Fall Fun!!

Hello!!!

So I was thinking back to the old days of how I'd write a nice long posts and then insert my pictures into the post. I tried for about 3 minutes to arrange the pics and then gave up. Mama doesn't have time for this!!  So I'll just write a bit here and post the pics all boring-like.  :)  Maybe whenever I retire from this position I can go back to the more creative blogging. 

It's been a good year. I suppose every year is good in its own way. I was scrolling through all the pictures used from this blog. Wow, lots of amazing memories, even if simple. We are truly blessed. 

Alright, so the pics. You'll see a boatload of tomatoes. These are leftovers that I had to get off the tomatoes plants before they froze. It was a much better gardening year. I guess I am figuring out how to work with this climate and being back to container gardening. It was so nice to be growing things again. My farmer buddy enjoyed it too. 

For Halloween we had a knight, which is cool because we are studying the Middle Ages this year. We also had a referee.  She had some other, much more creative ideas, but alas, the time and available materials, meh. We'll try again next year.  She had a fun time out with all her friends anyhow and came home with an obscene amount of candy.  The younger crowd was at the All Saints Day festival at our parish. That was a sweet time!   

Oh yeah and we had a very early dump of snow. 

This weekend we had a busy weekend while Doug was away in Wisconsin visiting family. The Fall Ball. So. Much. Fun.  400 dancers, spots filled up in two days. Lots didn't get in. Safe to say that homeschooling is exploding these days. 

Doug ran into dear family friends while dropping by the cemetery in Wisconsin. 

Isn't our girl gorgeous?  She's becoming more so inside and out. I love her so! 

The group we sent to the ball. 

The girls. 

This fall we had girls basketball, boys soccer, karate, and swimming going on all at the same time. It was nuts, but we survived. Phew! 

Mace got some quality bleacher time. I have fond memories of plenty of bleacher time myself. 

The pictures are all out of order. It's a pain to move them. Not going to do it. Sorry. 

The bow tie boys. 

The poor boys were kept outside waiting for the girls FOREVER! 

Some of the moms of the dance attendees. 

Um, yeah, so we adopted a furry playmate on Sunday. Doug still wants a dog, but that will be a much more complicated process.  

Coach with some of her basketball players. Middle school and high school.  

 

Life Lately

Hey there!!

I've got a few pictures from life lately. I've been spending most of my waking hours prepping for our upcoming school year. (and maybe when I'm sleeping too!)  It seems unusually crazy this year. I didn't really expect that.  Not exactly sure why, though I do have a hunch. Unpredictable craziness with caring for family and a number of unexpected medical situations within our own family. Plus, it's my first year with three grade levels. (pre-K, 3rd, 7th) I see this year as a big step up for the older boys.  In classically-educating circles they are solidly in the logic stage. So I'm doing what I can to bring them to the next level. So it has been pretty consuming for me, I'd say. 

Excuse me if this gets to be a nutty post. It's late and I've been lesson planning for 7 hours. hahah. I'm going a little loopy. But hopefully it provides you with some entertainment tonight. I'll to type a few explanations out for you quickly so that I can finish off tonight's planning (history is on the docket tonight).  

Anywho . . . I've been busy.  I haven't been bringing the kids to do all sorts of fun summer activities.  Usually that also brings on the "I'm bored!!" phrase. Can't say my kids use that often; they know my answer to that. All that to explain the picture below: Chutes and Ladders. Lots and LOTS of Chutes and Ladders. Mace has been obsessed with the game. I even hear him counting the squares by himself sometimes. I don't even try to put the game away. That's how often he plays its. Dozens of times a day maybe?  Anyhow, everyone plays it with him. Tournaments, you name it. It's been done here.  :)

We've got zucchini!!  Lots!  I've been trying to make batches of zucchini muffins to store in the freezer for busy school mornings. Yum!  Healthy too. Only thing better would be if they were gluten-free.  I use this stellar recipe (except that I usually use half honey, half maple syrup).

More . . .

These are a few of my favorite things . . .

Finally got the garlic down from drying!!

Took a couple pictures of the garden for my mom. Overall we did well. What we didn't do so well on was due to time constraints, mostly. The bunnies ate all my bush beans (we didn't mend the hole in the fence) and then ate the other half with the bean trellis fell over (also didn't fix). The weeds are kinda crazy in places.  The only other thing is that the potatoes production was somewhat lame. Doug said he heard because it was too hot this year. Also, I have a lot to learn about growing onions. Note to self for next year: read up on onions. BUT . . . no bug problems!!!  Awesome!!  All those precautions for the squash beetle worked. Happy dance!!  Oh and the black plastic around the tomatoes and peppers.  Dynamite!!

