Tis Fall . . .

Early fall even, when there are greens up there with the reds, oranges, yellows and a bright blue sky.

Ahhhhhhhhh . . . 

That was last week, just absolutely gorgeous.  Sunny and 70's all week.

I even got some old furniture out and went spray paint crazy.

Hoping to post when I actually finish the one that I started back in 2010!!!

Ha!

And, this gal and I brought "summer" back to the shed in order to make room in the garage again. (You just know snow's going to be blowing in soon...sorry...(-:). 

And, on Saturday afternoon, Harrison and I snacked on the most delightful early fall treat. Big, juicy tomatoes from the garden drizzled with EVOO and sprinkled with Sea Salt.

Oh.My.Goodness!

Oh, another little early fall suggestion, without a link or a picture, wow! Tonight, from the Parade magazine that comes in the Sunday paper (but I can't get up to see if it was this week's or last weeks and I couldn't find it on line with a little looking), I made zucchini pancakes (which were pretty much latkes but I don't think they wanted to scare people away from making them with latke so they called 'em pancakes...anyhoo...).  So, ya got zucchini laying around and a few mint leaves? Find thyself a great recipe...Oh, wait, hold the phone, I JUST FOUND THE LINK, whoo-hoo! Now, I looked at a couple other recipes just now and by far there are reasons this is the best one.  Grated parmesan (not shredded) instead of matzo or bread crumbs, using only 1 egg and only 1 tablespoon oil to fry in are a few or the reasons.   Three of the kids ate them even, score!

(Oh cool, I even have a "Z" recipe over on the sidebar now!)

It only took ten years . . .

But they finally figured out how to lock someone in the courtyard! He contemplated climbing out then changed his mind when I mentioned he could break his arm and be out of hockey for a while.  That hockey, I tell ya, helps motivate in more ways than you can imagine. 

A meticulous work by Liv.

She did this at the Y in childcare while I was swimming.  One of the gals in there said she was being very careful to rinse her brush after every color so as not to mix colors. I'm sorry but, couldn't you see this in the abstract section of any major art museum??? (-:

2nd Grade . . .

At the bottom of an email exchange about spelling word lists with W's 2nd grade teacher, she wrote this: "I wanted to tell you how hard William is working - not that second grade is hard for him, but that he puts forth excellent effort on all his assignments and pays attention all day long.  And it's a long day sometimes :)."

Well, that sure made me smile!

Then I got "my" homework returned...

 2nd Grade now replaces 4th Grade as when I max out on being able to help the kids with their math!

Yep, #11 up there, the only one wrong on his entire page, yep, I got that wrong for him!

I'm sorry, but I do not see any patterns in those answers, except, what I told William, "They appear to all go up by one." I mean, sure, it would be a little neater if it were 4, 5, 6 but come on, what do you think the answer is?  I mean, is it, "The answers are the same number as one of the digits in the problem?" Who cares about that if that's the pattern? Oh brother...and for the record, I was a big fan of the Saxon Math program they used to do until this year...at least then I held strong until the 4th grade level!!!

 For the record, I would've given him 1/2 credit!

(-:

There's my hardworking, attentive boy rocking out the vocabulary words! I mean, "ventured?," come on, that is totally a fourth grade word, and...since I wasn't helping him...he nailed it!

It appears I'm addicted to . . .

Ground Cover!

Pictured above are nine, yep nine, different varieties of ground cover I've amassed in my every so erratically planned landscaping. Typically, I find a gallon tub of one or two ground covers at the end of Fall marked down to $1.50ish and just can't resist.  Fortunately for now, we have the space to plant them here there and everywhere, put I have a haunting feeling that if I blink a little too long, they're going to take over.

So, why do I have a bunch in cups? Tomorrow is the first meeting for the new year of this mother's group that I've gone to since H was a baby.  This will be my 11th and most likely last year.  The group I go to is MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers).  I'm a table leader again this year (I've done that a few times now along with years as the meal coordinator for moms with new babies) and thought it would be nice to bring the new moms at my table a little something.  My initial plan was to go to the resale shop for odds and ends cups (which I did end up doing) and then planting a little bunch of mums in each cup.  Now THAT would'a looked great. Alas, I ran out of time and all I was finding were big, $15 dollar mums with very tall stalks and they wouldn't have chopped down nicely. So, ground cover popped to mind and I had no idea I had so many different types.  Worked pretty well I think, and although my 14 year old rolled her eyeballs and asked "Um, why are you bringing them that?," I'm still 100% behind the idea being cool...ok, fine...97.8% sure now!

(-:

Zucchini . . .

It's been a good year this year.

You're probably thinking, "Who doesn't have success with zucchini?" right? Well, I've never done well putting them in my boxed gardens behind the house, just not enough sun I guess.  See all those trees? They're my problem. So, this year, as with last year, I've started moving some of the veggie garden that won't get eaten by deer/rabbits, into my sun/flower garden.  I know I've mentioned that before. And, once again, since I don't have The Queen or any Master Gardeners stopping by to evaluate the agricultural goings on around here, I am just fine having zucchini, tomato and pumpkin growing right alongside hibiscus, purple coneflower and zinnia.  Grow on, I say, grow on!

