Fruit and Flowers

This is our Italian plum tree. It went nuts this year. It hasn't produced fruit for at least 3 years and that time we may have gotten 30 plums! This year, Michael thinks he pruned off a hundred plums and we still have them coming out our ears. Loren and Joe are here this weekend and Loren said he'd help me make jam tomorrow. Yipee!


The landscaper who expanded our sprinkler system and planted those evergreen trees said he has never seen so much fruit on a tree here in WY, and especially has never seen such big plums and apples here. His wife is so impressed she is coming over tomorrow to take photos of the tree!

This is one of our apple trees. The apples are a beautiful red with a whitish fruit. They have gotten quite large too.

And these are my asters. I love these perennials. They grew kind of tall this year...my mother-in-law told me I could clip them down in the spring next year and they wouldn't grow so tall and would bush out.

Do you see the bee?

Here are the kids...an update.

Jonathan enjoying his Bob the Builder Legos. This was the day after his birthday and he played all day long with them in the wagon!

Look what I found in the diaper box!

Annisia standing on the Pooh truck. Jonathan did the same thing.

This is what Annisia's hair looks like when I take the clip out of it and muss it up!

Jonathan took a very short nap because he heard the skidsteer and HAD to watch the guys planting our 7 new trees.

Jonathan "read" himself to sleep!

Mommy and Annisia in the sunroom. She likes to play with my ear. See the booboo on her nose? She was walking in front of me, stopped to pick up a rock (a favorite pastime), and I bumped into her. She fell face first onto the pavement. I felt so bad...

Isn't this little brown and pink dress too cute?!

Jonathan and Annisia sitting so nicely in the rocker...for about 5 seconds.

Sweet Jonathan with his twinkling eyes. Click on the photo and you'll see what I mean!

Annisia in her sweet sweater dress that has become a shirt worn with comfy pants. I am loathe to give it up it's so cute!

Busy, Busy...

We have been busy, busy. We took a trip to Boulder so Michael could do some climbing and hiking with a friend. That was...er, August 31st to September 3rd. I told Michael he needed to post that blog. Someday! Then my sister and brother-in-law stopped for a night and morning. The following Sunday, after a great meeting and potluck at Scott and Renee's, Jonathan woke from his nap with a 101 fever. It went up from there, hitting 104.5 again. By Thursday, the 13th, he was fine. I went to Billings to meet with my girlfriend, Debbie. Finally, our girls' weekend we've been planning since January! YAY! I came home Saturday, the 15th, and got the flu that night. I spent Sunday in bed and am now nursing 2 snotty nosed kids. Both have colds, but no fevers...thank goodness.

THEN, (yes it continues), we had Michael's brother and crew here Monday and Tuesday. They tore out 2 windows, one in the kids' room and the other in the guest room. We have had a terrible problem with leaking windows when we have driving rain from the north. This doesn't happen often, but when it does...Hoowee, look out! Soaking wet carpet, rotting logs... This is not a problem these days in the newly constructed homes as they do things better now, but our home was built in the early 90s. Anyways, they tore out the windows, the bucks and a couple of rotten logs. Then they planed off the outside of a few other logs which were rotting. They also squirted some epoxy into areas of lesser water damage to seal them. New logs went in, log siding covered where they planed, new split window bucks, and new better windows went in. All of that on Monday! These guys are good!

On Tuesday, the crew came back and sanded the interior north walls of both rooms where water has run down the walls. They refinished the walls and trimmed out the windows. We have 2 "new" rooms! Yesterday, Wednesday, I cleaned out the kid's room. This means I swept the ceiling and walls, washed the west log wall with Murphy's oil soap, then polished it with furniture polish, vacuumed, dusted all other surfaces, and remade beds. Whew! Michael hung the curtains today at noon, so the kids are back to normal...well, their room is at least!

Now for the guest room...

How do you get it all done?

A friend, Jen, recently posted "How do people "do it all"? I often wonder the same thing. Usually when I am trying like mad to get the kids to nap. So! I know I should get exercise. And I know it's good for the kids to play, and run, and get dirty, and have a snack, and get naps. I'd like to scrapbook and preserve their (and our) memories. But how to you get it all done? How can I get exercise if I have to load the kids into a stroller, which means they aren't playing and running? If I let them play and run in the yard, I walk around a little, and water the plants, and clean up the flower beds and pots, and pull some weeds, and push some little one in the swing, and...zzzzzzzzzz...snore!... NOT A WALK! If I choose to go to the YMCA, I am bringing my kids to the daycare there which means, yes, they are running and playing, but they are not getting fresh air. If I get on the treadmill at home, I am on and off, and on and off, and on and off, getting a snack, or getting a drink, or pulling Jonathan off of Annisia, or changing a diaper, or checking to see where my little ones are (if they're outside). You get the picture. Speaking of pictures...

This is how Mommy gets to maybe use the treadmill. Gates, chairs...all so the wee one doesn't decide to join in.

Back to our topic...
How do you get it all done? I don't relish the thought of walking on the treadmill in the hot sunroom in the summer...and doing it at naptime. I'd rather do something like check my email, post a blog(!), get some chores done, scrapbook (yeah right!), nap (YEAH RIGHT!)...Mayhaps that's my only time to do it some days. What do you think?