End of an Era

As I've hinted in the blog, Rebekah decided she was done with the long Rapunzel hair. I suggested we could find Flynn Ryder and have him give her a Rapunzel hair cut, but she decided to wait for the salon to open. 

To be honest, I was somewhat happy to hear that (both being done with Rapunzel hair and waiting for a salon). 

I do want her to have her own opinions and choose her own way...

...but man it was hard to manage.

So, after a long drive up to Pendleton we dropped the baby and puppy at the local baby sitter / dog watcher, aka - grammy's. Got to love a grammy who's up for doll and stuffy sitting. 

Then we went to the salon. Rebekah decided a while ago she wanted to donate her hair. Miss Aubrey made it happen. 

She sectioned everything into braids and the cut off the braids because "that's how we send them." 

There were four in all. 

The night before Rebekah got somewhat concerned about the loss of her long hair: she's always had long hair... will people like her with short hair...? and all the questions that go with major steps. I told her to take it one step at a time and see how she's feeling. Turns out she was feeling fine when the moment came. 

And look what was underneath! So much lighter, less hot, less tangly, and more beautiful inside and out girl. 

I got mine cut too and forced a quick joint selfie when we were done. 

Yay for over grown and overly long pandemic hair being cut! 

First Week in July

We started out with a Don Walker family zoom family with grammy. Hard to see but Kayla and Paul were both there on screen. That's one happy dad. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we are pulling baby carrots to let the other carrots get bigger. 

We also harvested some beans. 

And two big zucchinis. Yum.

July 1st came around. Don bought a grill and cooked steak, salmon, and hamburgers. Something for everyone on our 10th anniversary. 

Rebekah passed the stinking hot time by running through sprinklers. 

She drew us an anniversary family picture. I love the frame. 

And somewhere in Utah, Makenna caught this hug fish! 

Also in Utah, Chester is so use to Rebekah's song that he has begun singing with her. 

It's cute and somewhat crazy how he recognizes and equates Rebekah and FaceTime to treat time. 

Back in Indy, it was still stinking hot. Rebekah is over the long hot hair and asked me to bun it up. She's pretty cute however she does the doo. 

Very soon she's planning on cutting her hair to this length:

Her hair isn't the only thing that is growing. Officially size 10 / 12 people. Where did my 3T toddler go...?

More view enjoyment. 

And speaking of view enjoyment - seriously, best wedding favor ever! These wild flowers are amazing. They bloom and bloom with such beautiful colors. 

This was one that Rebekah and grammy planted. It was the only one that came up and promptly after it bloomed the plant died. Very sad. But glad we got one.

June Books

This is the second time I read this book. I loved it so much the first time I was somewhat afraid my expectations would be too high and I wouldn't like it so much the second, but I was wrong. I adore this book. I love the way he uses art and literature references. I find his writing poetic. My heart is with the count. I need to buy this book. 

Not knowing much more about Gandhi but the rumors I decided to read his book hoping to get to know the man. I think I thought he was like a Mother Teresa of sorts. There were aspects about the man of which I didn't care so much and others that I did. A few quotes: 

• It has aways been a mystery to me, how men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow beings.
• Purification of ones self leads to purification of ones surroundings.
• Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics don't know what religion means. 

It wasn't an easy read but I'm glad I powered through. 

Speaking of not an easy read.... I usually love Ian Mortimer's books, however this one was difficult: Mortimer takes (almost) every day of the year of 1415 and describes exactly what was going on. I'm impressed that he was able to gather so much information on one year, however it turned tedious. The information before and after the year was well worth reading and so I would suggest simply reading that if you're not wanting the extreme detail. His conclusion was Henry V wasn't as wonderful as Shakespeare made him out to be, calling forth his uncertain childhood (his father, with the support of parliament took the throne from the previous King Richard II), which caused Henry V to feel he had to prove he was God's anointed King through his great works and "luck" in battle against the French (Henry V wanted to combine the thrones) but by doing this he chipped away at his foundation leading way for the War of the Roses. 

Another WWII Nazi vs Jew book (that I continue to say I'm done reading), however this historical account was written by a daughter who worked to discover her father's past after his death. She learns about an entire family: her grandparents, her uncles / aunts, cousins, and of course her father who although she lived with never fully understood. It explained the oddities in his nature and helped her understand the reasons behind it. Beautifully done and highly recommendable. 

This was not what I expected. I was hoping for a happier story. In a way I almost regret reading about this exceedingly unhappy marriage and therefore lives of John Quincy and Louisa Adams; however the book itself was well written, thought provoking and extremely educational. So it was well done just not a happy subject matter. 

