Fourth of July 2025

Jana was visiting last week! We were hanging out and I decided it would be rude to disappear for long to write about the week. Of course, there is never any down time for me, it’s hard to carve that out. Summer is rushing by, I’m nearly at a panic looking at the mountain of tasks I want to accomplish before school starts. We got quite a bit done this week so maybe, just maybe there’s a chance to get the major tasks completed.  

Monday we spent the afternoon cleaning the kitchen and laundry room. Amelia and Phillip worked on the kitchen while Everett and I tackled the laundry room. We delved into all the corners to wipe off dirt and get the little spaces cleared out. It took 5 passes with a mop to get the laundry room floor clean, gross. I hate that the garage, laundry room, and kitchen become catch-all spots for all things that no one wants to put away. Everett and I drove out to Eagle for a photo session with the Kirkstrand girlies at the river spot. Maeve was not at all pleased to see me, she was the ornery one this time. Mom told me last time that Maeve is the happy, relaxed kiddo…she was not. Maddox, the ornery one was very happy to be there. Toddlers are strange beasties. The girls did enjoy playing in the water so finally got some good shots. Everett came along to get his 14 year old photos 6 weeks late. Better late than never? He can be very leerpy! Made me laugh with his goofy posing. I asked him to kick some water in the air and he did this crazy quick kick with a bug-eyed stare on his face. I almost fell over in the river laughing. We had a good drive to and fro talking about all the things. I LOVE that my children talk with me, not just superficial stuff but the serious things that weigh on their minds. Everett was giddy to use his Chipotle gift card he earned for awesome test scores at school. The gut bomb was the bomb. Next to the Chipotle we got frozen drinks from Chik-fil-a, peach for me and something tropical for Everett. Thanks for hanging out with your mom Mr Everett.  

Last year the little girls were very upset we didn’t use their hard-earned Roaring Reader passes, after July 4th the passes turn into coupons (buy 1 get 1/2 off a second) instead of a pass. After our Boston trip I was too overwhelmed to make that happen! Tuesday the 1st was THE day for Roaring Springs. I invited Ben to go with Phillip, Kyran to buddy up with Everett, and Lyla and Izzy to buddy up with Evelyn! Amelia and Josie were buddies while I was the adult in charge. It was actually a very relaxing day! Amelia and Josie let me join them for several adventures in the wave pool, the lazy river, and rapids. Justin slipped me a $100 for treats! I gave each pair a $20 and kept $40 for myself, Amelia, and Josie. I rarely saw the boys, they must’ve focused on the rides. We rented a large locker as home base. Each pair was cautioned to apply sunscreen every two hours and to meet at 3 pm for lunchner. I made spaghetti pasta salad with fruit and a drink for each person. Kyran and Phillip ate 5 servings of pasta! I finally put the kibosh down and told them to eat something else. Josie kept yelling “Truck!” every time a truck zoomed by. Josie’s water shoes rubbed her heel raw, bandaids did not stick for long. I used some medical tape to wrap around her foot and heel, that worked like a charm until it came time to peel it off. That was quite ouchie for her. We made it until 8 pm playing in the water. Phillip ran out of money as he was trying to buy a water squirter and a treat, luckily, he had not used his $20 so Mom to the rescue. Good thing he starts corn topping after the 4th. We were all a bit crispy around the edges from a day in the sun and 100 degree heat.  

Wednesday was very busy! Evelyn started the day with a visit to Nina. Next the puppies got their 3 month vaccinations and Fergus got a check-up on his ears. Fergus still has an ear infection, we opted for another dose of medication that lasts 2 weeks get packed into his ear. Bam, that cost $350 for both the puppies and Fergus. Amelia next had an appointment with Dr Ray about her emerging food allergies. She is developing food allergies to melons, bananas, carrots, and some other fruits and vegetables. Her reactions are mild but irritating like her throat swelling, itchiness in her mouth, and general malaise. We’re going to the allergist sometime in August. She and I stopped at Walmart for 4th of July food and then to Albertson’s to rent a Rug Doctor. The rest of that day I scrubbed the couch cushions and the rugs hoping to lessen the urine smells. Washing the covers also helped decrease the smells. I think the only way to solve the pee smell is a new couch and maybe rug. A week later the smells are back, not as terrible but still there. 

