And....she's back

I've really neglected this spot! I always have good intentions, but then life gets in the way and posting on here slips my mind.

Summer has been awesome, as it always is. I love the hot weather! I get such a sense of accomplishment seeing everything I planted grow and produce, and I don't even mind picking off all of those Japanese beetles. The ugly grey squash bugs, though, are something altogether different. I don't want to touch them. So gross!

The three boys spent 10 days with their grandparents at the beginning of July. They had a blast, but it was hard for me at first. For a day or two I could only wander around, at a loss. It was so quiet and the house stayed clean. Amazing!  Once I got used to the quiet and the fact that I didn't have to do all that mom stuff constantly, it was nice. I was able to work on my book and really make some process on it. Go me!  

Now I know what parents with only 2 kids (teenage) experience. Wow! Easy street for sure.  Ha ha, no , not easy, just different. 

I missed my little boys, though, and I wouldn't want to be without them.

At Navy Pier

Too long

I can't believe it's been well over a month since I posted an entry. (You'll notice I didn't say 'since I blogged'.  I despise the word 'blog' and all of its incarnations.)  What can I say? It was the usual stuff, life, lack of interest, lack of a subject, yeah yeah, whatever, right?

So we finally broke down and turned on the A/C, which promptly broke at the beginning of July. Nice, eh? But we were really blessed and got a new motor without it costing us anything. God is pretty amazing!

I've been outside mostly, and I don't do a lot of writing during the summer, so I'm not sure when I'll write again. Heh.

Here's some photos of what's been going on this summer:

Our one head of broccoli--delicious! Next year I'm going to plant a ton of it.

K's wildflower garden. The finches love it.

A recent visitor.

 I'd add more photos, but my stupid camera's date is messed up and I'm tired of trying to find the picture I want! Frustrating!  Hopefully I'll update sooner next time. :)

Summer Goals and no A/C

Summer is officially here; school has ended and there's been a collective sigh in the house. Now if only the weather will clue in...

It's always a good thing to have goals, so here are mine:

*work on potty-training with Foo-Foo. Not exactly a fun time (is it ever?) since he doesn't really seem to care too much, but he does like wearing underwear, so it's a start, anyway

*walk at least 5 days a week, I'd like it to be 6. These walks are normally 60-70 min, unless I have the boys with me and we go to the park. Then and easy 30min.

*Keep writing. I've submitted to six agents so far, and have plenty of manuscripts to work on, so all's good in that area.

*have activities for the boys to do a couple of days a week. Right now tin can robots are in the works.

*Finish painting entryway, dining room and bathroom, then get to work peeling off border in the boys' room. I swear, wallpaper hates me. Really, it does.

That's it for now. Wait, what's that about no air conditioning?

It's no secret that I hate the stuff, and it keeps kids from going outside in the summer. We had a few days of brutal heat last week, and we were probably the only ones who didn't turn on the A/C. I'm not sure if we're saving any money running fans, but the benefits are pretty good. The boys went outside where it was cooler without me having to shoehorn them out the door, as I've had to in the past to get them out of the coolness.  Pretty awesome, I'd say. Plus, at least for June the weather appears to be in the upper 70's-to upper 80's, not a problem.  To me, it's worth it.

I really believe being dependent on A/C makes people not so tough, not able to handle the heat. Don't get me wrong, I like having it on in the car and when I go places, but at home I quickly tire of it. I hate being cold when I want to be warm, like when I get out of the shower. Hate that so much.


That's what's happening around here.

Goodbye, Summer

School is in full swing (well, except for the Labor Day bump) and summer appears to be winding down. Here's a few pics of summer:

August?? Already?

School looms on the horizon, much to every child's consternation. The main complaint I've been hearing is that summer just isn't long enough. No doubt!

The garden is bustling along. So far I"ve gotten two (bitter) stunted cucumbers and about six small yellow summer squash. Not bad for the wet and cold spring we had. There are two pretty large tomatoes on the plant, still green, though. One with a bite from a tomato hornworm, I think. I haven't found him yet,but I dont' really want to. Yuck. I have a couple of butternut squash growing as well, one large enough that it needed a sling as it's growing on the outside of our fence.

I'm already making plans for next year's expanded garden. There are one or two raised beds in the works, and the Sleep Number bed panels are killing some grass for me. That's the best use I've found for that crappy bed. The kids are enjoying the plastic bedframe, though, very much. At least it's not sitting in a landfill somewhere. I keep telling myself that whenever I open the storage room door and see all that gray foam. But I have used some of it, so that's all good.

Online school registration starts today. So glad I don't have to stand in line at the high school for hours! Yay for technology, right?

Buggy

The weather has been great here in NW Indiana, and I"ve been outside working on my garden, which is getting pretty crazy, as I knew it would. And look what I've found crawling around:

Apparently Japanese beetles are Indiana's main pest, next to mosquitos, that is. At first I was just tossing them into the plastic jar and slamming the lid on real quick. Then I started throwing the bugs into a mixture of water, dish soap and oil and that really did the trick. So far I've taken off a ton of Japanese beetles, some cabbage worms and a few cucumber beetles, which are so small they're hard to catch. I usually go out to the garden a few times a day to pick off pests. It's fun!

Yep, I'm weird.