Paradise? Plus Summer Pictures

I had two people in one day (Wednesday) tell me, in all seriousness, that I am living “in paradise”. These pictures go a long way to explaining their conclusion.

This morning, however, didn’t feel very paradise-ical. I woke up grumpy. Instead of calm, gentle rain, it was pouring, hard, which makes me anxious for my garden (I can never quite let go of the destruction from several years ago, when a microburst severely damaged the garden with a 2″ layer of walnut-size hail – all that beauty, shredded, and hard work, destroyed). Then it started thunderstorming, and I realized that my plans for the day – canning blueberry jam and syrup – would not be wise, especially after checking the weather to see the line of severe storms advancing toward us. We lose power too often (four or five times so far this summer – ugh), and I did not want to lose it in the midst of a canning project. I was already a little overwhelmed by the idea of the canning project + getting a homeschool day in, and then – storms, probably power outage, etc & etc.

Then my wonderful husband, angry upon discovering the cat peed (more) on his stuff – washing the peed-upon items in the kitchen sink (ewwww!) while I was trying to put away clean dishes (double ewww!) – was yelling about the blankety-blank cat and what he would do to her if she didn’t quit peeing over all his stuff. Crisis among the children on splitting a final left-over donut that didn’t get given away to husband’s clients yesterday. Over HALF a donut. Stale, too. I pulled on my garden clothes and cinched down his rain jacket (which fits me, kind of, I really AM smaller than I used to be), so I could brave the weather, making sure the tomatoes were as tied up as they could be, and pick the lettuce before it was really, really shredded. Also a few cherry tomatoes and our first ground cherries (which are good!).

I came in, and found the “clean” cat pee item (can anything cat peed on ever REALLY be clean again?) on my KITCHEN TABLE. Murder! But I calmly said, seeing that makes me want to murder you, instead of actually yelling. Yay me! So humid and ucky in the house. Finally got my coffee and allergy medicine though, so that helped. Then more anxiety because we need to replace the back-up battery for the sump pump – which one? the one we bought a year ago for +$100 didn’t last… was it the wrong one? and wherefore art thou money to buy it?? (thank you, multiple thousands of dollars to repair cars this summer – UGH!)

We did, eventually, get it together. I got the kids started with school; realized I could do one of the canning projects (2 batches of blueberry vanilla jam) and scrap the other (probably not enough berries anyway), especially since I could do the batches at the same time, in different pots. They had to sit for 60 minutes anyway, so that would give me enough time to check back in with the kids and get the hot water bath hot. This worked, and I got to cross this off the list, and work with the kids.

Just not with a super amount of patience. You know, the kind of patience one would have if s/he lived in paradise.

Now, pictures. Here are a few from the overnight camp Madelyn went to. She really enjoyed it – the theme was Native American living.

And… celebrating my, Chris’s, and his dad’s birthdays. This is the collage Chris made for his dad:

Three generations:

Cake!

Last week’s canning adventure: making pickles! Soaking overnight in a saltwater brine:

A little homeschool – studying coins sent to us by Chris’s best friend’s globe-trotting aunt/uncle:

Madelyn’s 11th birthday celebration (six weeks late, but hey, who’s counting!). It was a swimming/tubing party, and went off well, I thought.

I took lots of running-off-the-dock pictures:

The kids who weren’t tubing, had a turn swimming.

Owen aka Muscle Man:

The crew – two sets of siblings, which I think is very nice, too. Those are long-time family friends, who Madelyn/Owen have literally known all of their life. Then a homeschool friend, Madelyn’s best public school friend, and another, newer, public school friend. Good times!

Back at the house (the lake is a five minute walk down the hill to our shared access):

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And, finally, garden pictures… these from a few weeks ago –

Peas, before I pulled them out last week:

Lettuces and greens:

Storm kitty & Brussel sprouts, kale, chard:

And from this week… Gourds by the house are out of control:

Some gourds are hiding amongst the foiliage:

Tomatoes by the house, in back of a flower bed:

In the big garden – tomatoes:

Potatoes:

Beets:

Boy with stick + kale:

(I just noticed what he was doing – giving the kale “bunny ears”??!!)

Smaller, newer veg/flower garden:

Butternut squash:

Baby pumpkins:

Flowers between the veggies & the road:

Other flower beds:

Hickory on the prowl:

There’s your mid-July to mid-August picture update. Paradise? Depends on who you ask. Pretty close to my idea, when I can get out of my own way!!