Thursday morning the kids dressed up in 4th of July clothes for some photos in front of the Nampa wall! I loved how those photos turned out the two previous times so why not a third? This time our FOUR Scotties came along for photos. Just imagine a rampage and that is what happened. Dogs skipping everywhere, worse than 2 year old kids. I dropped off the puppies and Fergus at home, Amelia changed into an outfit for a job interview before we all drove out to Canyon County Animal Shelter. It was time to surrender Maisie, hopefully, she will get the care needed to help with her bladder. The process was very sudden. I had an hour appointment but was not sure what a surrender actually looked like. Basically, we waited outside until the office opened, went in to pay the $80 surrender fee, and waited in the lobby. An employee came out to take her away. We all exchanged glances then started crying. We gave her soft fur our last pets and hugged our Maisie girl. Suddenly, she was not ours anymore. We will miss her Eeyore personality, her addiction to toast (treats), her love of the outdoors, and how she perched on the couch. Maisie will miss her arch nemesis, aka any squirrels and the dogs next door, her constant barking will no longer annoy the neighbors. To assuage our loss of Maisie we went to Swig for a yummy drink. After that the rest of our house got tidied up until Jana arrived. Jana, Hannah, and Rachel arrived around 6 pm! Cousin TIME! I whipped up a yummy Greek salad for dinner. We are grateful Jana could come since Rachel somehow contracted HFM disease earlier in the week. I never know how contagious it is, some doctors say no contact for a week others say no contact until 24 hours after fever breaks. Rachel was feeling better Thursday morning, so hooray for answered prayers. I shared one of my “mom” treats with Jana…a Biscoff ice cream bar. Mmmmm. 

Idaho had some very strange weather for the 4th. It was cool at a mild 68 degrees with thunderstorms rolling around the area. The plan was to swim at the Bledsoe’s for a ward BBQ at noon. Dark and ominous clouds crowded the sky so the BBQ was cancelled. Of course, the sun decided to pop out at noon so the BBQ was back on to start at 1 pm. I quickly made a berry salad and we headed to the Bledsoes, just as another storm rolled over. The kids were immune to the rain, cold, wind, and thunder…the party went on. After a 15 minute rain the sky lightened enough for festivities to resume. Phillip managed to stack Everett and Josie on his shoulders. The littles enjoyed the mermaid tails and swimming for almost 3 hours. We planned to have a later dinner because lunch was late and fireworks don’t start until dark. Justin made fried rice on the griddle. I assembled Hawaiian kabobs with marinated chicken, peppers, onion, and pineapple as the main dish. I was very surprised to check the clock and see it was nearly 8 pm, dinner was not ready for the grill yet! That was a very late dinner indeed! Rachel and Jana stayed home so they could get to bed earlier than 10:30 pm. Rachel was very sad, I had her light up her sparklers before we left to watch fireworks in Melba. The church parking lot we found last year was packed. Luckily, as we drove to Melba a different way (thanks to road construction) we passed quite a few vehicles parked off the road. We returned to that spot and parked directly in front of the school football fields about 1.5-2 miles away. With all the home fireworks shooting off no one was sure if the fireworks started…until we could hear Patriotic music blasting from the high school. It was quite cool outside, a very strange experience for the 4th of July. God bless America! The firework show was indeed different from the myriad of other fireworks shooting off around the town, so fun. At home we joined with the Ostlers to set off our ground flowers, roman candles, and sparklers. Josie was impressed with the elephant firework she chose, it went on for about 5 minutes. I brought out fruit pizza for us to snack on, by dawn’s early light the next day the pizza was covered with firework ash. No wonder it was so tasty. We did not close our eyes until after midnight. 

Saturday we needed an activity to keep us from utter boredom. The weather was still very mild, so what better place to go than the park? We went to Ann Morrison Park complex. Half of Boise plus their dogs had the same idea. We brought all 3 dogs to play at the dog park. Fergus kept jumping into the water, which he is not allowed to get his ears wet because of his ear infections. Silly goose. The puppies followed him right into the fray. It was fun to roller blade a bit, Jana’s girls are pros at roller blading. We plunged our feet into the freezing Boise River water. Everett really wanted to get wet at the splash pad so Justin nabbed a table in the shade. Phillip was riding Josie’s bike, he looked like the bear on a tiny bike from the Madagascar movie. Shuffling oversized Uno cards was quite a challenge, playing the game even more fun. We had several rousing rounds of Taco, Goat, Cheese, Pizza and sore hands afterward. Jana treated us all to McDonald ice cream cones on our way back home. I was thrilled to get dinner on the table before 6:30 for the first time that week. 

Sunday was filled with church and mild boredom. Like usual, boredom lead to fun games and imaginative play. Jana got her car all packed up so they could leave early the next morning. The girls had a summer camp starting at 1 pm on Monday. Hugs! Thanks for the fun visit! 

