Eating off the land

We have a small garden in our back lot, past the pool. 

Not big, just a few things - zucchini, dead tomatoes, strawberries, some chile plant, watermelon (which seems to be vining on things and basically dominating entire raised bed), peas or beans of sorts, near dead cilantro, squash, cucumber...I think that's it.  

BUT, it has been low on production. 

Here is what I had to feed the family for the week:

Yup.  2 small carrots, some beans (peas maybe? green beans?) strawberries and a cucumber.

Livin' large aren't we??

Last year I couldn't keep up with the zucchini. This year I was prepared with a plethora of great recipes to keep up on dinner varieties. 

I've gotten about 4.

So, frustrated with my lack of food going on MY land, I decided to take the kids to an orchard and pick some of THEIR food. 

I enlisted some help, because we tend to over pick and have trouble carrying it all.  So, help we got! (Really what I think we got was 2 more people picking...thus multiplying our load even more, but whatever!)

Hey, someone has to test the peach...you can't just 'pick' and hope the variety you are picking is your favorite.  You must sample.  It's a rule.

This guy ate 2 apples and 2 peaches while at the orchard...the boy loves his fruit!

So, we started in the apple orchard and moved on to peaches.  As usual, I am pretty sure we got too much:

Peaches

Apples

Because the 6 people in my family need this much fruit for the week.

Thus far, I have frozen 2 batches of peaches for cobbler or pie (about 5 peaches per batch), I made a cobbler and we subsequently ate it. I have canned 3 pints (I think that is what size...) of cut up peaches, 3 pints of peach butter (like apple butter...but with peach), 3 pints of peach syrup or something that might serve as a syrup since I have NO IDEA how to make syrup and at the end of the day I made it all, I was DONE and just added some pectin and called it 'syrup'. 

I currently have another batch of peaches cooking for another round peach butter and syrup. To add to the chaos, I bulk order ground beef and chicken - and the beef was scheduled for pick up in the midst of this and I had to package 40lbs of ground beef into 1.5-2lb food saver bags, seal them and freeze them.

Pretty sure I'm not cooking dinner tonight...the kitchen is a PIT. 

Hope the family loves peach butter and syrup...
Cheers!

Creative minds

Today during school, Monkey was taking a break from writing his words to build Legos - he said his hands were bored :). I love that Legos build fine motor skills for him and has actually made a huge difference in his handwriting!

Lately he has been watching Lego videos to learn how to build other things.  He has built snails, dogs, trees, boats, planes and more...improvising as he goes along with parts we may not have.

He is very creative and loves to build and take apart and build again.  

Except today he built these, and gave me descriptions of each...:

"Here is the party house with windows by the door"

"These are the beer bottles, with caps on them"

"The blue part is someone's office, with beer in it." (do you see all the beer???)

I just absolutely have no words for this...apparently he is getting ready for his college life...in 15 years.

Of course, if I drink during 'school hours', they kids absolutely do not know this. I am smart enough to pour beverages into a non-see-through cup.  And keep it away from kids who sneak drinks from my cup...and it's likely NOT beer.

Because really, sometimes I do need a nice adult beverage during after a long day of school...

Cheers!

STOP!!!

Because sometimes, 1 sign just isn't enough.

Cheers!

But it's still hot....

School started.

Summer break is over.

I'm pretty unhappy about how fast our 7ish weeks of summer went. I say 'ish' because I really didn't count. Could be 7, could be 8, could be less than 8. 

Agent P had 2 weeks of summer day camp - he had fun classes like Lego robotics, All things Paper (read - make more paper airplanes because the 137 we have at home are not enough), some class on spiders...I dunno, maybe another one...

The kids did do a week of Vacation Bible School.

There went 3 weeks.

A-Dog had baseball for 4-5 weeks.

We went swimming.

A-Dog went to a Christian youth convention (I chaperoned) for 1 week.

Last week we went to the movies.

Yet somehow, it's all over.

I always take pictures of the first day of school, and because our summer is only 7-ish weeks, there is no sense taking "end of year photo", because I'm pretty sure it would look just like the beginning of school photo...just sayin'.  

Friday, A-Dog started his Sophomore year.

10th Grade

The other 3 are being home-schooled again this year.  

Agent P is in 3rd Grade (and really loves his watch).

Monkey is in Kindergarten

And of course, so is Mini P ;)

So, there you go. We are back to the grind. Kids grow up so fast, I just want to lay down and soak in it (but of course, then pray it isn't pee that I'm laying and soaking in...ya know?)

Cheers!

Ferris Wheels

Raising 4 kids often resembles carnival rides.

Or at least here at my house....

Sometimes it is the House of Horrors or Tilt-a-Whirl.

Sometimes it is the Merry-go-round (that I can't seem to get off)...

This summer it more resembled the Ferris Wheel.

You know...a nice slow ride, goes in a big circle. Stops every once in awhile. Some get on, some get off.

Except that I DESPISE the Ferris Wheel. I have panic attacks ON and OFF of it. If my kids want to ride it, they know the need to find another responsible adult because Mama will NOT be getting on it. Nor will she be watching.

I don't know what it is about the Ferris Wheel, but it seriously scares the be-jeebies out of me. I can barely talk about it and typing it out so many times has sent me into an adrenaline meltdown.

What does this have to do with anything you ask???

A-Dog is 'of the age' now and able to get his driving permit.

