Summertime

After a few years of drought, May 2015 was the wettest month on record.Â Evah. We built an ark, but didn’t use it because as soon as May ended, the rain returned to a far more reasonable schedule.Â And with 8″ of rainfall in one month, our creek held and I think maybe we can stop worrying about flooding from the Waldo Canyon burn scar.

Boo is working the whole summer at a local BSA camp, teaching new scouts important New Scout Skillz.Â Being under 18, he comes home every weekend for a little less than 24 hours.Â He also brings home a friend, a fellow Catholic who goes to mass with us and is seriously the epitome of good manners.Â I affectionately call him our summer son.

We also picked up an AF Academy cadet or two to sponsor through their time in the academy.Â Their “Doolie Day Out” is coming up and we will be providing them with a soft spot to land, an opportunity to call home and a yelling-free zone.Â We may actually have them AND our summer son here all at the same time.Â Pumpkin Girl is not amused at this sudden influx of brothers, no matter how temporary.

And I’m painting again!Â I found a new online watercolor sketching class, this time by Jane LaFazio.Â I’m a little rusty, but it’s coming back.Â Honestly, I went from being the one struggling the most in my last class, to being right in the middle of this class. For comparison, here’s an assignment on mixing and using greens from my current class, followed by a quick sketch I did of the same plant, way back before I started taking lessons.Â Go me!