Sleepover!

All four Joneses spent last week looking forward to Friday night sleepovers. Gavin and Chad had invited friends Gabe and Ben to our church’s father and sons campout, so Arwen and I decided to make some fun of our own and asked Madeline and Nancy to join us overnight at our place.

While the boys made their way to Scituate, Nancy and I left the girls with a friend and started the evening with a long-awaited Dining Divas get together. Mexican at Kimberly’s – everything was heavenly! We had a great time catching up with everyone after a hiatus of several months and, when the ladies learned of our sleepover, fielded questions about whether certain items of clothing might end up in the freezer. While we didn’t get around to any girlish pranks, we (Nancy and I) managed to stay up half the night talking. (Arwen and Maddie were actually asleep by the time we got home.)

Meanwhile the guys ate out at Wendy’s, set up camp, played games, and roasted marshmallows around the campfire. To our great relief, they were hit by only the edges of a storm that brought massive thunder and lightning our way. While Gabe and Ben took off for a soccer game, Gavin and Chad joined some friends for rock climbing on the way home.

This last couple of weeks has given us a chance to speak out on some local issues. With an ever-tightening budget, our town put an advisory question on today’s budget referendum to find out if residents would prefer closing our local branch library to reducing hours services at both libraries. Arwen and I worked with the library to distribute flyers to 150 of our neighbors, and I weighed in on an article in the local paper. To our relief, the results just came in with 76% of the vote opposing the library closure. We love our local library!

In home gardening news, last week I dug for the first time into the massive compost pile we’ve been accumulating for more than a year. I felt so farmeresque hefting this dark, not-completely-broken-down stuff across the lawn and working it into the soil. Saturday the ground was finally ready, and I got the first of the plants into the ground – tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and basil. While there’s still a lot more to do, it’s great to see it coming together.

And last but not least, after swearing off sewing for the past decade or so, I pulled out my '45 Singer at Gavin and Arwen's request and dug into a redecorating project for their room that started with the creation of two dinosaurs that coordinate with their new bedding. I was thrilled at the excitement Gavin, in particular, felt at watching the pieces of fabric and chunks of stuffing take shape. He is so fun to work with on a project. Kinda cute, huh?