Character-Building

Last Friday I got the boys up early to help me clean out and spread mulch in the area against the back of the house. (And by early I mean before 10 a.m.) There was a lot of bickering which I fully expected since, as Charlie would say, "those two get along like two sore-tailed cats".

Devin picks on Dracen for sport and Dracen thinks he is fully capable of doing anything a grown man can do...all 60-couple pounds of him. (When he was little, "I do it myself!" was his favorite phrase.) I still use it.

We were using the riding mower and trailer to haul the mulch into the fence and although Dracen does not have enough butt to keep it turned on, he still insists that he can drive it although it turns off on him fifteen times before he gets to his destination which thoroughly exhausts Devin. 

We took a lunch break in the early afternoon and everything seemed to be going better. For a few minutes. And then all hell broke loose. 

I was in the process of spreading mulch when I heard them going at it up at the mulch pile outside the fence. Devin was about to drive another load back into the fence, beating Dracen to the mower. So Dracen took the keys and claimed that he would not surrender them until Devin got off and turned the mower over to him. After threatening him within an inch of his life, he turned them over but decided he was done since we all treat him like he's useless (his words). Bring on the drama.

Devin and I were emptying the mulch out of the trailer when he realized he needed his gloves. Turns out, Dracen had the gloves and was sitting on the ground pouting outside the fence. The next thing I knew Dracen jumped on Devin so Devin slung him on the ground. And then he (Dracen) LOST IT. He came charging across the yard full speed ahead, determined to take Devin (twice his size) down to the ground. 

And when I went in to stop him, he commenced to pitch the biggest conniption fit I have ever been witness to. God doesn't give us more than we can handle? That was close. That was real close. Things got worse before they got better. I half expected someone in the neighborhood to call 911 on us. In the end (after they calmed down), I sent them both in the house because I just wanted to work in peace.

Their entire Saturday was spent doing various character-building chores (supervised by Charlie) around the yard while I cleaned the air conditioned house. Alone. They both had a complete change of attitude from the day before so we decided to take a little trip up the mountain on Sunday where, I am happy to report, nobody tried to throw anybody off the side...
 

All's well that ends well.

Friday Favorites...Lazy Summer

It has been another lazy week of summer over here. I'm thinking I may need to stage an X-Box intervention with a certain teenager soon because I'm fairly certain he now qualifies as a full-fledged addict. Dracen went shopping with me yesterday and I was sort of thinking out loud as I wondered how anyone could spend that much time at something so unproductive and he (with all his nine and a half year old wisdom) said, "Ah, he's just going through a phase." 

He's nine going on sixty-five. Sometimes. Other times, he's nine going on three.  We had bought a twelve pack of Cokes when we were out yesterday, along with a new decorative metal bird stake for the yard which he absentmindedly stabbed into the box of Cokes, poking holes in two of them and spewing sticky all over the kitchen floor. I was livid. When I questioned him about why he did it, he had no good answer other than he just didn't think that would happen. 

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.

So that's a pretty good example of what our summer has been like over here so far. Unless you count the yard work. Last Saturday we had a ginormous dump truck of mulch delivered and spent the entire day spreading it, after I trimmed the excessive amount of  sticker bushes that came with this house. I have scabs on both thumbs from the rake rubbing the skin off.  That was fun. And we still need another load or two for the rest of the yard since I'm still looking at that red mulch from last year in my shade garden. I guess, as Dracen would say, I was "just going through a phase" because I am so completely over that red mulch. 

And speaking of the shade garden, Charlie and I decided to buy a teak bench as a five year wedding anniversary gift to ourselves. Our anniversary is the 28th of this month and we've always tried to stick with the traditional gifts. The five year gift is wood. I've never owned anything teak but I hear it is supposed to last a lifetime. I'm really liking the style of this one, my first "favorite" this week...

Teak Garden Bench

Source

A Great Summer Read

I've been reading Sophie's blog, BooMama, for the last

three years or so and just love her and her down to earth 

writing style so much. Her first book, A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet:

Southern Stories of Faith, Family, and Fifteen Pounds of Bacon

was released on June 4th and I pretty much devoured

it on my Kindle in one day. She made me cry, she made me

burst with laughter and she made me shout "Amen, sister!"

page after page after page. I can't recommend her book enough.

