“Layin’-by time”

A wonderful lady we go to church with writes a weekly gardening letter. In her latest edition she said that this time of the year is layin'-by time." All the crops are planted and weeded and you have a bit of time before harvest starts. This is the time people plan projects like white washing the chicken coop or go fishing or go to the fair or plan weddings.

The concept has never hit my radar before, but I think a little "layin'-by time" is just what we had last week. T took off some time to help me mend from poison ivy. We had planned to take some sort of summer vacation this year, but never really figured out what. With the kids starting school next Thursday we realized this was pretty much it for summer vacation time.

The first half of the week we finally painted the girls room and put up some new trim. We got inspired when we found some classy jungle themed bedding at a neighbor's yard sale. Little A now has her jungle room. It looks pretty good for attempt at home improvement.

On Friday we took the kids camping. We took the easy route and opted for the "primitive" campsite at a nearby KOA. It was ideal because they had a swimming pool and playground and a bounce pillow. . . the sorts of things kids can do while mom sits nearby and rests. We ate a lot of camping junk food. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and had a good time.

On the way to the campground Little E dumped a whole sippy cup of water. She and her car seat were soaked when we got there. Then we realized we forgot to pack her clothes. I packed her swimming suit and a swim suit cover. So we changed her into the swim dress and she wore that the whole trip. It was pretty cute, but it had a zipper down the front and she kept unzipping it! One thing we were glad to have plenty of was bug spray. Little A got a few bites on her feet, but most of us avoided trouble with mosquitoes.

When we got back from our trip, our neighbor boys (ages 11 and 12) offered to mow our lawn for $15. That was really great! T isn't really all that fond of mowing the lawn, and I'm not quite up to it yet. They are really great boys. They come over to play with our kids at least a couple of times a week. They like to play ball or goof around and try to make the kids laugh. Sometimes they play hid and seek or keep away. I'm glad we have good neighbors.