4th of July Brain Surgeon

This summer we went on many unpictured adventures.  We went to Roaring Springs, swimming, floating the Boise River, Ward Campout, Discovery Science Center, the Aquarium, Zoo, Jumptime. . .um, I can't really remember what else because I did not take pictures.  Bummer.  JT had band class for 3 weeks, 2 scout camps, and wrestling camp.  Rory had the band class and volleyball camp.  Simmy had swimming and tennis lessons.  We also celebrated Rory and Roger's birthdays and Grandma and Grandpa's too with not a single picture taken.

I do however have these random pictures from the 4th of July.

Can you tell what JT is doing?? His is performing brain surgery.  After I gave my children the example of chalk art where you jump in the art, he thought for .2 secs and decided to draw his goal job.  That is the kind of kid he is.

Levi drew his 1st picture- on our neighbors driveway.  It remained their for months because there is no rain in this place.  Sorry neighbors.  I finally hosed it down.

We also played with bubbles, bounced in our little bounce house, and  fired up fireworks in our driveway.

Good fun!

May Garden

Hi.  How's it going?  It no fun to post without pictures and I was lousy about taking pictures of our adventures this summer.  Lousy.  I also didn't really think people check my blog anymore but the more family and friends I saw the last few months the more I realized that you are checking- or should I say lurking.  I have really loved having photo books sitting on my coffee table made out of this blog so I best be shaping up.

Perennial gardening has been the biggest surprise for me this year.  Last year I had almost no interest in pretty plants and flowers- only things I could eat, the bulbs that came up in spring and composting.  After spending my spring planting fruit bushes and vines and getting my veggies on their way I became obsessed with making my home beautiful for as much of the year as possible.  I devoured perennial books like they were novels and read them over and over.  My mind was a new sponge after years of having pregnant mushy brain.  I needed to know everything about every plant there is.  I made a spreadsheet to keep track of the needs of everything I already had growing and everything I planted.  My favorite place to be was a garden store.  This became my new hobby and I LOVE it.

These are the last pictures of my garden and the yard changed dramatically since then.  I have since planted 100s of perennials and the vegetable garden grew beautifully.  My camera has been a pain and my plants were puny since I bought them cheap and small.  They will be gorgeous next year and then I will show them off.

On one of the last snows I threw out hundred of poppy seeds and enjoyed their beauty.

I consider my vegetable and fruit to have gone moderately well this year.  I would have loved to bring in more raspberries, strawberries, watermelon, pumpkins, corn and tomatoes than I did but other things went really well. 

I bagged loads of spinach

I watched watermelons hang from the vine

I decided I detest cress and arugula

We ate a ton of peas and carrots and I pressure canned many pints of carrots and green beans

My kids love eating right from the garden 

I also canned grape juice, dill and sweet pickles, pickled beets, pickled green bean, pickled peppers, tomato soup and tomato sauce.  We ate pesto all summer and have a little bit frozen.  We ate fresh pico de gallo, salads, broccoli, radishes, sweet and hot peppers, My yellow, and green zucchini were not too overbearing. We had a few dozen cherries and a handful of peaches that were amazing from the trees we planted last year.  I really enjoyed eating fresh and experimenting with veggies we picked.

I have learned plenty and was sad when the first frost hit.  I look forward to an even better year next year.