family memories

yesterday was julies baby shower. 26 women and 5 children. in my little house.
but it worked. everyone had a good time
julie was happy.
thats what i was going for

her and ben were blessed with so many wonderful gifts
but more importantly time was spent with family and friends
and i was able to feed all of these people, plus the 8 men when they came back from their hiking--without stressing--i had a good time too!

 

and i couldn't have done it without my daughter in laws meghan and sarah. i thank them for helping me make the day special for julie

i had a lot of fun planning and crafting for this with pinterest for inspiration

                                                                  bubby & grammy

 

now we just sit back and wait for the babies to come

 

meghan is due on oct.24th.  everyone seems to think that baby lukas will come a bit earlier.

family is everything.

down day

no worries! i'm happy!  this has been my only day in the past week to just stay home and i'm finding it hard to just sit down!!!!

i went on a trip down to mass. to go to IKEA with a friend. we had an awesome time and came back with her entire car filled with my stuff.  she promised next time she would fill it with her stuff too!
this was a long awaited spending spree that jeff agreed i should go on.  i ticked off tons of items from my wish list.  it was all about me (for a change)

.....however,


i did buy these cute little blue chairs to go with a little white table i got from ikea a few years ago--perfect for the boys

its a warm, muggy day today. probably the last one we will have this season. fall is upon us. its been a pretty wet summer and i haven't ventured up to my chair in the woods. i did today but the mosquitos are still pretty bad. so i came back down to the yard and let the dragonflies protect me from the bugs.  i even had my bug zapper, but there were just too many of them buggers!

 i haven't done my "ings" in a while, so here you go

 

listening:  leaves rustling, crickets chirping, logging trucks rumbling

eating:  nothing

drinking: water

wearing:  blue sweats, white & blue tee with butterlies & sneaks

feeling:  okay. not too anxious or worried.  restless

weather:  nice early fall day, slight breeze, blue sky, warm and humid

wanting:  to shower, i feel buggy and sweaty from my walk

needing:  to focus more on most important tasks

thinking:  about what to make for dinner, i haven't been shopping too much lately for food

seeing:  the woods beginning to yellow, maples reddening, sheets flapping on the line; pink & red, my home sweet home

enjoying:  being home today

what i'm up to

crafting

a diaper wreath for the baby shower. i'm also working on a 3 tier diaper cake and little diaper babies to put in a basket.

we chicken sat for the neighbors over the weekend and this is one of the eggs (on the right, the one on the left is a grocery store large egg)

ouch!

the eggs were really good. i really need to get off my a** and get chickens

i'm going on a shopping trip this weekend down to massachusetts with a friend.  we are going to IKEA!!!!!!! can you tell i'm excited.  its a five hour drive so we are staying overnight. then we will shop our way back home through kittery and portland.  i've not been away from jeff in a really long time so i'm feeling excited and nervous at the same time. but it will be good to get away from things for a bit. 

anyway.....

otherwise all the pregnant ladies are doing great. and something else we've been waiting on for a while finally happened........

jeff turned 55 in august and his UPS pension started!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  first check came this week. we are still so amazed by it.  he worked there for 17 years and now they will pay him for the rest of his life.  its not tons of money by most people standards, but it doubles our income. sigh.......the teamsters union is good for something ;)

end of august already?

well i'm not going to lament that summer is over (or almost over) because we still have weeks of summer left.  but the goldenrod is blooming in full force and the crickets are chirping away and the sun is at that slightly tilted angle that makes the light look a little bit lazy.  the garden is winding down, but the cherry tomatoes are finally ripening! do i want to say that the colors in the leaves are already changing?  walking out back and along the driveway the early signs of fall are definitely there.  and the wood splitting is going full swing

 

grampa giving joey his first lesson in splitting and stacking

 

 



we had a new furnace installed this summer and we switched from oil to propane.  its a high efficiency forced hot air unit.  it should cost us way less to run, plus no worries about the oil line freezing up in the winter, or ever having to clean up an oil spill. nice!  so this winter we are hoping to not rely on the wood as much as we have been, but we'll still keep a couple cords ready.  once jeff is done splitting this wood (the trees were cut last fall and have been drying) then we will start cutting trees for next winters wood.  we plan on cutting less and i've got my eye on quite a few that are casting early morning shade on my garden, then we'll go further out back and pick up where we left off last year.

this summer ethan turned one and we had a party at his house.  "batman" was the theme and i went a bit crazy with pinterest projects! but it was fun and i love to create

this summer also saw joey turn two and we also relied heavily on pinterest for decoration and activity ideas for his "art" party.

now i'm throwing myself into planning for my daughter julies baby shower.  i've got all my ideas pinned and i'll be shopping tomorrow for all i need to make the decorations.  i'm trying to keep it simple, that's hard for me, but i've already been accepting offers of help--so thats a great improvement for me!


well, i have today all to myself and i want to make the most of it, but i also want to just "be" and enjoy this summer day.  here in maine summer doesn't end until the snow flies!

baby boys!

