David's Vacation

Marlene shared some of her photos from last week with me, so I thought I'd share some of my favorites of David. He went with MawMaw, Great Aunt Marlene, Grana & Papa, and his cousins to a condo on the beach for a week!

David is on the left.

I think he looks kinda Baywatch here.

The pool at the condo

All the cousins that went

Sitting in some shark teeth?

Cousins riding a wave

I seem to remember pictures from my childhood
where we posed in cutouts like this!
or at least my older siblings did

Tiny Talk Tuesday: The End of an Era

An era has ended.

Dad and I were saddened when Elizabeth started saying "ladybug" when she had always called them "buh-lugs". It was sad to realize how quickly she is growing up. And today she grew a little more.

When she stopped saying buh-lug, Dad said, "At least we still have Billith." You could ask Elizabeth what her name was & she would always reply, "Bill-ith". I guess that's how she heard it.


Today she said her name was Elizabeth.


I almost cried. (And I think Dad almost did, too.)

When Life Gives You Lemons...

... 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:

Yellow Pear Preserves!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

David is off this week. He's gone on his first vacation without Mom & Dad. He went to the beach with MawMaw. I'm sure she's getting an earful.

In the meantime, it's not really any quieter here...

Elizabeth: Let's read!
Mom: OK, what would you like to read?
Elizabeth: Bible tell me so.

Dad, while Elizabeth was dancing around the office: Are you showing off?
Elizabeth: No, I not. I showing on!

She was so excited when we picked her up from her first night at VBS last night!

Friday Coffee Revisited

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.

Garden Log

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,
Roma Tomatoes, Yellow Crookneck Squash

Romas, Yellow Pears, Cherries
Celebrity Tomatoes

Jalapenos, Celebrity, Romas, Yellow Pears

Triscuit Caprise
made with fresh cherry tomatoes & basil from the garden.
We've had this several times.

more, more, more

I got strawberries at Kroger for 99c last week,
so I had enough to try something new...

Strawberry-Lemon Marmalade

And with all those tomatoes...

I also canned some salsa.

Rebekah is 3-months Old

Why I Missed Bible Study Tonight

Because this...

was very important...

to my...

husband!

And I was there to take pictures.

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Trying on his duds for Lauren's wedding

Bedtime prayers by David:
Thank you for me & Elizabeth. (I guess he forgot he had another sister.) Thank you for my teeth that are all clean and sparkly like jewelry! Bring Dad home as safe as possible.

Dad: girl-let!
Elizabeth: No!
Dad: girl-let!
EB: Nooo!
Dad: girl-let pie
EB: I not a girl-let pie, I lady.

Elizabeth:
I wear a pretty dress! Dance me!

I never noticed that she says "dance me" until I found this:

Talking to Mom

Today's Harvest

Made with things previously picked:

pico de gallo

canned jalapenos, refrigerator pickles

Today I picked:

3 tomatoes in the lower left have Mockingbird damage! : ( Also picked another tomato horn worm & fed it to the guineas. Yesterday I saw one killed by fire ants.