On Tippy Toes

Garden Phases

Phase 1: Determined as I was to have a garden, it was a darn good thing. To till the grass under was a 'no, no' I was told, the grass would soon consume the area. The proper way is to dig up the grass. So I did. My vision of producing vegetables to feed us through the year dwindled with each load of sod-substance I hefted to the back of our yard. I rationalized the 'it's a rental, who knows how much longer we'll be here' & settled for a plot 1/3 the size: re-visit the vision #1. Next came the tilling. A member of our bishopric came & promptly declared it was the hardest-dirt-he'd-ever-worked-in-his-whole-life. Better stick with plants that grow above ground, unless you're happy with microscopic carrots and the like. Thus came re-visit the vision #2: plant only green beans (they freeze/can easily & they produce much in little space), spinach (my must-have for fresh salads, lots of vitamins), zucchini, yellow squash & cucumbers (grow easily, will freeze for casseroles & breads & loaded w/ nutrients).

Phase 2: Plant & wait (not pictured :)

Phase 3: Ta Da (minus the 3 spinach rows you can't see...they've been eaten)!

Beans, beans, beans!

Squash, cucumbers & zucchini

Victory! The first of our spoils!

...& this strawberry jam (courtesy of Aldi's the super-discount store where you bring your own bags & pay a quarter for the cart) is my first try (well, 2nd if you count the burnt 1st batch--but I don't) to produce an extremely low-sugar (or no sugar) jam. I found a pectin here that is all-natural, made from citrus peels & doesn't need sugar to activate it so you can use whatever amount of sweetener (agave, stevia, honey, etc.) you want! There's even a recipe that uses no sugar, just a cup of 100% juice concentrate (I didn't have the juice on-hand or I would have done that one).

Freedom Day!

We love our country...it's terrific we have a day to pause & reflect about it. Tony & I celebrated mainly with food this year (tin-foil dinners, watermelon, & turtle-sundae ice-cream, yum!), but we did hear some awesome, freedom-related testimonies at church, were able to web-cam with our boys & we enjoyed watching a few fireworks set off in the newly-mown field behind our house (um, fire hazard?).

Happy Birthday America!

Just me and my gal

I'm so used to teaching summer school or being busy with family summer stuff, I'm just not sure what to do with myself (I did clean under the fridge/stove, that was thrilling)...we go on walks when it's only hot & not HUMIDLY STINKIN' HOT, I teach piano/voice to my 6 students, look at my 'list' of all the things that aren't pressing, but should be done in the next millennia or so & have been doing quite a few of those... Wow, I feel weird. Ari's not quite ready to do "101 crafts out of an egg carton," but at least I have her to give me something to do. We're certainly getting in our female bonding time!

The last of the summer days for us...

These munchkins are gone for the summer...we had about 2 1/2 wks to fit in all the fun we could. Some of our activities included swimming, zoo trips (multiple, see above), enriching academics (the boys' favorite! :), lots of library activities/trips, poetry reading at home ("Where the Sidewalk Ends," total classic), park, seeing "How to Tame Your Dragon" (it's a winner!) at the cheap theater, & our favorite: Hoagland Days!! complete with Dachshund races (you just have to see it to believe it), the dunking booth (the boys just watched & laughed for 15 straight minutes!), a steel drum show, cloggers, 'Mark's Ark' touch-a-ton animal show (Jyson took the Chinchilla around for everyone to pet & Jaydon had a tree frog hanging from his glasses) & my personal favorite: chocolate raspberry cheesecake roll--mmmmmm!!! We're missing them tons already!