(-:

 Ah, the good ol' roasted veggies. I enjoyed this by myself tonight as all others were spoken for with dinner elsewhere and the little gal home with me at dinner time was perfectly pleased to have bunny mac-n-cheese with apple sauce. Above we have zucchini and tomatoes with French tarragon from the garden with slivered garlic from Kroger (-: sprinkled with kosher salt and olive oil.  Woulda' been even better with homemade pasta (which I've never made but would like to try some day...).

Then, later tonight . . . 

 We were summoned into a bedroom by an excited 10 year old to view this awesome creation.  Lego guys and lincoln logs, very cool (especially since the box of lincoln logs sat in our hallway just about ALL SUMMER and were not touched once! I almost pitched them because I've been in a major pitching mood since school started).  It was all oohs and aahs for about 45 seconds then a younger brother showed up and discovered the one section that HE made a different day was being used in this creation!!!  What??? The horrors!!! Of course, the section he made was ON THE BOTTOM and he insisted on getting it back.  So, after much drama (I mean, MUCH DRAMA), the 10 year old slowly started carefully disassembling the awesome creation.  Yeah, you know how that went...by the third section the whole thing collapsed...except little brother's part on the bottom!  Oy Vey!  So yeah, this was all going down AT BEDTIME, yeah.  The previously excited one headed to his bed pretty sad and the younger one actually did look remorseful for having made the awesome creation implode.

And then we sang songs with back tickles and they went to bed.

The End

A Baby Bear Kinda Day . . .

Not too hot, like earlier this week, 95-ish degrees.

Not too cold, like yesterday, maybe high 50's, gray, windy.

But, just right, Sunny and high 60's.

Perfect for a little swinging after dropping a brother off at a "fishing at the park" birthday party.  This girl was on the early side, compared to a couple others in this family at least, for learning how to pump on a swing.  I'm a fan of the kids learning how to pump.  For all the things I love to do with the kids as a mom, for some reason, pushing them on the swing is not high on my list. I prefer to swing along next to them. (-:

This is a shot of see weed from the dock at the fishing pond.  The depth perception with the water was really cool in real life, not sure it's going to translate to this photo but, ah well.

Have a great Sunday!

Basil Harvest . . .

Amazing basil crop this year. But, I've been scouring the city in ernest lately looking for the least expensive pine nuts to make pesto to freeze for the winter.  Alas, 1/4 cup bag at Kroger is $4.99 and a 1/3 pound bag at a market downtown was $13.99.  I fell out of the mood to make pesto.  A friend of mine told me I could just pluck the leaves right off, put them in a bag, freeze and presto, they're saved for later. So, since I heard it might get into the 30's tonight (of course it's going to get into the 30's tonight, it was after all 95 earlier this week, gotta keep up with those Michigan standards!!!), I went out a chopped down all my basil plants. I got three bags (oh brother, was it four??) of really packed 2 cups and 1 bag of a solidly pack 1 cup. Can't wait to use them throughout the winter.

Tomorrow for lunch I think I'm sautéing my final zucchini with a variety of different tomatoes. Oh and I shred half a zucchini into my lasagne tonight (with loads of fresh basil too), only Lara had to notice and ask too many times, "what's this, what is this??" To which I uttered how I put a lot of basil in the lasagne, and you know, basil is green, so, SHHH already.  Everybody gobbled it up (well, except our resident non-eater, he managed to make himself a PB sandwich while I was on the phone just before dinner, they get away with too much when they know I'm on the phone!) and I then uttered a little louder about the zucchini. (-:

Well, well, well . . .

 There is a merry go round left in the L.P.!

Now for the truly shocking part.  We drive by this every single day, everyday, many times each day, ev.er.y.DAY...and I have NEVER stopped for my kids to ride on this cool, cool, cool contraption. I'm kind of beside myself here. But today, I needed to wait for the taco seasoning to drive by me (if someone figures out what that means, I'd LOVE to know, haha) so I had to park the car in this area, and low and behold after 10 years of living here two of our kids rode this cool merry go round.

I mean, are you serious? Never????

What kind of mother have I been???

 . . . I'm a little scared to ask the big kids if actually they have ridden this merry go round and yes, in fact, I had taken them there before...the ol' memory and all ya know...

The big three were all at Cross Country practice this afternoon.  Yes, even the hockey player. The high school team is the real deal, five days of practice and all (L's first meet is tomorrow since she joined late and then went to Cedar Point last weekend, and now there's a threat of cancellation due to possible 97 degree temps...she doesn't have confirmation on that yet, just some iPod chatter before bed tonight (-:), but the lower school only has two days a week.  Thought that would be perfect conditioning for a hockey player and a soon to be, first time on the school team come November, basketball player.  There's also the bonus of two days a week they don't come home and sit in my house wondering what to do, heehee...

