The Summer in Pictures: Day 39

July 9

Today we made strawberry freezer jam.

It was fun.

Kinda.

Ok....it was as fun as making strawberry freezer jam with three over eager kids can be. That's a fair statement.

Anyway, it's just another product of our tardy backyard garden this year. Back on June 2nd, I went to great lengths to make you understand the nature of the backyard we inherited when we bought the house. We have slowly been making it our own, complete with gorgeous raised garden boxes built painstakingly by Skippy. We've still got a long way to go but this year we have managed to cultivate and plant our strawberry bed, our transplanted raspberries, three kinds of tomatoes and four kinds of peppers, plus cucumbers and the cantaloupe that Banana has grown from a seed she begged off of the cutting board one sunny Saturday morning.

It's a start. And our efforts are paying off. So far this year we have already used our peppers in chili, our raspberries and strawberries in countless smoothies (not to mention the ones that go straight into the kids' mouths!) and then today we supplemented our store-bought strawberries with more from the patch in the backyard to make our jam.

The kids have so much fun growing things and then seeing how they are used.

I have so much fun watching them.

Life is good.

The Summer in Pictures: Day 36

July 6

K bear this morning: "Mom can I go get a cherry?"

Me: "You can go get one, K. They are going to start picking this week."

I quite clearly said ONE cherry. I mean, we have permission to pick from the folks who own the orchard, but only after the hired field workers are done. That being said, I didn't think that letting my seven year old preview the crop with one cherry would make or break the season. And when there are literally thousands of trees within six feet of your property line, they are hard to resist.

But apparently, this is what "one" cherry looks like to K. I can't tell if that's one handful or one branch, but it's definitely what one little girl can carry in one sweater.

So coming soon to a grocery store near you...fresh Oregon cherries...at least the ones that didn't go into my kid.

The Summer in Pictures: Day 34

My mother-in-law blessedly took all three children to Bend to see my sister-in-law's family for the holiday.

There are pictures somewhere. I'll track them down.

I worked 43 hours in four days. When I wasn't upright in the chair at work, I was horizontal in bed. I barely even saw Skippy.

So anyway, the blog went on a small holiday hiatus. Hopefully I can hijack some pictures from their weekend from Grammy and get them up!

The Summer in Pictures: Day 32

July 2nd

Shit.

Now obviously it's not the best picture. I didn't have the good camera handy so I took with my iPhone. And I was alternating between laughing until I peed and scolding the kid.

Would you look at him?

I mean.....seriously......it's less than ten minutes from the ice cream place to our house. How did he DO that?

I even asked for the ice cream in a cup specifically so that he wouldn't make the mess he would if I had gotten him a cone.

Look at that face. And he has the nerve to LAUGH!

Look at his hands.....his arm.

Look at his shirt.

It's on the side of the car for God's sake.

And it's dripping down the seat belt.

Good lord. I think a bath is in order, or at the very lease a soaking with the garden hose.

Boys.

The Summer in Pictures: Day 31

July 1

Look at my gorgeous girl, already home from camp.

Remember my overly emotional post from a few days ago? The one that shows Miss K all set up on her bunk bed? The one where I was all worried about leaving her?

Yeah. That was groundless. After she threw herself into my arms this morning I asked the key question: "How was camp, K?"

The answer, in her words: "AWESOME. Can I go back next year?"

Why on earth do I worry so much?