Art (or mess?)

I had to go back and read the last entry to see where I'd left off. Lots has gone on over the past week. Our AC is back and running very well. Between the furnace, the roof update, and the AC, hopefully we're done with BIG home improvements for a while.Lydia is on the cusp of learning to crawl forward, and she's got a couple of more teeth breaking through. She's at the stage now where as soon as she wakes up from her nap, instead of rolling over and going back to sleep like she used to do, she sits straight up and starts talking to herself or crying. Today was the first day she actually laid back down and went back to sleep. Hopefully the trend of short, unproductive naps from the front of the week was just a short one.Lincoln's swimming lesson this past week was good from the learning standpoint, but he's still doing lots of crying when we arrive. He's so good about Sunday School and Ladies Class and other social things, and he loves the water, be it the kiddie pool in the front yard, Grandma Laura & Grandpa Dave's pool or West Branch, that I'm not sure what the problem is with swimming lessons? He even likes his teacher. Oh, well...We've got a big weekend on tap. Tomorrow morning we're taking Gretel for a hike. She's been somewhat naughty lately and is need of big-time exercise. In the evening we're going to the Summit County Fair for the Livestock Auction. One of my middle schoolers has been raising a pig in his 4-H club and it's "going to market" tomorrow. I'd kind of like to get a pig and stock our freezer with bacon, ham, sausage, ham hocks, roasts, etc. We'll see how the auction goes.

Lincoln has been showing an interest in looking at my old photo albums and at my high school yearbooks. It's fun to take the trip down Memory Lane and to see him get excited to see me in old photos.Lydia has been really, really chatty lately. Today, Jenn could hardly hear herself talk on the phone because Lydia was making such a racket.Recently we signed on with a landscaper and the word is that we're going to get a front yard makeover in the next couple of weeks. We've got to take it in stages. As much as we'd like to get the front, back and side yards taken care of in one big project, the bank says we've got to spread things out.Jenn picked up some funny looking balls at the store yesterday to use in a craft with Lincoln today. They got out his paints, laid a drape down on the deck, and went crazy with the artwork, dipping the balls and some of his blocks in the paint and making all sorts of stencils.