Late Summer Doings

September already, and the weather is starting to feel cool and crisp.

August birthdays have come and gone, and we've had plenty of opportunities to spend time with family and old friends. Nick made it home for a few days and was able to celebrate his and my birthday together with Grandma Joyce and Uncle Mark. Jake flew in for a brief visit, mostly to attend Brianna's "White Coat Ceremony" as she prepares to start med school, but also to see us 💕 and we took them out to eat at Ciao Bella's to celebrate. We met up with Judy and Larry for supper and a show at the Old Log, and went to a St. Paul Saints game with Jerry and Cheryl. Of course there was the Summer Family Party at Elder Homestead with Mom, and Mom is always so proud to show off her kids at these things!

Bruce got his annual crate of Colorado peaches at Cub ...

We decided to labor on Labor Day, and spent close to six hours washing all the windows in our house. It was a big job for sure, and since the windows all have little individual panes of glass, it was extra labor intensive. 😉 I'm pretty sure we saved at least $400 by doing it ourselves, and the extra exercise was a good thing. I had a thought, and put my watch on my right wrist (since I am right handed) so that I would get credit for all the movement. The windows are now so clear and sparkly!

We've also been working on sprucing up the house a bit, mostly in Katie's old bedroom. I fell in love with a rug at Home Depot that had colors that complimented the paint already in there, and had a coupon for $20 off an already pretty good price. I searched our storage room, and found an old lamp of Grandma Gloria's that was missing a shade, but found one at Bethesda Thrift for $1.99 that worked with the old fashioned top (kind of difficult to find the older version shades these days). The lamp is now, well, ... interesting. Then, I found a cool accent chair at Goodwill for $9.99. It also matched the room and was pretty sturdy. One arm was a bit loose, but Bruce was able to fix that.

August was a spendy month, plus the pantry is quite full, so this month will be another unofficial "eat out of the pantry" month. Nothing too rigid, but just more focus on eating up what we already have in the house.

I think I'll stop here and write another time about September stuff. It looks to be a busy month!