Harvest Time! and Lemons from Lemonade

Do you remember this post?

At the time, the garden was just getting underway. We had only been able to harvest some lettuce for awesome salads, and weren't sure how things would progress due to the rather temperate summer we were having.

Well, a few things turned out just great.

Yes, this is a tomato the size of Adam's head.

And mind you, the kid has a pretty good size melon.

We harvested quite a few tomatoes before the rest chose not to turn from green to red. We had a ton of them sitting on our counter. In addition, we inherited some peppers from other growers who had a plethora.

We thought we'd try our hands at salsa.

So, we downloaded a few recipes from the Internet and started going. From the size of our tomatoes, we thought we'd have TONS of jars.

We got six.

Our corn didn't really grow as we had hoped.

We got 7 ears.

That look like this:

That probably totaled about 49 kernels total. :)

But we're HOPS! We won't let that get us down!

Because after all, if we can make lemons from lemonade...

We don't need to eat corn to get the most out of the stalks.

A letter from mommy

Dearest boys,

I would greatly appreciate if you waited until 7am to wake up on days off. However, AFTER 6am is essential to your survival.

All my love, Mommy

I'd like to thank the Academy...

Ok, I've been slacking!!! I'd like to thank my biggity bloggity friend, Keely for my awesome awards! I feel special. Keely did give me carte blanche to slack a bit on the posting of my awards... and I did not tell her that I am the world's biggest procrastinator...but here they are!

The splash award

The Splash Award is given to alluring, amusing, bewitching, impressive, and inspiring blogs...

(I think I fall into the amusing category.)


Over the top award...

So, of course this award comes with some rules..
1. Answer the questions below..you can only use one word answers.
2. Pass along to six of your favorite bloggers.
3. Alert them that you have given them this award.
4. Have fun!


The Fun Part
1. Where is your cell phone? dead
2. Your hair? colored
3. Your Mother? awesome
4. Your Father? original
5. Your favorite food? Quinoa
6. Your dream last night? forgotten
7. Your favorite drink? water
8. Your dream/goal? travel
9. What room are you in? kitchen
10. Your hobby? blogging
11. Your fear? hell
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? house
13. Where were you last night? sleeping
14. Something you aern't? organized
15. Muffins? gluten free
16. Wish list item? furniture
17. Where did you grow up? water
18. Last thing you did? breakfast
19.What are you wearing? softies
20. Your TV? old
21. Your pets? Molly
22. Friends? awesome
23. Your life? good
24. Your mood? content
25. Missing someone? No
26. Vehicle? running
27. Something your not wearing? makeup
28. Your favorite store? Kohl's
29.Your favorite color? green
30. When was the last time you laughed? today
31. When was the last time you cried? election
32. Your best friend? Dave
33. The one place that I go to over and over? grocery
34. One person who emails me regularly? boss
35. Favorite place to eat? Red Robin


Ok...pass it on:

1. Heidi

2. Lori ann

3. Joanna






Here are the rules:
Say thanks and give a link to the presenter of the award.
Share "10 Honest Things" about myself.
Present the award to 7 others whose Blogs I find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged me.
Tell those 7 people they've been awarded Honest Scrap and inform them of these guidelines in receiving.

1. I used to think I really wanted a little girl, but now that I have two boys I can't imagine mothing a girl. I'm glad God knows what He's doing- because I sure don't!

2. My dream vacation is to go back to Germany with Dave.

3. My biggest pet peeve is inconsiderate people. I could seriously slap them.

4. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

5. I hate stuffitis, but I'm drooling over new furniture for the living room. (I never said I wasn't a hypocrite)

6. I have a phobia of dentists. I hate going. I turn into a monster. Really, there's a special sticker on my chart to alert the dentist that I'm a "challenging patient."

7. I'm saving select pieces of the boys' clothing to make them quilts when they graduate from high school.

8. I don't like being around negative people. At all. If you complain about something, you better be ready with a possible solution- or I'll find one for ya.

9. Cartoons I watched as a kid include (but are not limited to): The Smurfs, The Snorks and Thundercats.

10. I met my husband at a country bar.

Ok, recepients:

1. Rachel

2. Jamie

3. Mama4Real

4. Paige

5. Brittney

And, I also thank Joanna for the Best Blog award.

