4rth of July Weekend

Got lots done & had some fun over the long weekend:

Every summer I take off the books, wipe down the shelves, weed out the unwanted & reorganize all the books. Though it's a long process, I secretly love having time to fondle all these books 

(it really does rival fabric fondling for me!!)

This is the "before", which isn't too bad, but you can see on those right hand side shelves there are a bunch of books just shoved in wherever they'll fit at the moment.

 Below is the "after"... you may notice not only the neatness of those shelves but also all those holes left 

FOR MORE BOOKS!!!! Wahoooooooo!! 

Excluding the top two shelves, everything on the left is spiritual/non-fiction/reference for homeschooling, and the shelves on the right house fiction alphabetical by author as well as some movies & photo albums.

After I got some work done, I got to do some quilting. These pillow shams match & were made for my 14 year old daughter's quilt. Back in 2008 I made a large queen-sized version of this flying geese pattern, sewed the shams at the same time, but just never got back to quilting & finishing them.

I think it's easier on these to see the quilting from the back

(before sham construction)

(after sham construction)

And to round out the weekend-- some good family fun..

The four of us went kayaking on the Susquehanna River, starting at Duncannon & paddling back down to Marysville.

This was my first time kayaking, and while I'd boated on the river back when I was a kid, and we've taken the kids out to play on the river's edge, this time around it seemed so big & ominous! 

Maegan & I were in a tandem kayak together, with Marshall & Morgan riding in another one.

And at the end of a full 3 hours of paddling, I'll admit my arms felt a little like jello, my butt was soaked from some Class 2 rapids, and I came away with some nicely burnt skin, but I'd had fun & learned how to do something new :)

Afterwards, we stopped at Rita's for some Gelati, then headed home for some backyard swimming, ladder golf, and food cooked on the BBQ!

I hope you all had some fun with your long weekends & made some memories!