Summer is here!

Good Sunday Morning My Friends! I hope you are well! During my brief break I have kept up with most of your blogs and now feel ready to continue mine! I hope you are still with me, ladies! It has been a very busy two months~filled with fun times and creative projects and so much more. I have a lot to tell you! It's gonna take a few posts for sure!

We had some long awaited work done in our house both in and out including the replacement of our cesspools which was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Now it's a matter of replanting the lawn on two sides of our house. We also had our stairs stained and painted and it looks amazing. Walnut stain on the top of the steps, bannister and landing and black paint for the bases. It matches the country furniture of my foyer. We are so pleased. We also got back to work on our master bedroom bathroom. It has been pretty busy here!

In between the interior work, we are planting and planting and planting! Besides flowers, I have a vegetable garden and also planted pumpkins, indian corn, gourds (for use in making gourd birdhouses) and mini pumpkins! (Autumn and Halloween are never far from my thoughts!) Veggies and herbs too!

Frankie & Carol at 10 days old

My husband is building our new chicken coop too! Deluxe accomodations!
And we sure need that as we have two chickens :)   We got them in early April! Frankie and Carol are their names and they are silkies! They were eight days old when we got them and they are growing fast! They are bantams. Sweet and loveable! We believe they are both girls and since the kids named them, we decided that if Frankie is a girl we would still keep her name as Frankie ...short for Francine Chicken, maybe? These are the first two; more chickies are on the way! They have fit in so nicely with our family and the way my husband has designed our coop with the nesting boxes, and the run, it also accomodates my bunnies! I've been talking to some many people to get the best plan and now he is finally building it. We have met some great chicken lovers like us who have shared their knowledge with us. I've taken my photos of their coops and Billy created his own plan for a nice walk-in structure surrounded by an herb garden.

I have so much more to tell you and show you! I have been making lots of crafts and I want to show you my recent garage sale finds, acquisitions and gifts from some friends and the great goodies my cousin brought me! Plus my gardens.

I hope you are all enjoying the nice weather and looking forward to the Summer! We have had a hot spell here and my kids spent most of yesterday in a pool! And the added bonus of a night swim was even better! I've been praying for all the tornado states. Our church had a special service for prayer for Oklahoma. Hurricane season is upon here in the northeast but this year we are ready! or as ready as we can be!

Frankie & Carol last week!

Like I said, it's been a busy two months! We had a trip to Lancaster, and another trip to Princeton and Columbia New Jersey to check out some Amish Farm markets, PLUS we had a great visit from my cousin Johanna and her family! We marched in the Memorial Day Parade with my Brownie troop....Whew! 
All I can say is LET THE SUMMER BEGIN! I love it that things are winding down for the year. No schedules, no school, just freedom!

Happy Sunday!