I like Lucy Worsley's works so I was motivated to read her account of Queen Victoria. Lucy made Victoria real where as other accounts make her seem almost too perfect. The title says "24 days that changed her life" but it's really 24 moments or perhaps events - but really I'm splitting hairs here. It's a great account and highly recommendable. I was very glad to add it to my Queen Victoria studies. 

Historical fiction account of WWII and their homing pigeon efforts. It had a good start but got somewhat stale and predictable towards the end. Not sure I felt the characters were endearing, real, or even had the motivation to do what they were doing. To summarize: t's okay if you really need something to read but there are better novels out there. 

Speaking of better novels, this is not one of them. The basic story line was interesting - ended up being a good vs evil thing - however there is so much crud in the book that I just couldn't continue listening to it. I returned it once and put it on hold again thinking I could get back to it much later but when much later came and I started again, half way through the second time I just got sick of it. I would have let it go totally but since I told someone I would read it I found a chapter summery website and read that instead. There's a lot of Stephen King fans out there and I will admit he has good story lines. I'm simply not comfortable wading through the filth in this one to get to it. 

Magellan's terrifying circumnavigation of the glob. It's as fun and as horrifying as it sounds. Well written and highly recommendable especially if you are interested in early catastrophic sea voyages, which - I mean come on - who isn't?  

Saving Paris after D-Day. Everything you wanted to (and probably a few things you didn't care to) know about the event. It's good. Very detailed. Oh, and the person who reads the audio book is the same extremely thick accented person that read Les Miserables. Just FYI. 

I had high hopes - Prague, Sonata, post WWI / pre WWII - all sounds great. However it was very poorly written. Very sad. 

Second Half of June

In my quest to "keep my heart calm" I spend a lot of time sitting outside looking at our view and listening to the birds and other wildlife. I'm loving it. 

That little speck of pink across the lake is Rebekah.

I didn't feel that all the view watching / tea drinking / deep breathing / yoga, and so forth was really helping so I took it one step further: rock stacking. I'm quite proud of the one on the right. 

Turns out I need the calm time because sometimes when I ask the Bee to do something this happens:

Rebekah and Don have been continuing their basketball practice at the church across the street. 

The wildflowers Rebekah planted are doing great.

Chester's treat time with Rebekah continues.

Our little grandson Cole got his first haircut. 

My brother Michael sent this picture of him and his giant puppy Pepper. 

The garden is looking good. Peas are coming. Which is good because they are also dying in the heat. If we're lucky we may get a handful before they burn up. 

One day I went out to check in on the garden and noticed Rebekah had "planted" these white flowers. Nice. 

And.... we finally have a female flower! Yay for possible zucchini! 

And possible spaghetti squash! 

Our zucchinis grew fast.

Baby tomatoes.

Baby pepper.

My aunt was going through drawers and found an old letter from my daddy to his family. It was fun to read. I ended up texting with uncle Darwin and aunt Kim to see if they were the friends in the letter, which they were. 

And speaking of family, sure love my brothers. One day I had the following conversation with Michael. There has always been this playful animosity between Jo and Michael. 

Michael and I also put together a family zoom session in the hopes of helping mom feel less quarantined. 

It was so fun to see everyone. We missed Jo (he works every other Sunday) but it was great to see everyone else. We decided to make it an annual thing. 

The library finally opened again. Rebekah and I went to pick up some books we had on hole and also pick up our summer reading prizes. I can't believe we walked away with all these books! Neither can Don... I recently went through my books trying to downsize and got rid of a couple. Now thanks to summer reading we gained 10 more. 

The summer library reading program also does raffles every so often. Rebekah was lucky enough to win a $20 gift card to Hobby Lobby. 

It was not easy deciding how to spend that money but after just over an hour (yes, I said hour) she decided on the following: Frozen II stickers, a new outfit for Gracie, and meet the newest member of the Rebekah Walker animals, Moon Dust. 

And speaking of books, remember the book Rebekah wrote a few posts ago? She had Don copy it and handed it out to our neighbors (the owners of the dogs in the book). One of our neighbors took it one step further and turned it into an actual book. We have great neighbors. 

Rebekah was crafty and making masks. Mine is an owl.

Her mask is a kitty.

More fun with the noodle maker: sweet potato Pad Thai. 

Sweet little Frozen II painting / stickers by Rebekah.

A playdate - climbing 6 feet away from each other....? Actually Rebekah made it to the bottom branch and then her fear took over, but I'm very proud of her for getting that far. 

Snuggling with dad.

And finally Rebekah wanted to make fresh lemonade. I found a recipe. 

Apparently it didn't have enough sugar and Rebekah made me add some more. But then, it was perfection!

And finally, to close the month - Rebekah learned she can make it rain.