bullet point potpouri

*Behind on everything. Again. Or perpetually. Emails. Blog-reading. Heck, I'm nearly a week late mailing a birthday present.

*Really need to do a blame game post. Need to move this stack of books out of here.

*No way I'm going to make my current household goals by Sunday like I'd hoped. But progress is being made, so it's not all bad news.

*I am such a goshdarn wimp...I hate these 90 degree temps! As Rich proclaimed to the weather gods earlier, "We left the South for a reason, you know."

*Is it horrible that I'm so grateful that the family reunion is over for another year? Not that we didn't have a lot of fun, mixed in with the inevitable annoyances. ;)

*Our garden is finally starting to take off. :D  We'll be harvesting the rest of the radishes in the next couple days. And eating lettuce on our sandwiches, too. And I don't think it will be long at all until we're munching on kohlrabi (one of my all-time favorite veggies!). We had an infestation of cabbage moth caterpillars munching on the kohlrabi leaves last week, but Rich picked them all off and moved them to the front yard. And Rich built some little supports for our beans to grow up this morning.

*The guys have been busy in the kitchen as of late...Max with his brownies, Gray with his blueberry smoothies, and Rich with his beer.

*Just a few more weeks of soccer. Not that I'm complaining, honest. I love going to their games...I just wish it didn't take up four nights a week.

*How on earth did I ever live without a bread machine for so long?!! Rich got me one last week, and I'm addicted! I just started a loaf of Italian Herb Bread...it's not even baking yet and it already smells incredible. (Bread machines, however, are not conducive to losing weight.)

*Our flower garden springs to life more and more each day it seems. I'm so in love with it, it even makes up for the rash I got on my arm weeding it this morning.

*When we out running errands yesterday, we hit one of the local thrift stores. Miss Annie made out like a bandit--a whole bunch of shirts/tanks, a few skirts, and her favorite thing of all...these boots! She's never really worn shoes with much of a heel before (these have about 3.5 inch ones), but I think halfway through the day here, she's finally got the hang of them. ;)

babbling...

So I'm on this mission to put some organization back into this household. (I talk all about it over here. It's a tad frustrating...because I want to do it all RIGHT NOW. Which obviously is not possible. I've made good strides in some areas this past week, but it comes at a price. For one, this blog. Not that that's really a big deal. Just more of a way of explaining why I've disappeared somewhat.

I also moved most of my bookish musing to a different blog. But it's not really reviews or anything. More just a personal journal of what I'm reading and my thoughts on it. I'm going to leave the blame game here for now though...simply because I'm too lazy to move it right now. I do have a pile of acquisitions sitting here, with a few points to dole out. Hopefully tomorrow.

I know...here I am, trying desperately to get more organized, and yet I seem more scatter-brained than ever. Maybe I should just accept that that's who I am, huh?

almost summer...a camera happy version

It's been such a beautiful weekend here so far. It's really starting to feel like summer, with just one week left of school now. And the weather has definitely been helping that summer-y feeling along.

Yesterday, much to Maxidoodle's delight, Rich blew up their little pool.

And we also had our first backyard picnic of the season. Grilled veggie burgers, potato salad, watermelon, and oatmeal bars. Mmmmm.

And our veggie garden is springing to life a wee bit. (See, Chris--I told it looked pretty pathetic compared to yours.) We've got radishes, lettuce, green peppers, cucumbers, kohlrabi, jalapenos, tomatoes, garlic, green beans, and onions.

Annie's little garden looks a little better. It got a wee bit of a headstart on the big one. She's harvested three strawberries so far. :)  And her cherry tomato plants are looking pretty good.

We finally convinced her to do some weeding. :P

And here's my little herb pot. Just have basil, rosemary, and oregano growing. Decided to include this picture since the Bacon-ater was in it looking so cute. :)

Yesterday was actually a bit too much on the hot and humid side for us here. (Yes, we're extremely spoiled when it comes to summer weather for the most part! I'm sure many would be mighty pleased with the not quite 90 degree temps we had here yesterday.) Anyway, today is much more to our liking, supposed to stay in the 70s. And to celebrate, Rich serenaded the beautiful Father's Day morning. :P

And since I took pics of the food gardens, I thought I'd go ahead and get some pics of the latest flowers to make their appearance in the flower garden as well.

