for my garden that grew
the butternut squash
that Rebekah enjoyed so much!
I did turn all my jack-o-lanterns around already, but I was not quite ready to leave October until I caught up on the last few weeks. They went by really fast & I wanted to document a few things before I forgot them!
On October 19 we visited Dad at the fire station. He showed them all the tools on the truck and they enjoyed playing with all the exercise equipment.
We are entering week 12 of kindergarten! Here's David making observations during a recent science experiment. One egg sank, one egg floated! (salt in the second water)
Now that Rebekah is supporting herself well, I finally tried a back carry, using the Ergo. She was happy back there and it was very comfortable. I even got some grass mowed with the reel mower with her back there!
One day last week, I harvested 46 jalapenos & 3 small bell peppers. I had no idea I would still be harvesting in October! Several of these made their way to stuffed & bacon-wrapped, but the rest were chopped for the freezer. And there's still more out there...
We sliced our pie pumpkin for a learning experience, too. David had to guess how many seeds would be inside. His first guess was billions! Then he decided upon 10. We counted... and counted. It became an exercise in counting by 10's! The final number? 403! We toasted some of them and saved some for planting.
Later, I went back to the store to get another pumpkin to carve for a jack-o-lantern. None to be found. Quite depressing. We didn't get to carve one this year.
Also made caramel popcorn balls! From scratch! Not even using "caramels"! Nope, the whole thing from scratch! And it was easy! And they tasted wonderful!
Next time, I'll make extra sauce, because that would have totally rocked on an apple...
And finally, we celebrated Aunt Erin's milestone birthday
with a game night at Grana's. Mexican Train. And Rebekah was given her first formula bottle by (great) Aunt Marlene. I think people were starting to worry that she hadn't had a bottle yet, since I'll be leaving in 21 days!!!
OK. Now October is officially over.
Rebekah and I had a wonderful time at Women of Faith this year! Once again, we were blessed to be able to sit in the box on the Platinum Level of the arena. This was perfect for having Rebekah with me, because we had an assortment of comfortable seating and floor space to lay out a pallet. I took 2 baby slings and the Bjorn and wore her about the conference, getting lots of smiles and "awwww"s and lots of older women saying, "I wish we had something like that when my babies were little!"
When asked what my favorite part of the weekend was, it was so hard to pick just one thing....
Marilyn Meberg told some hilarious jokes. The personal testimonies we heard were very encouraging. The music was amazing - the praise & worship, Mandisa, and of course, SCC. Getting away from most of the kids was refreshing, too. And then when I came home...
I came home to clean children, a clean kitchen, clean towels, a cleaned out garden, and
a new faucet so I don't have to drag a water hose across the front yard to water the garden & animals, AND
three new raised beds in the garden!!! So I can grow more stuff next year! My darling hubby was quite busy while I was gone, wasn't he?!?! He also added some bracing on this year's beds so that hopefully they'll last another year. All the beds are built with left over materials from the house construction and the 2 I built were just not that sturdy. He started filling them with dirt, too, but lost a tire on the little trailer & wasn't able to finish hauling it.
So, wow, I had a great weekend away and came home to a wonderful gift from my husband. Thank you and I love you, too!
I'll have a decaf white chocolate mocha to go this morning, 'cuz I'm on my way to
Yeah!!! I go every year with my mom & sister-in-law and this year Rebekah will take her turn to attend Women of Faith. Elizabeth went with me in 2007 and David went in 2004 before I became a blogger.
This post is not about my garden, but I just had to include this photo to go with the title:
The effects of gravity on a butternut squash.
Elizabeth has moved up to a "big girl bed," out of her baby bed and Rebekah will soon try out the baby bed.
David celebrated Box Day as his final Kindergarten supplies arrived. He can't wait to dig in!
His Lego masterpieces continue to grow.
Elizabeth used her potty chair this week for the first time and Rebekah prefers to spend more time upright now-a-days.
Times are changing. It's flying by. I'm trying to grab on & enjoy the ride.
... you make lemonaide, right? So what about when life gives you tomatoes?
OK, there's a few more things than tomatoes there, but you get the idea! I am still picking tomatoes. Who wants some???
This is what I did with the excess Yellow Pear Tomatoes:
I have missed coffee for several weeks, but today was cooled by last night's storm & I actually thought about coffee this morning. But it just wasn't that cool. And I don't know how to make an ice-blended white chocolate mocha at home yet, so I had none.
I gave a pictorial garden update in yesterday's post. Click or scroll down to see all the goodies I've picked & made this month. I finally used up all my tomatoes with a batch of salsa that yielded 5 pints of salsa. Then I picked this last night:
And then I picked this tonight:
Good grief! Those tomatoes just keep going & going... Not that I'm complaining. Last night's storm knocked over a lot of tomato plants that had been staying upright pretty well, so that I was able to reach deeper into the tomato jungle. The storm also blew over some pepper plants, the basil, and the yellow squash. Several stems on the butternut squash were severed, so I had to pick those 2, ready or not. I think there was some hail when the storm first hit. By tonight, my yellow squash appears to have broken at the stem when it blew over. The fury of summer may be finally slowing down my produce.
Last week I shared Rebekah's 3-month old photos. Don't miss those. They're absolutely. adorable. (of course) : )
This week, my 5-year old got a back pack in the mail from Dad's alma mater. The card with it started, "As your child turns 5 years old and prepares for kindergarten, the ACU Alumni Association wants to help mark this exciting time with a special gift - a child-size purple backpack called a CatPack."
I didn't even make it to the first comma before I was crying. Never thought it (starting kindergarten) would affect me this way... And now he's gone on his first vacation without Mom & Dad. He went to the coast for a whole week with MawMaw, Grana & Papa, Marlene & several of his cousins.
I've been rounding up the kindergarten curriculum all week. I gave David a math placement test & he scored a 48. I know he would have scored higher if he hadn't gotten bored with it by page 2, and I though 4 pages of math questions seemed like a lot for a kindergartner. Oh, well. I figured, we'd just start with kindergarten book 1. Then as I was looking up the books, I realized I'd given him the first grade comprehension test! Suddenly 48 was a much better score!
The same day David got his new backpack, Elizabeth's flower girl dress arrived. She. looks. beautiful.
Elizabeth is outgrowing her baby bed. Rebekah is outgrowing her bassinet. And I was prescribed bifocals. It's all going by way too fast.
I've only done one garden update so far in July, so I thought it was time for another. There's really not much going on in the garden, except that it's still growing and producing. I saved some green beans for seed and I've been picking, eating and making!
Yellow Heirloom Tomato
One day I conducted a tomato taste test. The orange, which was actually "yellow" was the perfect taste in between red & yellow... of course!
Cukes, Yellow Pear Tomatoes, Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes,
Romas, Yellow Pears, Cherries
Celebrity Tomatoes
Jalapenos, Celebrity, Romas, Yellow Pears
Triscuit Caprise
more, more, more
I got strawberries at Kroger for 99c last week,
Strawberry-Lemon Marmalade
And with all those tomatoes...
I also canned some salsa.
