General Happenings

Whew!!  This year has absolutely flow by.  I'm having a hard time keeping up with everything that's been going on, and quite frankly, have felt as though I've not been particularly productive, even though I've been busier than ever.

The garden was a little neglected this year.  It shouldn't have been because the weather has been unseasonably cool, making it much easier to work in,  but partly due to all the rain, which meant we didn't have to water, we just haven't been out there very much.  We harvested a good deal of sweet peas, a fair amount of green beans, quite a few cucumbers, and a lot of zucchini earlier on, but other things didn't not perform particularly well.  The garlic and onions did not do well at all because of the cold winter, and very cool, wet spring and early summer.  Because it has never gotten very hot, having had very few days that even reached 90 this summer, and extremely wet, our peppers have been limping along, not producing very well.  Our melons have also done badly.  On the upside, though we've not had a bumper crop of tomatoes, we are getting a fair amount of them on a regular basis.  Every year there are successes and failures in the garden, and every year we manage to eat from it, so it all works out.

I've not done much in the sewing room since I finished all the baby sewing in the spring, but I did get back in there and make myself a new purse last week so I'm now inspired to start (or finish) a few projects.

The younger girls and I have already started back with school, albeit slowly.  We have a lot to cover this year, so we'll need the extra time.  I hope to be a bit more diligent than I was last year.  Some things I had wanted to do last year just didn't get done and I don't want to repeat that this year, so I think the schedule will be a bit more rigid.  I don't think they'll like it all that much, but they will certainly survive. :)

We haven't done nearly as much food preserving this year, but we've been busy in the kitchen with other things.  I plan to tell you more about it in a future post, but suffice it to say that we're trying to improve our health and that has required a big change in the food we eat.  We are currently working on changing many of our family favorites in order to make them better for us.  We hope to share some of our new recipes in the future.

Of course, the new grandbaby has been a delightful distraction around here.  We are really enjoying every moment we have with him.  He gets passed around quite a bit between me and his aunts.  I'm pretty sure most days he enjoys all the attention.  Here's a contented little man, with a full belly.  He looks like this a lot. :D, but we still enjoy just holding him.