My awesome crafty girl. I love her!!!

Lunch almost straight from the garden. AAaah, I will miss this.

What I need to get back to . . . (below)

Doug (bless him!!!), took the kids to Chicago. While the mice are away, the cat will . . . . WORK! 

Alright . . time to finish up for tonight!!  Love you!!!

A hot summer day . . .

Today was the quintessential summer day. . . High of 94 degrees. Sweating it out in the heat all morning at the swim meet. Chatting with friends around the pool. Picnic in the park. Spending an hour watering the garden. Mowing the lawn. Slip and Slide.  Ice cream. Brats on the deck. 

Here are some pics uploaded off my camera.  I didn't rearrange them for any sort of logical order.  

Oh, one of my favorite things about summer: an abundance of fresh herbs! Makes me so happy.
I've got a ton of cilantro and basil this year. Yum!

Popsicle-making has commenced. Here's watermelon kiwi. (with a great kid to demo them)

Doug is showing the deck who's boss. He's ripping off all the old decking, replacing it, and adding some
great structural support. I'll upload an updated pic sometime soon. It's looking good. 

The kids were so very happy with this dinner. I'll have to make it again soon. So wonderful to have
all that fresh lettuce again! 

Working on some STABILITY. 

A little evidence that mom and dad get some laps in too. :)

Getting ready for backstroke. 

Good, good friends. They are so generous to share their shade with us. 

Gabe's on the left.  He's been really doing well in freestyle. The only thing is that he's been having
some goggle issues. So I'm going to make a special trip to Madison this week to go to the swim shop to get him properly fitted for goggles. We've gotta get this figured out. 

This year's garden. Overall I'm pleased with how things are going. My main concern had been our major issue with squash beetle decimating our squash (and cukes and zucchinis) the past couple years. Squash beetles overwinter, so they can come back year after year. Also I may have mentioned that they like to hide in straw, which we were using a lot to mulch around the plants and to slow down the weeds. 

    This winter were able to take out some trees that were shading the garden, so enabled me to build some extra rows and move our squash to another area of the garden.  My hope was that if I could move all the squash, zucchini, and cucumbers, then the beetles wouldn't be able to find what they wanted to eat and move on out. Also, as you can see from the pictures I am trying to use way less straw, and go mostly with plastic.  I'm trying some other things as well: flowers that help the cause and a perimeter of beans and dill around the squash. 

      I hate to say this for the record and then be wrong but (*in a whisper*), it seems to be working. Oh, I hope! 

       I've also struggled with our tomato plants getting diseases every year despite my doing what I had read online. But this spring I was talking through the issue with the farmer that I buy most of my plants from at the farmer's market and I think that conversation really helped me figure the issue. I was mulching our tomatoes with straw so that the rain wouldn't splash off the ground and get on the leaves.  Excessive water splashing up on the branches and leaves getting  can be a major source of disease. She suggested that instead of putting plastic in the aisles and straw around the plant, to do the opposite.  The tomatoes need heat and the light color of the straw is reflecting the light. The plastic will absorb the heat that the tomatoes need. It seems to be working beautifully. So far my tomatoes and peppers are healthy! Yay!

         Anyhow, I don't want to bore you. I'll finish off briefly. New plants this year: Beets, leeks, and green onions. The kids are going to be stoked about the beets. My family LOVES our traditional borsch soup in the winter.    

Squash, cukes, zucchini. The only problem is that we didn't get all the trees down, so we still have some major
shade in the back of the garden. One of my squash (and a new kind too), just isn't growing because of the shade. Same with the peas.  Oh well, next year!  I may have to bug Doug to get those trees down. 

Tomatoes, basil, peppers, eggplant, herbs (I finally moved the sage, rosemary, thyme out of pots on the deck and down to the garden. They love it here!).

The cukes are coming!!  Yahoo!  Basil says he's going to try making pickles again this year. 

I should really do a better job garden journaling but I want to say this is ahead of schedule for us. I really think
the plastic is doing the trick!

We'll be pulling garlic before you know it! Beans behind them. 

Leeks, broccoli, onions (I have much to learn about onions!), green onions. 

Perimeter of beans (on left) around sqush, pea trellis, and lots of potatoes in the back. 

Memory-making right here!!  Summer!!!

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Staying youthful!

Garlic scapes.