Home mini improvements

Besides clearing the front of the barn to expose the nice stone wall (still don't have pictures), we've only done a bit of painting really...and when I say 'we' I mean Jesse. He just knows the right colors and every time I try to pick one on my own it ends up being painted over immediately. So I leave it up to him, and as a result we have pretty blue chairs (no picture yet) and a nice dark teal door to the pantry:

The new additions to our kitchen floor:

The sun/dining room has a bench and our table, but we haven't really eaten here more than once or twice this summer... I'm trying to decide what to do with the benches and our new chairs, since the window seat is a little low for the table. We'll see. In the meantime, we continue to enjoy eating our food outside or at our chest/coffee table : ) old habits die hard!

Jesse found a nice gray for the closet doors near the front door...

... and here are some pretty flowers that bloomed the last couple weeks on our back porch steps:


Those, the sunflowers that I planted earlier this summer and pretty wild black-eyed susans all over are nice pops of color, and keep it looking like sunny summer -- especially since the roses and pansies are gone :(

Aaand a picture of Pippa, because she is just so precious...

Our new addition!

A few weeks ago, this happened:

We had talked about maybe getting a dog, and summer is the best time since I'm home more often, but I wasn't completely sold on the idea of having a helpless animal/baby/commitment/responsibility/I could go on... However, when Jesse's friend told him that he had four puppies to give away, and I found out that there was a yellow girl, and saw that face...

 I couldn't resist. And Jesse was already completely sold and had been for awhile, but now we are so in love and feel even more like a little family than we already had (which was a lot!) 

Pippa is a shedding sweet quiet love and being responsible for her is actually a responsibility I feel ok about: I don't even mind vacuuming up her fur (yes it is fur; if it was 'hair' then it would not fall out) because her face alone makes it all worth it (and the fact that she follows us around all day and is calm are just bonuses!)

Jesse and I have done a few house things, but Pippa has obviously become the priority. The summer is quickly finishing up, but the pretty skies will hopefully continue through fall. 

On our way home from Boston last weekend:

The back-to-school stresses have started, as they have for 4 years now (have I really been teaching for 4 years??) but I know that by early September they'll be gone and it will be like riding a bike...a giant tandem bike with 18 fifth graders pedaling along behind me :)

I continue to be in love with summer, and fall too-- once school actually starts. I'm excited to see the trees around the house change, and get rid of some of the greenery in front of the house this fall so that we can start fresh in spring. First to go; the tall ferns in front of the windows. Then the weeds under the apple tree, so our front yard will (hopefully) be just grassy next summer!

Sitting on the back porch, using our woodstove (with the 4 cords of wood we ordered) and taking long walks without mosquitoes will be nice too!