It’s been a busy week, and I welcome the opportunity to pause with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to remember the best parts.
1. Return of the hummingbirds. We’ve had more than the usual trouble this year with ants and teeny flying bugs getting into the hummingbird feeder. Then they decompose, and the hummingbirds don’t come around—or if they do, they hover a bit and fly away. As I once again emptied and scrubbed the feeder, I looked up how to make hummingbird food at home. Since I put the new stuff out, we’ve seen more hummingbirds this week than we have all summer. They must like it! My husband rigged something to keep ants out, so hopefully the feeder will stay usable for longer..
2. Kayaking. Jim, Jason, and Timothy went to a nearby lake to kayak for a bit. It was Timothy’s first time, and it didn’t take him long to get the gist of rowing.
3. Jason and Mittu’s 14th anniversary. We watched Timothy so they could have a date. They brought dinner when they dropped Timothy off and brought me a Crumbl cookie afterward. My FaceBook memories have been filled with posts about “wedding week,” so it’s been fun to reminiscence.
4. Safety and electricity. We had some strong thunderstorms here one night, with a tornado touching down about 11 miles from us. Limbs are down and trees uprooted all over town. Thankfully, our area was fine. Jason helped a neighbor cut up a fallen limb that was blocking the road–but first they had to deal with a bowling-ball-sized active hornets’ nest in the branches! Thankfully they were all safe.
Then we had a few more storms Wednesday night, though they weren’t as severe. We did lose power then, but not for long.
5. Four-way FaceTime. We’ll celebrate Jeremy’s birthday when he is here next week. We usually ship the presents he opens here to him when he goes home. We sent some of the heavy or large presents to him early, before his trip here–we get free shipping from Amazon, so it didn’t make sense to have them shipped free here and then have to pay a mint to ship them to him in RI. When he received our early presents, he set up a Face-Time call with all of us so we could see him open them. Thankfully, the connection worked for all of us. It was fun to have a little pre-visit visit. 🙂
We’re looking forward to Jeremy coming in this weekend. Jim will take most of the week off as well, so we’re anticipating a lot of good family time. Meanwhile, there’s much to do to prepare.
Have a good weekend!
Stray Thoughts 
I love hummingbirds. The hummingbirds returned here in March, then, left last month. But, they have returned and are enjoying the flowers and the feeders. Glorious creatures to watch. 🙂 Have a blessed weekend.
I always make my hummingbird food. It’s just one part sugar to 4 parts water. I boil the water first mainly to help the sugar dissolve better.
I make hummingbird food too. We had ants one year 😦 Other years, the yellow jackets like the feeder and keep the hummingbirds away 😦 Things are going fairly well this season, thankfully. Cute photo of your son and Timothy!
YAY for kayaking!! My daughters, now 30 and 24, learned when they were 9 and 4. they both still love to go with me or Dave. It’s a wonderful sport and a great way to exercise those upper arms/core strength. Sadly, I ‘ve only gone once this summer. hoping that changes soon.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to your son and I hope you have a wonderful time welcoming him home this weekend.
I still haven’t tried a Crumbl cookie and they have now been open in our town for 3 months. hahah One day i will get in there to try one.
ENJOY the weekend
Enjoy all your family time this week! And Happy Anniversary to Mittu and Jason.
Those storms were a bit scary. Glad you are all ok. Kudos to Jason for cutting down that tree and dealing with the hornets.
Have a good week!
When I kept a hummingbird feeder*, I got the kind with a well in the center (an ant moat) where you put plain water (like this one but less expensive) and then put vaseline along the metal hanging part. This did an admirable job of keeping ants away. Glad your inventive husband found a way to keep your feeders cleaner longer.
*My neighbor makes gallons of hummingbird nectar and refills her 10 feeders every few days in winter when there are fewer natural nectar options. Hummers nest in my trees and eat in her backyard — and I don’t have to bother with feeders!
Many congrats to Jason and Mittu! They are so thoughtful. May God bless them in every way.
Enjoy your family gathering when Jeremy arrives. I like your plans for shipping gifts. We get so accustomed to “free shipping” that when we do have to ship anything ourselves, it’s a bit of a shock!
How lucky you are about having hummingbirds coming to your feeder! Glad your husband was able to solve the ants problem. And then he had to deal with hornets…. 😫. Great picture of the kayak adventure. That tornado hit 11 miles away.?… wow! thanks goodness you all are safe.
Hello Barb! Thank you for your service to our Lord! I wanted to share a tip about the feeders. Use feeders that are top feeding instead of bottom. The ants and hornets etc can’t reach into it, but the hummingbird can. I have switched over to these and don’t have trouble with “extra critters”. It also is a place for the birds to sit down. Hugs from Alberta, Canada
The hummingbirds were active here about a week ago, and now it’s very quiet. It’s always nice when they pay us a visit. Happy anniversary to MIttu and Jason. Those Crumbl cookies are divine!