A VERY BUSY SUMMER...PART TWO

SO…How was YOUR summer?



The season seems to go SO fast!...At least here in the four-seasons’ country…

I hope at least...

You made time for fun…





Were able to slow down...



That you took time to contemplate...





To sit a spell...



To figure out the pieces of your life...



I hope that you made time to enjoy the companionship of family...



Even if the children were tired...;)





SOME HAPPENINGS IN MY SUMMER…PART TWO



PUTTING MY DOG DOWN…

I had to put Hercules down on July 25…

That is never an easy thing to do, especially after I waited so long for the little guy...

But, as we all know…

Life isn’t always easy…



MANY MANY HOURS AT WORK...
.
.
.
MANY LONG HOURS WITHOUT SLEEP…

Because I work nights and also work some days...

The last several weeks have been very busy…

Trying to organize my schedule!

I just finished 80 hours with only 2 hours and 45 minutes of sleep…:/

But, it will be better from here on out, I am sure...:0)

It must!

Otherwise...

You know what they say...

Work your fingers to the bone...

Whada Ya Get???



Bony fingers! Ha Ha!



A SAYING THAT I LIKE…

"I hate when people punch my abs, and they break their hand."



Ha Ha Ha! Now, I only wish it were true!



AN ONGOING CHALLENGE…



For quite a few years now…

Nine to be exact…

I have wanted to return to school...



The Lord has closed those doors to me, in a very real way. I know that He has a plan, but it has been very hard to have the faith that I need to have. If I can’t go back to school to either change and/or better myself for my professions, I would love to be a full-time homemaker…

My home is where my heart REALLY and TRULY is at…It is in my every fiber, and I must admit that I get jealous of the ladies who are privileged to stay home…

Jealousy is not good, I know…I do hope that they realize their great blessing, though.

I really need to get stronger and have more faith….

And…That is what I am working on. :0)



HERBS!...

I have so been enjoying watching my beautiful organic herbs grow! I love them! I didn’t cut them back near enough (was having too much fun watching them get big ;) but am drying some for later cooking.



These mint leaves are from a plant that my daughter sowed last year…The plant is huge!



I planted both regular and garlic chives…



I guess I wasn’t thinking when I planted all of the herbs in an above-the-ground box rather than in the soil…

Likely they won’t winter over…



So, I am going to try bringing them inside…We’ll see what happens.

Lemon Basil…

AND...

Lavender…



A NEW CELLAR DOOR…

The old one was…Well…Old…

DH did such an awesome job in fabricating this new metal-framed door to take the place of the worn out wooden one. The guys then riveted steel over the frame for a super sturdy door!



MY BOY ACHIEVED HIS BLACK BELT!

With all of the worry about getting video footage for him to review, I didn’t get one still-shot! I can’t actually believe that! I am Mrs. Takes-Pictures-of-Everything!

Anyway…Is this one proud mama? Uh Huh! Elliott’s instructor said that he was one of the fastest ever to go from white to black belt (gloat…;)



A plus for me is that I’m able to learn a little bit here and there, which can really come in handy at work.

DB has a great advantage in that he doesn’t LOOK like he could hurt anyone...

He doesn't have the Arnold look...

Or...

The...

Ape look...



He’s tall, lean, and unassuming. A fourth-degree gentleman that he trains with has the same type of frame. But, don't let outside appearances fool...

They can pack a wallop!

Elliott actually received two Blacks that day…

AND…

I was about three feet from him when he broke the cinder-block slabs…Oh yeah!



YUP…One DOUBLE-PROUD MAMA here!



CHERISH YOUR FAMILY, MY FRIENDS…



We never know...

How long...

They will dwell upon this Earth…

HAVE A PRODUCTIVE WEEK...(And bless someone while you're at it;)

SPRING-TIME PLANTING, AND NONE TOO SOON

Ahhh…The life of a dog!



Well, it finally stopped raining long enough to work in the flower beds!…It has been a soggy week or two.

