Who set the calendar to full speed?

"Tomorrow" is an inconceivably long time to a young child. By the time you are part of the work force, the work week may drag by but your days off feel like they've only lasted a few hours. Parents of adult children look at photos of their babies and swear they were taken just a year or two ago. Thank goodness for retirement. All that free time to do anything you want and not punch a time clock or set an alarm.

 I crack myself up sometimes!

As I look back on June and wonder where it went, most of it was busy with happy projects and events. Our younger son began a new job and our older one has been learning the joys of home remodeling. Lesson one being that however long you think the job will take, double that amount of time.

Hubby has been teaching him, working by his side which meant I've had the Prince of Sweetness more than usual this month. Gosh darn, that was a hard job. 

Mother Nature has delivered rain and wind this past month that has left people without power, with flooded streets and basements, and done some major property damage. My family has been lucky to miss all of this, but we did lose a tree at the cottage. A major limb fell, just missing the front of the cottage and deck.

Huge trees were completely uprooted such as this one which thankfully fell away from our neighbor's house.

A few homes and cars weren't so lucky. Another cottage neighbor had his boat on a trailer. The storm turned the whole thing upside down. Hubby has been back and forth a few times, initially to check for damage, then to begin clean up and meet with a tree service to trim two trees with broken limbs and the complete removal of another. The landscape around us has been drastically changed. Those who were there for the storm said they've never seen anything like it. They described a "wall of water" hitting all sides of their homes at once. One neighbor got this shot of the storm as it approached:

Doesn't that look like talons coming out to grab something and rip it apart?

A few days of this month were spent painting for a friend. For a look at a castle wall VBS project that I painted, click here.  Another day was spent visiting a quilt shop and a yarn store with a different friend. It wasn't going to be an all-day event, but a haz-mat situation closed a freeway and we spent 2 hours traveling what should have taken 15 minutes. That was the day before making the Teal Ombre cake (see previous post). It really has been an interesting month.

An annual fireworks display in my city was scheduled last night. Rain postponed that event, but not early enough to cancel the cleaning frenzy that occurred late yesterday afternoon. The fireworks can be seen from our yard and we normally have 30+ friends and relatives here to ooh and ahh. Even though this is very casual and we ask people to bring their favorite beverage and a folding lawn chair if they have one, I still have a Company's Coming! mindset and try to straighten up the house. If we're very careful between now and the rescheduled event, I won't have as much to do. 

If we keep the lids on these two containers (and our hands out of them!), I will still have snacks for the fireworks. These are "no-brainers" which are perfect for a hectic week.

These are Wilton Candy Melts, melted in plastic bags in the microwave before snipping a corner off and squiggling over a layer of mini pretzels.

These are Ritz Crackers made into sandwich cookies with a Rolo in the middle. Yum!

Place crackers on a baking sheet with one unwrapped Rolo centered on each. Bake at 350* for approximately 3 minutes, just long enough to soften the Rolo. Top with another cracker and gently smoosh.