Grandchild #4 is a boy!!!

julie had her ultrasound on wednesday and its a boy!!

charles gordon burrows

that makes 4 grandsons!

 

 

 

julie and meghan having fun

 

 

my three pregnant girls

julie in the center

 

 

sarah on left doesn't know what shes having yet

meghan on right is due in october and is having a boy, Lukas

 

 

 

bubby is happy.

 

 

 

 

 

being positive

always moving forward.
trying to be positive
life is what YOU make it
not what others try to make it for you.

there!

august in downeast maine is usually one of the top 3 months of the year. bugs are usually gone, sunny days, cool nights.  its been a wet summer so far, wetter than normal but not horribly dreary. and i'm still getting bit by black flies and mosquitos.

it is a beautiful morning here after a cold night.  i think it got down into the upper 40's.  but its supposed to be around 80 today.  i have no where i need to go today, and for that i am thankful.

breakfast is done, jeffs gone to work, laundry is started and some vacuuming done. now i'm enjoying my 2nd cup of coffee.

i guess i'm sticking with this blog being a glimpse into my life.  someone might wonder what its like to live in a double wide on six acres in the middle of the woods somewhere along the coast of maine. they also might be curious how others are coping/enjoying having an empty nest and enjoying their ever-growing families.

what are we doing? what are we cooking? what are we crafting?  some of us may still be in the midst of homeschooling, others finished, and others like me planning the schooling of the next generation.

i guess this blogs about sharing. 

i'm curious about what its like to live in other parts of this great country.  i like to find out what other like - minded people are up to.  and i like having a connection with others that i can't have any other way.  i've made some really good friends (on xanga) that mean the world to me, and i've never even met them.  someday i hope to!

anyway, if you are just happening upon this blog, welcome!!!  i'm going to try to be upbeat and optimistic from this point on. however, i am human, and at times have my trials and need to get it out, so that may happen too!

if you are an old friend, thanks for caring and reading my blog. i'm trying to keep up with others blogs, the ones on blogspot are easier than the ones on wordpress, and i'm gone from xanga altogether.

gotta go! lots of stuff on my to do list today : organize and clean cabinets in the mud room, walk minimally two miles, weed my garden and see whats ready to be picked today, and do some crafting; right now i'm working on my daughters baby shower invitations.

have a great day!

my heavy heart

it seems i always have to deal with relationships that aren't right.  its the story of my life. is it me?  the people around me aren't telling me its me, well, thats not totally true. my husband tells me to not care about it so much.  easier said than done.

as a christian i feel that if we can't maintain relationships despite our differences then we are failing.  because its all about love. right?

this is an open blog, so i'll just say that i've agonized over whether or not to even write the stuff i did last or this.  but i can't let it go without getting it out.  maybe my blog is kind of like talking to God and everyone else at the same time. confessing. hoping.

the issue with my daughter (in law) sarah's family. its so hard for me. especially when i know that it is gossiped about outside the family. (which is exactly what i'm doing here) ugh!

this is the hard part: this woman is the pastors wife.  back in the beginning of the kids marriage i said something that upset her. i apologized and she accepted.  now she keeps throwing that back up.  she has done this to my daughter julie also.  that is hard!

but when someone from outside the family confronts sarah and makes her cry because they are saying bad things about her husbands family, thats even harder.

i'm being portrayed as a domineering parent who forces herself into her childrens lives. 

sticks n stones and blah, blah, blah.

the hard part is that no one is calling her out on it. 
and its making me pull back a little. i feel like if no one is going to publicly & assertively stick up for me then maybe its true? maybe they are right. jeff is always saying i do too much for everyone.

crying.

but when i pull back, no one fills the void. 
its all just words with her.

christians dealing with other christians badly is not okay. especially when they are in a position of leadership in a church.

all i want is for my grandchildren to have no dysfunction in their families. i don't think thats too much to ask!

i don't want someone else's jealousy to cause us to change the way we relate to one another in my family.  we are a close family. we are an honest family. we are called to serve one another.

that being all said
its complicated

daughter julie and son in law ben live in an apartment owned by the church, so they have to attend
son jeff and daughter in law sarah are in deep because of family in the church

son ben and daughter in law meghan do not attend there
jeff and i do not attend there.

a month or so ago jeff and i decided that we would attend that church once a month since we will soon have 3 grandchildren there, and i wanted them to see us at church as a good example.

thats when all this started.  we are obviously not welcome at that church.  not even to visit.

i don't want my children there.

praying for that
praying for the pastor/dad to wake up and do the right thing
praying for the mom/mil to be convicted of the wrongness of her actions & words.

praying for myself  to refrain from anger in this situation (really hard- i came close to having words with someone in public a few days ago & the Lord put ethan in my arms to stop me)

praying that i can keep my lips silent.

again, thanks for listening.
i miss xanga
i felt more comfortable there

karen