So, what's on slate for the rest of our weekend? A bath for Bacon. A Father's Day hike. And supper out at a place of Rich's choosing.

Hope everyone else is having as lovely a weekend as well!!!!!!

cherry-picking time

From tree to tummy. (Though I'll spare you pictures of the inevitable cherry pit wars. :D)

in the garden...

(in this case, the flower garden)

It was four or five summers ago that the first milkweed plant showed up in our flower garden. We were very excited about it...after all, milkweed and monarchs go together, right? Each year, the number of milkweed plants has grown and grown. (In fact, this year I've pulled some out because they're crowding out some of our other flowers.) Anyway, I think they're very pretty plants all on their own (at least for most of the summer...though towards the end, they seem to ooze out some ugly sticky stuff from their leaves and they don't look so pretty then). But I do have to admit part of our attraction is their ability to attract the monarchs. Each year, we've seen monarchs lay eggs, and and a couple times seen teeny tiny caterpillars. But apparently we've got plenty of predators in the garden, too...because we've never had a caterpillar grow to any size before. Until now, that is.

Isn't it beautiful?!! We keep watching it grow and grow and grow...and I think I'm finally hopeful that maybe this one will actually make it...

a long weekend--in photos

Friday evening:

*tennis lessons
(The last for a while. Now that it's done snowing ;) they can just play outside. If they're still interested, we'll probably start them up again in the fall. Pictures are lousy because the court they play on is so far from the bleachers. Okay, my lack of photography skills probably has something to do with it too. Side note: Annie cracks me up--no shedding her style even for a tennis lesson.)

*our little local ice cream joint--first trip of the season

*a trip to B&N
(For the "grown-ups" anyway. Wanted one particular book, but still couldn't find it. So instead I came home with three others. Foiled by Jane Yolen, a graphic novel with fairies and girl who fences--well, I think so anyway. The Stuff of Legend Book 1: The Dark by Mike Raicht and Brian Smith, another graphic novel. [Already read and loved this one, and want the next one to come out *right now*.] Push by Sapphire, and this one comes with a POINT FOR CHRIS.)

Saturday:

*finishing Annie's garden took much of the day (Rich and I fenced it, with a little help from Max. Annie did the bulk of the planting and watering, though she did allow Max to help a bit. She put in three cherry tomato plants and eight strawberry plants.)

*Rich, with a bit of help from Maxidoodle, began digging out a spot for the new family garden

*dinner out at Bill Grays was our reward for a hard day of yard work (The boys refused to have their pictures taken.)

*the first game in the Stanley Cup Finals (We won't talk about who won. But I did finish up a hot pad during the game.)

Sunday:

*Rich made us taco salad for supper...mmmmmm... (Forgot to take many pics for the day, but it was pretty much a work day with Rich working on digging up the new garden while I worked a little on the library and a lot on school stuff.)

*a trip to Borders (Again, just for the "grown-ups." But this time I found the book I've been dying to get my hands on--thanks to Chris. And yes, that would be Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. POINT TO CHRIS. But I also picked up a couple other books that look really good. This Borrowed Earth: Lessons from the 15 Worst Environmental Disasters Around the World by Robert Emmet Hernan. Trickster: Native American Tales A Graphic Collection edited by Matt Dembicki--This looks soooo good--It's a collection of over 20 Native American trickster tales, told by storytellers from various tribes, and each storyteller picked an artist whose style they thought would best match up with their story.)

Monday:

*getting the new garden blocked in and adding lots of lovely composted dirt (Well, that's what Rich did. The boys were in total lounge lizard mode. I spent the day with school stuff. And Annie did homework.)

Overall, while I didn't get everything done that I'd planned, I'm pretty happy with our productivity. And we managed to have a lot of fun, too. :D

Hope everyone else had a lovely weekend, too!