Our next week was filled with cleaning. Monday morning we dedicated 3 hours to managing the garage mischief. I let Evelyn sleep in because she had the most fun with Hannah and was exhausted. Everyone worked hard and by noon the garage felt at least twice as spacious. I listed s bunch of toys and my Rita scooter for sale. Hopefully, I can get some dollars back! My next task was finishing the craft drawers. Amelia really wanted to get bedrooms managed so we did a bit of both. Amelia and I ran an afternoon’s worth of errands after finishing the garage. We returned a crate to Petsmart, shopped for sheets and dorm supplies at TJ Maxx/Burlington/Home Goods, and returned my new and now broken hose. That was a bummer, the coupling broke after only 2 months! Amelia found some darling sheets at Home Goods, a long bed skirt, and kitchen supplies. We stopped at the library and lastly picked up the food order from Walmart. I bought paint at Home Depot to paint Mia’s room back to a neutral scheme. I felt like I passed a milestone marker with Amelia when we picked out her first set of kitchen knives. That made it all too real. After dinner I worked on the second row of craft drawers. Justin had me rethink my plan to switch around bedrooms, he thought it was too much work for not enough benefit. 

Tuesday was a busy day. We switched around beds. First off I measured the length of each room…darn it all if Justin was not correct! All the bedrooms are almost exactly the same size. Amelia’s room felt enormous, I think the window placement tricks the eye into thinking there was more space. I made an executive decision to keep the rooms as they are but move beds instead. That actually meant less work because Amelia’s room would not need to be repainted. The twin over full bunk bed moved into Phillip and Everett’s room, we trashed Everett’s broken twin, and moved Phillip’s twin bed to Amelia’s room. I found a 9 cube shelf to put in Mia’s room and a cute chest of drawers, both white which we picked up on Wednesday. I decided to sell the girl’s dollhouse bookcase and move Amelia’s tall dresser to the girl’s room. 

I tackled the rest of the craft drawers Wednesday and Thursday. It’s crazy how messy and mixed up the drawers were, seems like I just organized them…two years ago. This time I went a step further and finally addressed the sheet music situation. Gracious, it was a task sorting and putting all my collected sheet music into binders. I trashed any duplicates and odd sheets of music I couldn’t match up. The recycle bin was heaping with paper. Thursday night I finished making new labels and put an end to that project…until the next time. 

Friday was paint the girl’s room day. When we switched room decor…4 YEARS ago…yes it’s been 4 years! My brain was thinking, “it’s only been 2 years…” SIKE. Their room paint was a generic pink color to match the owl set. Their “new” bedding was a peachy pink and always bothered me. My OG plan was just to paint the pink walls and be done. The project blew out of proportion when I gave the girls a choice to move their bed. I had to move it in order in paint, why not just switch it ALL around? It was fun to start from scratch and try a new layout. Amelia had some paint that seemed to match until it went up on the walls, it was very dark and almost gray. I wanted a pop of vibrant color not a gray pink. Off we went to get paint that matched. I went to the closest paint store, Sherwin Williams. Never going there again! One gallon cost $80, compare that to $40 at Home Depot. I should’ve walked out but felt a bit self-conscious after choosing a color and ordering the gallon then asking the price. Geeze. Well, the paint matches perfectly…so yah. The girls were very excited to help me roll paint on once I cut in the ceiling and baseboards. They lost interested after the first wall…good thing. By the end of the day I only had about a cup of paint left, the girls slathered on the paint and didn’t use the techniques to save paint. I had to do two coats which kind of made me mad because $80 paint should be one coat. The boys helped me move the bunk bed over to the opposite wall. My poor toes got run over in the process. Ouch. I finished painting the third wall just as the sun was setting Friday evening. 

Phillip and Everett started corn topping Friday morning. I like that they start at 7 am instead of 6 am, it’s hard for this momma to get up at 5:30, 6:30 is much more manageable. I dropped them off at the Christensen Farm about 16 minutes south of us. They worked for 3 hours on a very small field of popcorn. Saturday the boys worked an incredible 10 hours from 7 am until 5 pm. That is a very long day in the heat crouched over ripping corn tassels out. I was surprised the boys were in a great mood when Justin picked them up! Everett earned some impressive blisters on his fingers. I painted the last wall in the girl’s room just one coat of beige to cover up some holes. I tried to mix up the original paint but it had chunks in it from sitting in the garage during winter. Turns out the chunks probably held most of the gloss, darn it. I slowly started getting the room back in order. Amelia worked on her room making it look cute. Sunday I was so tired after painting and working that I headed home early for a nap. Gracious.