is all Eric wanted for Father's day, time to spend with his family. It is hot today so hopefully we can have a comfortable dinner on the porch.

Last night we had Caitlin's going away party, it was allot fun, good food , beverages and of course people. Caitlin has so many friends and such a variety, so many from all sorts of walks of life. It was such an honor to meet all these wonderful people.

Am trying to scale way down on spending by drying clothes outside, using up old fruit in muffins and breads. Eric went through the freezer yesterday, cleaned out and organized. What a relief and now we have a great starting point. We are making a menu for the week, hoping this keeps us home and out of restaurants.

Down to Earth is a wonderful blog for anyone who wants to learn to live a simple life. I want to be the master she is at it, but I know this is a process.

Boy the days just seem to fly by, I have not posted in nearly a week. Sorry! Have been mainly just working, Eric was out of town and I worked, in the afternoon I cleaned and rearranged Erin's room. It is looking very nice, put the chenille (new find) on the bed, put an old child's table and chair up in the room and finally will put Ryan's cradle that Eric made in the room. I am very happy with the way it is turning out.

Tommorrow I am off and hope to sew the day away, I can always dream.

Birthday

Today is my oldest daughter( Caitlin) birthday, she is 23 years. Hard to believe, where did the time go? She is spending her birthday with her boyfriend. Go figure!!

Today was crazy at work, lots of cases and construction issues to make things really interesting. Oh well I guess nothing to much to complain about at least I have a job.

This quilt is one that my 23 year old wants, but is a favorite of mine. So  while she is in China I will make another one for her . Lord knows I have enough scraps!!!

It rained here all day, my garden is happy, so is the green lawn!!!

Today my youngest moved out and into her own apartment. I can remember when they were young, high-school ,  how I could not wait till they were on their own. But today after she and her Dad left I went up to her room and to see it empty left a big empty space in me. It seems Eric and I have spent our life raising kids and now the youngest has flown the coup. Not that she left the room clean, oh no I will spend several hours cleaning and throwing things out!

I have been spending allot time out in the garden. These are just a few pictures. Planted some more beans and lettuce today. The lettuce I planted in big containers, my Mom would do this on her back porch, sooo here is to MOM.

I have been machine quilting a baptist fan on this summer quilt. I have a long way to go before I'm good. practice makes perfect ( I hope). have also been trying to find a source for making homemade soap. The lye and all the oil seems hard to locate, am sure I just do not know where to look.