Happenings

Grace completed her driver's training class this last week. She received a 100 percent on the written test and now she has to complete fifty hours of supervised driving before she can take the driving portion of the test. A big shout out goes to Grandma Dianne, who made sure Grace got to and from her outside of class driving instruction appointments.

Since Grace has been gone during the dinner preparation hour three nights per week for the last five weeks, Elizabeth has graduated to sou chef in the Macduff kitchen. She helped me to get supper on the table on all those crazy nights so that by the time Grace and Daddy arrived home, we all could sit down together as a family and share a nice meal together.

The whole month of May I had hoped to buy some asparagus. I used up my last jar of pickled asparagus this past winter and I wanted to get some more canned. Unfortunately, Grace's schedule kept me from getting to that project until yesterday. I couldn't believe asparagus was still available to buy at this late date, but we've had such a cool spring here that all of the crops are a little behind. Yay for me! Grace and I canned an entire box of asparagus yesterday afternoon. We roasted the skinny little spears that were left over for our dinner. The asparagus was super yummelicious prepared in this way. In the future, I don't think that I'll ever cook asparagus by any other method.So I ended up with sixteen jars of asparagus and a clean bedroom. That's right. While Grace and I were busy canning, Elizabeth, unbeknownst to me, quietly worked to get the master in tip top shape. It's such a blessing to have daughters who are growing into such lovely young ladies.

Speaking of young ladies, Lydia has been absolutely dying to go swimming. It's the first thing I hear about when she wakes up in the morning and the last thing she tells me before she goes to bed at night. The girl can talk, there's no doubt about that. I finally told her that I wouldn't even consider letting her get the wading pool out until the temperature hit 80 degrees. Then she went around telling anybody who would listen (and even those who wouldn't), "I get to go swimming when it's 80 degrees!"

Yesterday Lydia repeatedly checked the thermometer just as she has been doing for the past couple of weeks. Late in the afternoon it read 79 degrees. She ran outside, then ran back in again, checked the thermometer once more and began whooping and hollering. The thermometer said 80 degrees. Lydia ran to her bedroom, donned her swimming suit and headed out to the back yard. All the other kids followed after her. The first sprinkler run and wading pool fill up of the season is always the most exciting.

As I was preparing dinner in the kitchen last night, Lydia came inside between dips in the pool and asked me about the menu. I told her we would be eating outside at the picnic table on the back patio. She jumped up and down and exclaimed, "This is the best day I've ever had in June!"

Today in church, Pastor preached on Jesus' "High Priestly Prayer" (John 17). Pastor said, "It's as though we're eavesdropping on an intimate conversation between God the Father and God the Son." Lydia turned to me, smiled and whispered, "Mommy, I eavesdrop all the time!"
As if she was telling me something I didn't already know.