Praying for rain ...

Yes, I guess everyone is ...  Here's my avatar doing a rain dance in the kitchen ...

I'm willing to try anything!

It seems I'm telling everyone I talk with that I feel like a prisoner in my own home.  It is so hot, with temps over 100 degrees every day for the past 8 days, that I have just been inside most of the time.  Or in the car going somewhere inside, etc.  

Wow!  Only in the early a.m. do we open the doors and windows, and actually, since it hasn't rained for some time, even then there is a really funky smell coming from the river I guess.  So that isn't even enjoyable.  Some of the other unusual things happening are leaves and bark falling from the trees, and wild animals coming near the house (more than usual) to nibble on the flowers and herbs I am watering.  Wendell and I have been capturing water from the washing machine to water the new trees and my flowers.  Also, I have been surprised at how much water I'm getting from the kitchen sink.  I put an old dish pan there to catch water from washing produce, hands, rinsing dishes before they go in the dishwasher, etc.  I find I'm emptying it onto my flowers several times a day!  Thank God for small blessings.  We're doing lots of things to conserve water and electricity...

I'm sure this is boring to you, but I think it's just a taste of how we might all be living in the future.  Along similar lines, I heard the other day that a recent Gallup Poll showed that for the first time middle-aged, middle-class American adults felt that they were doing better than their parents but thought that their children would not be doing as well as they did.  I hope that is wrong.  It just doesn't seem "American" somehow.  

Here, in pictures, are some of the things I've been up to lately:

I cut the first five rugs from the loom and here's one of them, a denim woven rug.

I co-hosted the June meeting of Jolly Homemakers Extension Club.  Our theme was Flag Day.  I did the decorating and here's a pix from that event.  I placed lots of different types of vases around the big horseshoe table configuration, with flowers from my gardens.  Red, white and blue was much in evidence!  I did an American flag trivia game with 10 questions and Sandy A. won a hooked flag pennant for answering the most questions correctly!  Congrats Sandy!

Also regarding Jolly ... I was asked to decorate the bulletin board at the Freedom Community Center for the annual Achievement Day event.  Here's what I did ... the theme was "Coming Home" and I made a patchwork, so to speak, of pictures taken in Owen County, centering my charm quilt wall hanging in the midst of it all.  Got lots of compliments on this one; people enjoyed looking at the pictures a lot!

I completed this little mat in about two weeks!  Yes, I know ... I have two other rugs started!  But this really has me motivated to hook now, and today I got out the big runner rug and have begun working on it!  (Yeah!)  This is a Maggie Bonanomi design from her book, "With These Hands".  (not a very good quality pix I'm thinking ...)

I hope it rains and is cool at your house.  Wishing the same for me and mine ...