Recently I am recieved a few e-mails from friends saying that they have "updated" or created a new blog and that everyone should check it out for new information. Well, I don't really have lots of new info or a new blog, but here is a little update anyway since I have been slow to blog lately (mostly for lack of a good story).
Here is some of our summer "highlights" so far:
Jake turned 30 over the weekend. The milestone didn't bother him much and he enjoyed his "bash". I did collect ALMOST 30 poems for his book of birthday poems. Thanks to all of those who wrote one (I asked 30 plus people to write a poem about Jake turning 30 and e-mail it to me so I could put them together for a fun surprise. (If you weren't asked to write a poem it wasn't because I didn't think you could write one it was probably because I didn't have your e-mail address, but I am 3 short so you CAN still write one if you want to!!!).
Our garden is huge and spilling over into the yard. I'm in the process of making relish and will tackle pickles next week. I'm expecting am explosion of cherry tomatoes any day.
Jonah has chosen this summer to not take a nap. I've been still making him "rest", which has not been restful for ME since he gets up constantly to see if its 4:00 o'clock (or whatever time I said that he could get up).
We have only been swimming ONCE this whole summer! But we did sign up for swim lessons yesterday, they start Monday and last for two weeks (maybe 8 days of the pool in a row will make up for the fact we haven't been all summer...).
Jonah is in the reading program at the library. Even though he cannot read and I am the one doing the reading, it still seems unreal that he is old enough to be in a reading program.
We have spent a lot of time at the park across the street. We have a park leader for the summer during the afternoons and Jonah loves to go and say "hi" to her. We sometimes even go for lunch or snack which is provided by the park district. Not too many kids frequent our park but Jonah enjoys when there are a few to play with.
So that's my uneventful-not blog worthy summer update (THOUGH it has been relaxing so I'm not really complaining!).
Update without a Plot
All with a Pringles Can
I'm really not surprised that my husband can entertain himself with one pringles can for over an hour. My surprise came when he somehow entertained little J, who has a short attention span when it comes to most outdoor activities, for almost that long with just a pringles can and the promise of blowing something up. Or off as the case may be. After finishing off the can of pringles tonight on our front porch they proceeded to see how many different ways they could "blow" the lid off the can. Stepping on it, hitting it really hard from both sides and kicking it when it was propped up against the step all succeeded in blowing the lid off. Throwing it at Jonah's head didn't make it happen although a head bunt to the can from Jake seemed to work out pretty well.
First Fruit
Hidden among the pumpkin vines I found our first ready-to-be-picked garden fresh vegetable! Although it wasn't as delicious as we hoped (raw), we are still looking forward to more fruits of our efforts. And a little worried as well- our tomato plants are bursting with green fruits (why did I decide on 8 plants?), several zuchinni and hot peppers are almost ready to be picked, there are tons of baby cucumbers and the pumpkins are taking over the place. We have high hopes of making salsa and learning how to can but I having a feeling will be begging neighbors to take "our efforts" off of our hands!
Meter Mayhum
In the house that we previously owned ants built a nest in our gas meter. They broke the dial. The gas company showed that we were using very little gas. They came out, discovered the nest, and back charged us for the gas that we used that did not register on our broken meter.
Needless to say, when we saw a bird visiting our electric meter last week we were concerned. It appeared that she was just in the box that held our meter, not in the actual meter. We were a lot more anxious this time around about wet nest materials shorting out our meter and thus setting our house on fire than we were about back charges.
After a call to the electric company I was sad to find out that I was going to be the one to have to clean out the nest. They would come and open the box and shut off the meter and then return after I had cleaned it out (during business hours, of course, while Big J was at work). I was in tears the night before because I invisoned tiny little baby birds whose home I was going to have to disrupt. I made a plan involving work gloves, a shovel and the park across the street (where I was going to move the nest to). I had the number handy of the college kid from my church who lives nearby just in case it was too much for me to handle(emotionally).
Mr. Electric company never did shut off my power nor did he leave. He simply opened the box and scraped the nest to the ground. Unfortunalty there were two little eggs inside (and I'm not sure what happened to them). But, just for future reference, if there were baby birds inside the box could be left open to see if the mommy bird would come and rescue them. I will keep that in mind since creatures seem to have a thing for our meters!
Vegetable Irony
We've tried our best to shelter little J from violence on TV and movies. There are a lot of things that we don't allow him to watch, but there are also several things that he does watch. We watch Blues Clues, Bob the Builder and The Wiggles on video. We catch Dragon Tales and Clifford on PBS Kids occasionally. Finding Nemo and CARS are our movie favorites. Lately we've been watching quite a bit of Veggie Tales. I have several VHS tapes from college days when the "Sunday morning fun, Saturday morning values" cartoons were becoming popular. We've been made aware that kids will pick up things where you least expect it. Believe it or not, Jonah has picked up a desire to fight from a Veggie video that was released over 10 years ago. From "Dave and the Giant Pickle", which is the story of David and Goliath, Jonah has begun "putting up his dukes" and and saying "who will I fight?". Although I'm a little concerned that he wants to be Goliath all of the time he has done well at asking people if he can "fight" them before proceeding. I did gain some concern today when he said that he wanted to shoot a particular man. This man was a father of a friend who did put the wagon away before Jonah was done riding in it but it still made me a little nervous when he told me later that he wanted to shoot him. I had to ask what he was going to shoot him with. He said "with my bubble sword." Like Goliath! Ha! Even though Jonah is now walking around pretending to be the famous Philistine Giant, I'm still a fan of Veggie Tales. Here are some facts I found:
Veggie Tales was the first completly computer animated video to be distrubuted on VHS in the US.
Over 50 million videos have been sold since 1993.
Mr. Lunt (from I love my cheeseburger) has no eyes.
Phil Visher, VT creator, sees Bob the Tomato as his alter ego.
(facts were found on wikipedia)
The Land of Corn and Soybeans
We struggled for the 4 years that we owned a house in Arkansas to get grass to grow. I lost track of the times that we seeded with no positive outcome.
I thought maybe it was my fault. I am not known for having a "green thumb." I will confess that for years my mom would send me off to college (and off to Arkansas newly married) with a couple of green, healthy houseplants. I would then bring them home on breaks so she could nurse their now sad, wilting bodies back to health. I would then take the poor things back to school and begin the cycle all over again. All that is left from the plant massacre is one stubborn aloe. Which, by the way, is at my mom's house...
Friends and neighbors would say otherwise- that maybe our lack of grass had something to do with the previous owner. Maybe the fact that he never mowed or raked hurt our soil. Maybe the lack of grass was caused by the giant African Tortoise that grazed in the backyard. Maybe the soil is full of clay in that part of the country. Maybe part of that was true, but then they would go home to water their beautiful green lawns and I would cry over my ball diamond wannabe yard.
So now we are in the part of the country where you see field of corn and soybeans being plowed and planted. In fact, a new Rural King (yes, I said RURAL KING) just opened nearby to service these farmers. So we decided to give it a try. Part of the yard is dug up and seeds and plants (bought at Rural King, of course) are safely in the ground. We have sprinkled red pepper on the leaves and soil to hopefully ward off the neighborhood rabbits. While we wait for our vegetables, which Jonah thinks should be ready to pick NOW, we are enjoying the flowers and bushes popping up all over our property (instead of poison ivy like in AR). Heres hoping for a bountiful harvest, or at a least a tomato or two!