Here are before pictures of my poor little unkempt beds...







These are two of the chocolate plants that my daughter planted last year.

She planted six total, and the dogs got three...

At least I have three left, as they smell SO yummy!



This sad little front bed has never had much fruition...

Because of the tree cover, it barely gets any sun at all. Each year, I try new plants but haven’t had much luck with anything. It seems like every variety needs at least part sun.

As you can see, only one of my hostas out of three survived, and it never gets very big. The peony is about all that comes back every year, but it hasn’t bloomed in about three years. That may be because of the tree beetles that we fight each summer; I’m not sure.



I was able to get everything in the ground today, and Monday I will pretty it up and post after-pictures.

I topped off my day at DQ and ice cream with the little people...

They had fun, but boy were they wild after that sugar! Mama doesn’t give them much sugar at all and is always sorry when she does. Luckily, it was bedtime as soon as they got home.



I pray that you all have a good day of rest tomorrow...:0)

THE SEASON'S CHALLENGES

I don’t recall whether or not I have written about the coming season and my feelings toward it…If I have, please bear with me…

First of all, I would like to thank anyone who takes the time to read my ramblings…I appreciate the take you take to stop by and visit…

I pray that you may find peace in life as you go through each day, and I hope that I may inspire you, in some small way, as I am inspired by my friends in blog land…

For isn’t that why we are all here…To help one another…?

Back to the new season…

SPRING…

It is such a beautiful fresh time of year!



At the same time…I feel very overwhelmed.

One of the biggest challenges in my life is SUCCESSFULLY melding work outside of home with work at home…

Thus, the Organizational Challenge that I am accomplishing this year…

So, as I consider both of those (work outside and work at home) full-time jobs, it’s a lot of work…And, now I am forced to add another job…The Yard!



While Hubby takes care of all of the mowing and weed eating and shares in the watering, I still put a lot of hours into watering (we have poor soil) and also have flower beds to tend to and a small garden to grow, weed, and care for…

I shouldn’t complain, as we DO NOT have a large or extravagant yard…But…

Each year, I spend quite a bit of money on flowers that die…One bed is on the West and right against the house, so it is like an oven that is constantly on broil…The other bed is on the North AND in the shade of two trees, so I struggle with getting plants to grow there as well…

On top of that, one of the trees on that side of the house has beetles that come each year and eat everything in sight…We keep trying to control them, but have never been successful in eradicating them…

Each year, it’s the stress of trial and error as far as which plants to buy and which pest controllers to use…Nothing is plain and simple maintenance…

And…

Bob Dog likes to run THROUGH the flower beds, eat plants, AND dig holes… :/ He also joys in hopping into the container gardens, eating the plants, and pulling out the dividers… :/



This causes the stress of deciding how to alleviate these issues, which kind of fencing to use (if I decide to go that route), and how to keep it from looking junky…

All of this takes a lot of time…



“Is it really worth it?”, I ask myself? “How can I streamline it, and is there anything I can cut out or am WILLING to cut out? (I tend to be an I-want-to-do-it-all person…Not always good).

And so…while my PLAN is not yet formulated, I am definitely going to MAKE one before the season fully upon me…

I am always open to other's thoughts if you have something that works for you...



Otherwise, I will stress myself out, and who needs more stress, right? ;)

THE HOMEMADE SOUP ITCH

No, these are not my happy little tomatoes. Mine got eaten up too quickly, so I had to borrow pictures... ;)

It was so chilly yesterday, that the homemade soup itch got me! Happens every year right about this time...I love homemade soups in the Fall and Winter...



DH was given some garden tomatoes and potatos from someone at work, and since the weather had turned, and the tomatoes needed processing, what a better way to put them to use!



So, we washed the tomatoes...



And we stewed the tomatoes...



And we made a beautiful chunky cream of tomatoe soup...Mmmmm...Mmmm...Good!



Next up is homemade potato soup! Hearty eating to you all this chilly Fall!