Tonight was bubbles . . .

 Lots and lots of . . . 

 BUBBLES!

 Peek a Boo . . . 

Where are you?

 Then big sis got in the action . . . 

 Oh, what fun was had!

Here he is catching sight of himself in the mirror.

Shower time!

I was the only adult home tonight, I may have lost my marbles. They wanted bubbles, then they wanted the jets on, oh boy. They sure better remember me as the fun mom!!!

 . . . 

Although, by bedtime, I don't know, ha!

Today, I continued to work on litter training a bunny.

I can GUARANTEE my future self is really, really going to thank me for that!!!!

Benny sure is sweet but he isn't on the "1 day" side of the "litter trained in anywhere from 1 day to two weeks."

(-:

It is 12:42p.m. . . .

And I have three boys home sick from school.

And a three and three-quarters year old with a stuffy nose.

And I have a sore throat that will NOT progress any further.

And I have done absolutely not ONE THING productive thus far.

So . . . how 'bout a little laugh?

It is now 12:44p.m. and I am going to go make the chicken noodle soup that I tried to get to yesterday for the one boy who was home sick.  Now that we're up to three it's time to get serious!!

(-:

Sun Up.

Sun Down.

Done!

Ok, fine...

 This boy also got his game face on (well, actually that might be the face of a new second grader who is just darn tired and catching a wee bit of a cold), to follow through with having signed up to try hockey for an hour at a local arena where a "major junior hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League" plays. 

He passed pucks back and forth with his buddy for about 30 minutes straight.

Then they let 'im loose!

His big hockey partner said he had a really good shot, "I mean really good" he said. (-:

If you're looking for someone to grow you some . . .

Parsnip greens . . . I'm your gal!

If you're looking for someone to grow you some . . . 

Parsnips . . . Um, not so much!

Just bizarre. In the garden I have two and a half foot stalks of beautiful, leafy greens hanging out above these deformed, little roots.  I did manage to cut what I could find of these roots into my "all garden grown" veggie roast tonight, but they were very woodsy and unsatisfying.  I was however satisfied with everything I found to put in my roast; beets, zucchini, tomatoes (both green and red...and OH, were the green tomatoes AWESOME roasted), lame parsnips, taragon and thyme (with olive oil, kosher and sea salt, and pepper).  Oh my goodness was that a treat.

So, I googled around a bit tonight to see if I could, or how I might, prepare parsnip greens.  Glad I didn't just sauté them up with a little garlic and olive oil, some people say they're toxic and one lady even said the juice from the leaves of semi-wild parsnips (yes, semi-wild, let's just move on...), left small burn type things on her skin that eventually blistered and scarred.  WELL GUESS WHAT?  I got something exactly like that, from out of no where a couple weeks ago and when I try to put two and two together, I think that's when I picked my first parsnip of the season!!!  Say what??  The lesion things ended up looking exactly like poison ivy without the extremely horrible itch.  So, tomorrow I dump the huge clump of parsnip greens I have sitting lovingly in a vase of water in my kitchen awaiting preparation of some sort.  

I anyone hears otherwise about eating parsnip greens, come on over and pick 'em, got a whole bunch out back!

(-:

Let's Leap into Fall, Shall We? . . .

First they leapt from the left side (with a multitude of, "Oops, didn't mean to push ya"'s), then they leapt from the right side (yep, with a multitude of the same! (-:), then I just said, "Jump from the front and I'll turn around quick"...ONE SHOT is all it took, PERFECT!

After we leap into Fall, we'll do our best to stay "balanced" with all the new schedules.

(-:

There may be hard decisions to make with the new school year. But for today, the number one question was...who gets this last brownie???

 These two loves (for the moment) decided to split it!

Though the gal could be clearly heard uttering, "I get the bigger half!"

(-:

And, ya know summer's over when the whale's dragged in!

So that's that. End of another great year at the lake (missed Lara there today, she spent time with her cousins).  Looking forward to the year to come and then, BOOM, being right back at the lake next summer!

I mean...COME ON!!!

 Even William's first spelling test of the year was telling us to do it!

(-:

So, we did!

Awww...that girl is absolutely in LOVE with that bunny. The bunny?  He did pretty well tolerating for a bit, then those back legs started thumping a little, "get me outta here" action.  He's all tucked into a little travel crate tonight and moves to his condo tomorrow (old dog crate..."Thanks!" BM (-:).  So far the kids seem convinced we have to keep the floor absolutely spotless, lest Benny choke on a lego and DIE (yes, as a matter of fact I might have emphasized the word DIE when discussing the situation) and one kid even won't stop whispering everything since I might have mentioned that Benny could be startled by loud, yelling-like noises...might make him a little twitchy and scared. Even I (not sure why, but...) tried to tell him he didn't have to whisper every word, I mean...did you hear the people at the fair after all? (-:

Welcome, Benny the Bunny!