It's a Jungle Out There!

I love July in my garden.
We harvest daily (or every other day if I'm being lazy) and the plants are so big there is really no point in weeding, yeah!
Our tomatillo plant, yes that is just one, looks more like some invasive shrub with pretty flowers - are you suppose to prune these things?Our cucumbers are fabulous and the beans hide from me like the peas did.
I should just send Robert out to harvest those, he finds a lot more than I ever do. The bees weren't too thrilled that, in harvesting beans this morning, I was interrupting their breakfast. One was close enough, as I stuck my hand into the vines, that I felt the wind of its wings on my arm.
I'm finding I have to continually stake up our plants, they are so big and laden with veggies.
We like to attribute that to the great compost that we put in the garden this year. There aren't any pictures of my tomato plants because they don't look too pretty.
We had some problems with too much water a few weeks ago. They have recovered and we are getting plenty of tomatoes too - we love that! But, most of the plants have fallen over (even with tomato cages) because the plants are so big and heavy and full of tomatoes. We'll have to reevaluate supporting them next year.
We lost a jalapeno plant (I don't know why), but the one that has survived is still producing plenty!
I'm learning to wait on my potatoes until the fall (I wonder how late it will be) and I've been guiding our watermelon to grow where I want it to go. I can't wait to eat our carrots, they are so sweet straight out of the garden.
Below is the harvest from this morning (the beans are two days worth - but I'm sure there is double that hiding from me).
I'm learning how to better preserve our crop and have been doing a lot of chopping and freezing.
I'm glad I've been utilizing our garden better this year than last.
Garden fresh is the best!

Our Own Angelina

Bad collagen injection?
Lip plumper sensitivity?

Nah, just a bee sting!

And this is after the swelling had gone down.

4th of July Weekend

I love that our small town has their 4th of July festivities on Saturday (when the 4th was on a Sunday). We woke up to cool temperatures and spent the morning downtown enjoying fun and free activities and food.
We got there right as they were as they were pouring
out the bubbles. The kids loved making and popping the giant bubbles.There were hula hoops and a competition was quickly underway.They had a table where you could dress up in different hats and such. Here's Natalie's pick.They had a bouncer with slide. The boys could have stayed on there the whole day.We took a break to listen to the band while we ate cotton candy.And we couldn't pass up the hayride. We met some friends there and they invited us to join them and their family that afternoon for swimming, in their pool, and pizza for dinner.
It was so fun. And it was a good thing because I only had thought of pieces of dinner, but no real plan.
Sunday we ate our pieces of my dinner plan - corn on the cob, cantaloupe, cheese, and my attempt at a flag on top of jello - I was trying to be a bit festive. I really wanted an excuse to get raspberries, I miss raspberries.
I made a blueberry buckle to take to add to the homemade ice cream we were having that night while we watched fireworks at Larry and Dana's.
It turned out really good and homemade ice cream went with it perfectly.
We thought we were going over late enough that they would have finished dinner, but it ended up that they were just sitting down. They invited us to join them - I think we were all glad of that and got a bit more to eat.
Then it was dark enough to enjoy some sparklers (Logan was braver this year).

And watch some fireworks (Logan still didn't like them and he and I were inside after the first few were set off).
We love living in this country and are particularly aware, as we celebrate our country's independence day, of all those men who worked and fought to free this country and those men and women who have and still continued to fight for us to maintain the freedoms we enjoy. May we never take for granted the sacrifice many have made and the blessing it is to live in this country.

Blueberries

I was planning on taking the kids blueberry picking and thought that I might as well make some jam with any blueberries left from last year. Robert went to get some, from the freezer, for his cereal and found there were none!
What perfect timing - we were going that morning!
I read Logan "Blueberries For Sal" the day before to get him excited for picking.
We tried out a new place - Buffalo Creek Blueberry Farm - it was fantastic!
A beautiful, quite farm with peaches, blueberries, and more.
The bushes were full of perfect, big berries.
I had been a little disappointed last year (at a different place), the blueberries small, not very good, and took a long time to pick.
Everyone got a bucket and there was a tractor ride down to the bushes.The picking was easy, even for Logan, because there were so many berries.We had a contest to see who could find the biggest blueberry (I won and for the prize I got to eat it).We helped fill the boys buckets - by pouring ours into theirs, and then filled Natalie's and so on.
For the first of July, it was overcast and cool, a perfect berry picking morning.
After about 1 1/2 hours (we didn't even realize it had been that long we had so much fun), some stained fingers, and taste tests, all our buckets were filled.
I hope 4 1/2 gallons will get us to next year.
We might need to go back again before this season is over.

Thomas!

"Thomas!" is what Logan excited said over and over when I would tell him Thomas was coming to visit. With a business trip out to the area, my brother Thomas, extended his stay into the weekend and stayed with us.

The first thing we did was put him to work!
A good core and arm workout.Followed by some time in the current pool, with weight.Ok, so the river has a current, but it's all fun!Swimming to the rock, jumping off,

and running back upstream to do it again.
We even brought Izzy along.Robert did some fishing and after catching 8 fish - it was a slow morning - joined in the swimming fun.

After working up an appetite, we tried out a BBQ place down the road in honor of our guest. We had never been there before. It had some good BBQ, good slaw, and great Brunswick stew.
It also had some cool things around the place, including this Coke bottle.
Pretty neat.Logan loved the hay truck that was outside when we left (the driver was picking up some BBQ).
Robert taught us a new card game - KRONK - and after an initial win, Thomas wasn't able to maintain his title the rest of the weekend. We still love him though and figured it must have been an unlucky chair.
After church Sunday, I made some spicy ginger pork (a favorite of Robert's, Alyssa's, and mine). Thomas visiting was a good excuse to make it - although I could make it once a week!
A goodbye dog pile before taking him to the airport.
Thanks for visiting, Thomas, we can't wait until we see you again!

Honesty

So, I must confess a conversation that occurred when I was blogging the "Fashion Show" post.

Alyssa: mom, you're not blogging about the fashion show?! Natalie cried.
Me: I'm not blogging that part.
Robert: oh, so you only blog about all the happy things and make our family out to be perfect.
Me: the crying was for only a few minutes (Natalie had lost) after hours of happy play and together time.

There you have it, my family is not always happy and loving. My kids cry sometimes, when they lose or when I ask them to do something they don't like - like when I find "ghost prints" and I make Jake and Logan help wash walls (Jake usually cries and complains, but Logan loves helping).
The happy times definitely out weight in frequency and duration the less than happy times - so why post about the less than happy (although during those less than happy times I usually have to work hard to remind myself they aren't that bad, in the whole scheme of things).
Natalie did stop crying pretty quickly, after the fashion show, when I told her that the winner was to clean up (that meant Alyssa). It's all good.

We're normal.

Fashion Show

I love when the kids get together and plan big things - like when they play "store" and take hours getting ready and then hours traveling from one store to the next.
The other day the girls planned a fashion show.
Each planned and put together outfits for various categories and used the other person as their model - Alyssa dressed Natalie in the outfits she put together and Natalie dressed Alyssa.
Doing the model's hair was also included on the "catwalk" ensemble.
They made scoring sheets for Jake and I, the judges, and we judged each outfit and hair in the five different categories.
Below are some shots from the show:
Natalie - dressed for the crazy category.

Alyssa - dressed for the crazy category.

Alyssa - dressed for the stylish category.

And Natalie - dressed for the PJ Party category.

We clapped and cheered and all had a ball at the fashion show!