Fit and Flare Tee Dress

I love a good casual dress in the summer.

I bought two of these from Old Navy awhile back, in black

and green, and just love them to pieces. It is one of

the most comfortable dresses I have ever owned and

a flattering cut to boot...doesn't cling. But the best part

is, they are marked down to 18 dollars!

Warning Bell

We need this. Not because they are ferocious

beasts who will eat you alive but as a warning

to cover your ears before you ring that bell because

LOUD does not begin to describe the level of

barking that ensues when it goes off.

source

 Yes!

Love this.

source

Sailor Stripe Backpack

I ran across this the other day and just

thought it was the cutest little thing for summer.

parc boutique

Just Because...

Dogs driving cars always crack 

me up. It's just who I am.

Pinterest

A Summer Recipe

Mouth-watering watermelon bars.

The first good watermelon I get my hands on this year,

I am so making these.

rightathome

 Braided Sandals from Target

I had been looking for a cute pair of gold sandals and

found these at Target for 15 dollars. And they're

comfortable too!

A Fun Song

I don't find myself listening to Country as

much as I once did but when Blake Shelton

performed this on The Voice a couple of weeks ago,

I started thinking maybe I should turn it over to the Country

station every once in awhile.

  

And that's it for this week. I'll try not to stay away so long this time.

Happy Weekend,

So, it's been awhile...

We are working on our second full week of summer vacation over here and I am thoroughly enjoying the lack of schedules and early morning stupors although Dracen is going to baseball camp from 9 to 12 four days this week. While one would think that something he loves so much would be motivation for him to get right on up out of bed when he is awoken at 8:15 a.m., one would be oh so very wrong. That boy has always had an independent streak a mile wide (I do it myself!) but when it comes to getting out of bed in the morning, Mr. Independent goes AWOL and it's all Mr. Help-I'm Helpless-And-I-Can't-Get-Up. 

His brother has been sleeping until ungodly hours of the day and spending most every one of his waking moments upstairs on the XBox which, in light of the dream I woke up from this morning, doesn't really seem all that bad. It was one of those dreams where you wake up gasping for breath and then quickly thanking the good Lord that it was all just a very bad dream and then praying that it never, ever, ever comes true...

I made the discovery that he had somehow managed to sneak away enough hours to have his entire torso tattooed with the most ridiculous and meaningless of tattoos. Y'all. I'm not even kidding when I say that I scared the bajeebies out of myself because I broke out a can of mama rage on him that I didn't even know I owned.

I demanded to know WHO? WHAT? WHEN? and WHERE? because somebody was dang sure gonna pay...and the next thing I knew I was all up in the face of some long-haired hippie dude (I guess I got my answers) giving him a great big scary piece of my mind, complete with spit flying, informing him that I'd be seeing his arse in court because he had made the biggest mistake of his life when he took it upon himself to tattoo my thirteen year old and that I would spend the rest of my life, if I had to, making sure he went down in scorching flames.

The last thing I remember was the look of pure terror on this guy's face when the realization hit him that he had just been served his worst nightmare because everybody knows that hell hath no fury like a mama bear scorned. 

And then I woke up.

I think the dream was somehow prompted by the gazillion chigger bites he and Dracen got while helping their popaw do some yard work last Friday. They both got eaten up with them and as I was applying some Benadryl to the ones on Devin's back, I realized that he's grown some more and is now not only a couple of inches taller than me but a whole head. It is the most peculiar, surreal feeling to watch the tiny baby you gave birth to surpass you in height and weight. Bittersweet.

In other news, I've been spending much of my time working in the yard and just haven't been able to find the motivation to blog much. I get the feeling my posts will most likely continue to be fewer and farther between for awhile, or at least until the temperatures soar into the upper 90s and the humidity rises to a hundred and sixty-two percent, in which case I'll be here every day whining about how  my unruly hair has jumped the train tracks to Frizzville and I can't go outside because it's just hotter than blue blazes out there.

But then again, I may be back tomorrow because I'm just all reckless and unpredictable like that. 

I will leave you with a photo of the Adirondack chairs I painted duck egg blue last week. Charlie's best friend, Paul, made them for us a couple of years ago and I suddenly got the urge to give them a makeover. This color makes me plumb giddy...

Happy June!