So, we let him.

It was inevitable I guess. 

He looks so happy.

*SIGH*. How did he get this old?

Anyway, we wanted to delegate teach him the ways of the road, but first he needed to be my full service gas attendant proficient in administering gas into said vehicle and cleaning the windshield. 

I'm not going to claim the cleanliness was suitable for driving, but since I rarely clean my windshield, I really couldn't complain. That's what car washes are for...to clean my bug smeared windshield.

Obviously the next step was...ahem...driving.  

There was an incident with a cayenne pepper and my sweet husband and so his vision was not what it should be....so off I went.

Being that A-Dog is our experiment first child, I had NO CLUE what I was doing. I mean, I truly thought that all the time spent on Mario Cart 7 and Golf n Stuff indy cars meant he was good to go.

I am here to tell you friends, do NOT rely on either of those!

We spent about an hour in the neighborhood. Thankfully we can across exactly 2 other cars, both time giving me a full on panic attack-just like being on a ferris wheel...for an hour.

Out where we live we had to improvise...like "pretend there is a stop sign at the end of this road, as there really should be, but there isn't". Most roads are dirt and hilly. Made for great driving conditions....

Needless to say, we were both spent when we returned and both needed several days to recover.

I exercised great patience. I never over reacted, or maybe it was just once I shouted "STOP" (which was code for STOP THE TRUCK NNNOOOWWW). He only drove off the road twice, but learned how to backup and that was a necessary lesson.

Pretty sure that is the last time I will be doing that. 

My sweet husband it going to have to do it...unless anybody steps up to volunteer.  I'll cross my fingers...

Cheers!

Crazy daze of summer

One would think that summer would bring long, lazy days...playing at the pool, floating with a cold margarita iced tea, eating bon-bons.

Well, first of all, do bon-bons even exist? And if they do, someone please tell me where to purchase them.

Second, our life still seems to be crazy. Every year it is the same. I look forward to summer, only to realize I don't work outside the home and all the kids are here. I don't know why I ever think it would be relaxing, but every year I do, and every year I wonder how we can be so busy in the summer :)!

This summer I opted to NOT let the little kids do Soccer Nights. The soccer schedule is totally random (no set nights, just random) and still requires me to round them up and get somewhere on time. I was hoping for a little less of that. They have no idea they had the option, so they are not upset.

A-Dog has been playing summer baseball. Not the best photo, but when it is 247 degrees and I have to pack enough water to hydrate an elephant, enough chairs and shade to keep my small people from wilting like grapes...a camera doesn't make it into the bag...only my phone! Then, I'm competing with the fence because obviously, I'm not THAT close to him! :)

Agent P lost his first and second tooth - in 2 days - and pulled them both himself (thank goodness).  Now, don't judge me too harshly, but here we do the "tooth fairy" a little different.  Starting with Agent P. Or, ya know..NOW.

See, A-dog lost his baby teeth late. By the time he was losing the last of them he was just redeeming them for cash because he was like 12 or something (again, late and I have no clue how old, but old). 

It would go like this: "Here's a tooth mom", "oh, hmm, I don't know if I have cash...let me look".  I almost considered just doing an online bank transfer into his savings account.

So, I made the executive decision to do things a little different with the next 3. 

When you lose your 1st tooth, you get all sorts of goodies!!!  Like an electric toothbrush, some of your favorite candy (because you will be losing all those teeth at some point anyway) and some gum...whatever I have laying around - goes in a little bag. It's a celebration!

After that...you are out of luck.

I don't say it like that exactly...

I said something like - "well, after you lose 5, you get to go to D@iry Queen!" (I don't have rewards for after the first 5, I'm winging it, and open to ideas).

Call me a genius, a forward thinker, a lunatic, a sad excuse for a mom...whatever you want...but look at it this way - not one of my kids will ever be disappointed that the tooth fairy forgot to come...again (A-Dog will likely need therapy for the times we forgot). 

That and I won't have to worry about sneaking into their rooms to find the hidden tooth and replace with money another 58 times.  That's a lot of sneaking.

And being the good kid Agent P is, he was happy with the arrangement! He loves his new toothbrush and enjoyed carrying around his own pack of gum. The candybar is still in the bag...maybe he forgot about it... ;)

Cheers!

8 is GREAT!

Agent P turned 8!!!

I can't express enough what a special kid this one is! He is silly and crazy and sometimes downright annoying. He is smart and inquisitive and loves to read and learn.  He is active and is a great swimmer and is amazing on the soccer field and is trying to keep up with A-Dog in the baseball arena! He is lovable and sweet, and full of attitude at times. 

For his birthday I was all set to make him a homemade chocolate cake (because I didn't have a cake mix of any sort here at home and it is 10 miles to the grocery store). Of course, he announces that morning that he would like the lemon cake "that Grandpa likes for his birthday".  That's lovely. I'm pretty sure there are 3 people in our family who like that cake. Grandpa, Agent P and some other person - but I wouldn't know who, I just didn't want to exclude them.

Of course that meant I had to 1. get a recipe. 2. go to the store. 

Not on my agenda, but did it anyway.

We celebrated at a local pizza place that has games.  We didn't invite friends because there are always kids there and if he needed to he could call them party guests...I just didn't have enough tokens for them. Haha!

So, 7 is gone and 8 is here!  Happy Birthday Agent P, we love you beyond words!

Cheers!