And the academy award goes to:

1. Keely

2. Mama M.

3. Kami

4. Jessica

5. Hillary

6. Lisa

7. Cristy

Not Me! Monday

Ah yes, someone here has a "case of the Mondays." I'm not sure if I'm getting that plague going around, having issues with allergies, or just plain off...whatever it is needs to go away. But, just for you...dear bloggy world, I will strap on my smiley face and see if I can sound cheerful and upbeat. :)

Ahhh- see- sideways smile, already a good start.

I am not ridiculously behind in posting updates about my 101 list (see right column under links). I did not find pictures in my camera from June that have not been posted. I'm not a procrastinator.

I do not use updating the blog as a way to procrastinate other things on my "to do list." My list does not have items numbered 1-42 with nothing crossed off at 10 am today. I am not a slacker.

I did not surprise my husband by making him a dip for his chips the other day- just to distract him from the unkept house. I did not fail to fold the kitchen towels (all downstairs) meaning I had to use my jeans as a towel to wipe off the sour cream that got on my finger. I was not thinking "oh, these jeans need to be washed anyway." I did not accidentally wear them three days later (unwashed) when I pulled the wrong jeans off the floor in the dark. I did not notice this until 2pm...upon which time I did not think to myself, "well, the damage is done, I'm a dirty girl today, so I'll stay in these jeans until pj time." Nope, I'm the epitome of cleanliness, and would be appalled at wearing jeans with spoiled sour cream wiped on them. I never use my bedroom floor as a hamper and dresser, and realizing that I was wearing dirty jeans, I would remove them immediately and clean the exposed areas. Gosh- WHO would do that? Not me!

I do not have to add two markers and a crayon to my melted-in-the-oven list from this post. Nope! I have learned my lesson from the other long-and-distinguished list of items that have met their demise in my oven. There is no way my learning curve would be that long.

I do not have two computer games checked out of the library that I cannot find. I have not extended their check out three times already. I did not try again today only to find that there is now a "hold" on these by another library user. I am not hosed. I have not torn my house apart looking for these and am not totally afraid that my 2 year old threw them away. (Because, you know...my 2 your old does not throw everything of value away - and this is not at all what I believe happened to my original wedding ring. Ugh.)

I did not find my gluten free nemesis at the pumpkin patch last weekend when Colin chose a pumpkin spice donut with cream cheese frosting for his snack. I did not wince when he pointed to the grand hoo-ha donut. I did not drool over it the whole time he was eating it. I did not take it one step further by continuously asking "Mmm, Colin...that looks yummy." "Is that good? You enjoying that?" I did not inhale the yummy good scent of the leftover donut until I was almost high on it. Ugh...I did not totally curse myself for being gluten free this day. I have not been craving pumpkin spice donuts with cream cheese frosting since that day.

And to top it off...(you know, like cream cheese frosting), here's a few things I did not say this week:

• 
  
  Honey, I'm driving, I cannot stop to kiss your ouchie. ...What? Your ouchie is on your butt?......No, Colin, I will not kiss your butt...............No, I will not kiss Adam's butt...........No, Adam will not kiss your butt...............No, Daddy will not kiss your butt..........No, you don't want to kiss daddy's butt........................yes, it is stinky.


• 
  
  Wow, Colin....you put stickers in your hair!........Yes, you do look handsome....And I see you found mommy's lipstick..........well, it's not that handsome in your hair, but ok...very creative........and now you're without clothing and you've colored blue and brown all over yourself....and daddy's boots top off the ensemble....nice. How about some bubbles in your bath?


• 
  
  Yes, Adam I do have hairs in weird places on my eyebrows..................... Well, that's because I haven't had them waxed in a long time and I cannot find the tweezers. Do you know where the tweezers went?........................ Colin was tweezing his eyebrows? Doubt that................................ Yes, Adam, I do intend on getting rid of that hair as soon as the new month comes along and the envelopes are full again............................... Yes, I'm looking forward to not being scary too.

Ok, I'm off to start the work week. I hope you all have a great week too. To see what everyone else has not been doing, go here.

Fun fall days

Have I ever told you that I love fall?

...Well, I do!

Spring and summer hold a lot of allergy issues for me (and Colin), so fall - when the air is crispy- allows for better breathing. Consequently, we start to come out of hybernation. Yes, yes...I know. We're a little backwards. But you do what you gotta go, right? (yes, I just wrote gotta. Sue me.)

So far during our short start to fall, we've managed to get one family outing (minus Dave), two pumpkin patches, and three tractor rides under our belt. Here's a few highlights:

MOPS Fall fun day

Colin loved the scarecrow. He kept saying, "CHEESE, mama!"

Oh, you want me to take your picture...um, ok.

