You Don't See That Every Day

The farm is in its abundance this time of year. We headed out early this morning to help harvest more garbanzo beans. This time around I got to help. Thankfully it is a lot easier to harvest the beans than it is to weed them, and keep them weeded! While we were there we helped my parents pick produce - ending up with apples, tomatoes, green beans, onions, cabbage, beets, squash, and zucchini. SO many green beans. When we got back home I immediately got to work; first I got the crockpot going with supper - split pea soup; one of our favorites. One of my girls absolutely hates it, but I still make her eat some. Then I had the kids start snipping beans. We had about 4 buckets full of beans to process. I got the jars and all other paraphernalia ready for canning and started in on the process. We finally finished up with it all by 7 pm tonight. And I was so thankful for a crockpot of supper ready and waiting. Because after I started my canning, the kids cracked a bunch of walnuts for m...

Today is "Parents Day" according to my calendar. So my husband and I decided to take advantage of the day and go out without children. Can I just say how nice it is to have kids that are teen-aged and responsible enough to babysit their younger siblings?! G and I drove to a Nike outlet store to use our special friends and family coupon during their sale. What a madhouse! There were so many people in the store it felt like a Christmas Eve rush. At least there was no fighting over any items, and the people were nice and polite all around the store. G was able to score a pair of running shoes to replace his worn ones. They were on sale, and then we got them marked down another 30%, so we knew we couldn't get a better deal elsewhere. After that we wandered around the outlet center. I used to really enjoy doing this kind of thing. But I have either gotten too old, or too practical or too tightfisted with my money, because I didn't really enjoy the stores. I found a few t...

What a day! The Finals for our swim league were held today - and I am not hoarse only because the kids don't hear me when I yell - so I don't yell as loudly when they swim. Water tends to muffle my little voice, and all the other noise around completely squashes it. So I cheer and holler, but not hoarse-inducingly loud. My girls did awesome today too. I just have to brag a bit here. Our Swimmer girl made a ton of points for her team this meet. Not only in relay which they won (I think!) but in her individual races - the freestyle, the IM (where she had to swim 50 yards of all four strokes) and the breaststroke. She placed second in two of those individual races. And by seconds too. Our other swimmer, Miss M., broke some of her times from previous meets - some Personal Record's; so it looks like we owe her some smoothies. We told the kids long ago that we would get them a special smoothie if they could PR; occasionally our kids need some motivation this way. We'll be ...

Most vehicles come equipped with warning lights on the dashboard to let you know something is wrong. My husband calls them idiot lights. *Interruption for a side story here* When we were first married G. was teaching me to drive a stick-shift Jeep. I had no choice because it was the only vehicle I had to get to work. So we were driving his parents home one day in our Jeep. He was driving, Dad in the passenger seat, while I was in the back with his mom. A light flashed on the dash, "Shift" and his dad asked about it. My husband said something to the effect of, "Oh that's the dummy light to tell dummies when to shift." And from the backseat my quiet voice tells him, "I use that light."* So I like those little lights on the dash. And yes, people, you should pay attention to them! Earlier in the week, my husband was out of town, and the battery light showed up on the dash of my pick-up. I watched all my gauges, listened for any noises, and when I got hom...

I talked to my son today. This in itself should not be cause for a blog post. But the fact that I haven't talked to him since Saturday morning is the reason behind it all. He is away at football camp. And I miss him. I miss any of my kids when they are away for more than one night. The Family just isn't right with someone missing. Normally, we are not "summer camp" people. It just doesn't fit with our family philosophy. And it usually costs an arm and a leg and an gallbladder procedure; of which we have had enough of. So when the football season started -which by the way, seems like they started a little early. Back in the day when I was in school football didn't start until August, but the boy has been out there since June! - so when it started, the note came around that there was a mandatory camp this week for this team. I resisted in my mind. Thoroughly. We told the Boy he had to come up with the funds because there was no way we could. And he did! Th...

This summer marks the 14th year we've been going to our church. We love it; it feels like family.   We've been singing this song the past few weeks in church. And I love it. It makes me happy - just the sound sets my feet to tapping. One of my girls turned to me after we sang the third verse, and with a grin, said "I love that line!" - I think she meant the 'crushing' part .... Oh boy. Lately the sermons our pastor has been preaching seem to come to fruition the following day/week. Remember our adventure back when hiking season started for us? Learning humility and leaning on someone else, not just our own efforts, these were two of the life lessons we learned that day. Interestingly enough, that was the point in the sermon we had heard the day before. This weekend in church Pastor talked about change and the benefits of change. God loves change. People don't seem to like it so much. I know I don't! And wouldn't you know ... today at my husban...

When was the last time you went to a movie? I'm not a big fan of going to movie theaters. The sound is usually too loud for me; the seats are sticky; or I imagine creepy crawlies all over them. And I can't pause the movie to go to the bathroom whenever I want to. So to my husband's consternation I haven't been to the movies in years. He, on the other hand, enjoys going. Especially to those action kind of films that are so loud. I still remember seeing The Rock - or maybe it was Con Air -  back when I was pregnant with our first child. Not only because it was Nicolas Cage (!) but because it was so loud I had to pile our coats over my tummy so the little guy inside would settle down! Now, I won't rule out going to a theater. There are a few movies I would like to see if someone wanted to take me.(The Heat; Saving Mr. Banks) But I guess I'm cheap enough to actually wait until they come out on cable or DVD. However, we had a family outing last night that included...

Our Independence Day celebration started a little early. Because we had a trip planned starting on the fourth we set off our meager home fireworks display the night before. The kids had saved up some funds, so with a little begging, they got me down to the fireworks stand and came up with these: So we had a nice little bang before we left for the coast the next day. The family tradition of July camping lives on - The kids set up the tent with minor supervision from dad, while I was setting up the food.  Yeah, I go for the food first! The campground we were in was packed. Full. Unlike any of our other camping experiences. I don't think my kids were thrilled with it, but we made it work. It helped that there were plenty of cousins around, and a nice little playground to hang out on, along with the beach!   The kids spent plenty of time at the beach. We had some sunburns to contend with when we got home. There was castle building, and moat digging, kit...

This one is for my friend Patsy , When my Runner's World magazine comes in the mail, I curl up to read it on the couch with a bowl of ice cream. Every time.

In my corner of the world last week ... we had a doozy of a week. So this is going to appear kind of random (that's for you Amy!) : ) The kids had VBS every morning - which was pretty nice as Little K and I got a lot done and spent some great time one on one. She loves to do puzzles now, so we spent a lot time doing that, besides cleaning shopping baking and organizing. My aunt had a huge garage sale last week, so we got a few things out to that, and of course, we found a few items there that we brought home too! We also dealt with a lot of grief last week. A friend of ours died in a tragic accident. My husband and I had some good conversations about sorrow and prayer from all of this. But it still hurts. I bought a waffle maker again. Finally. I went to Costco this time, because if this one breaks at least they will take it back and replace it! This week we are prepping for camping. That involves a lot of lists for me. And some shopping. Which I actually don't like anymo...