____________________________

This was taken on tractor ride #1 (sorry, no pic of the tractor)

We learned about the farm, we threw our apple cores at an apple core target, and picked up a pumpkin along the way.

______________________________________

Tractor Ride #2 was a nice private ride with my boys and my mom in my home town.

This was courteousy of my old church.

There was a wedding that day in those woods. They looked beautiful, but very very cold.

We also saw 5 deer in the woods on this ride.

Lots of fun!


Then to the pumpkin patch:

Colin had to sit on everyone he saw. Not sure where he gets that from.


_____________________________

Family fun day (minus Dave- who was home trying to work on the house).
This is one of the many "destination harvest trail" spots in my area.
This one is very close to my house, and not as commercialized.
There were no lines, reasonable rates, easy parking, and friendly workers.
Great way to spend a few hours on Saturday morning.

Straw maze:


Corn box:
I love whoever invented these! My boys love them!

They had tons of animals here.

The fav. of the day were the goats.
They had a castle like mountain to climb.

Tractor ride #3:
My favorite by far.

Colin was scoping out the pumpkin patch.

My tractor riding boys.

I wonder how many more tractor rides lie in our future?

Only time will tell.

I love fall.

What can I say?

I LOVE fall!

Dave and I love everything there is to love about this season.

When the leaves start changing, there is no stopping the dopey smile on my face.


When the colored leaves start to fall

- almost like snow-

well, it does my soul good.

Birthdays, engagements, anniversaries...

...big moments for this family exist during this season.

(not to mention the promise of allergy season ending!)

Pumpkins, tractor rides, harvesting, donuts and cider....

....what's there not to like?

I took a walk the other day, and took some pictures of a sampling of trees I see daily right now.

It never ceases to amaze me the vibrant color I see on the trees this time of year. It's almost as if its God's personal little fireworks show. He's reminding us that He's here...in everything.

Loud boisterous change...

...and quiet flickers of colors

...He's here.



He puts on a show.

For our viewing pleasure.

So, I'm heading out for a walk. To breathe a little crisp air (hopefully my nose will run). To smell leaves burning. To enjoy the fireworks on the trees. To think about God, talk to Him, and thank Him for the view.



And at the top of my driveway, I look to the right.

And to the left....

And I'm thankful.

There's just something about fall.

Not Me! Monday

I'm glad to hear that SO many of you enjoyed our last Not Me! Monday post. Yes, that was definitely a *highlight* of my parenthood journey. Now, back to regular "basic" Not Me! posts.




My kindergartner is not sick again today. He has not been sick since last Wednesday evening. I was not mildly upset this morning to have to wake him up well past his normal wake up time only to find out he slid back down the sickness slope. I was not totally looking forward to getting back into our normal routine, disinfect the house, and run some desperately needed errands. Nope, Not me! I'm a child-centered mom, revolve my life around my children's needs, and always put them first. I never think of "me-time." Thinking that I need to refresh myself in order to be a better wife and mom is just plain selfish.



I do not encourage my two year old to play with Play-Doh in hope that the nasty taste it leaves on his hands would discourage him from sucking his thumb. Not Me! First of all, not washing after playing with said Doh is unsanitary and gross. Second, I would never enlist the help of a children's commodity to aid me in something that a little extra effort of parenting could do. That would just be plain-out laziness. Thank goodness I don't do that at all.



I was not totally stoked when two neighbors asked me to gather their mail and let their dogs out when they were gone. I do not have a totally old-fashioned need for a neighborhood community. That being said, I realize that in order to keep this neighborhood feeling, I need to dress the part. So, I most certainly did not grace the doorsteps of these neighbor's houses in my blue monkey pajama pants. I would never disrespect someones home by showing up in my evening attire. Especially not at 2 pm. Nope! I'm all about appearances, and strive to be the best trophy wife I can be. (Yeah, even I'm laughing out loud at this one!)



I do not have a toddler that is totally into our home appliances. He does not put everything in the oven and broiler drawer. It has not taken me 5 separate instances of smoke filled house/ smoke detector going off before I finally learned my lesson. I do not have 3 burned socks, a charred granola bar, a partially melted Uof M coat, a nonexistent pen, and a ruined 8x8 stoneware pan as proof that I have a delayed learning curve. I am a smart mom and always on my toes. I never do anything on auto-pilot. That would just be totally careless of me.

Ok, that's all I've got this week. I'm sure there's tons more...but nothing comes to mind. To see what everyone else is up so, click here.


Have a great week!