blogging.....

I know I haven't been the greatest blogger over the past few months. Like many others Facebook was what seemed to keep me occupied the most and it was nice just adding little 'status reports' instead of having to think of something longer to post about. But I go through phases, as do we all, and I'm now starting to blog again more. Mainly because my sister (who just visited) isn't on Facebook and she loves reading my blog :-) but also because I've made a lot of bloggy friends out there and I don't want to lose touch with them.

Darylynn mentioned the other day (her post dated June 25th) that she would hate to see a demise in blogging. There's no denying Facebook is fun, that's why I still use it, but I agree with D when she says , "there is just not the creativity or the depth of getting to know people on those sites that there is with blogging"

I remember too how excited I was when I first started blogging, getting to make new friends and over the years, becoming very close to some of them. I would smile every time I had a new comment even if it was from someone I'd never met in blogland before. I would eagerly return the visit to their blog and say hi. This week I decided I needed to get back to visiting my 'bloggy friends' and I went through my reads list in my right hand menu. I have added those reads to my 'blogfeed' on blogger. It automatically tells me when you have updated. Some were old links and I will have to search around to get the new url's I think (if indeed they are still blogging?). The 3 names you still see under 'blogging friends' over to the right are the blogs that won't let me add them to blogger. I don't' want to lose touch with you gals, so I left your names there so I can click on them every day to see if you've updated your blogs :-)

I honestly think there is a demise in blogging right now, but who am I to comment when I've been so lax in updating in the past few months. I've always said too that you should never feel like you 'HAVE' to blog if you don't feel like it. There are certainly lots of other blogs out there for the reading, and there are many more new friends to make in bloggyland.

Today though I just want to say, if you've been reading my blog for some time now, I consider you a very dear friend. Thank you for 'not losing touch with me' even when I didn't blog often. And if you are new to reading my blog, then leave me a comment - say "hi" and let me know if you have a blog I can come visit too :-)

Have a blessed day.

A busy (but fun) weekend

After picking our 'harvest' on Saturday Jason and I spent a fair bit of time in the kitchen trying to cook things and 'experiment' with our zucchini and spaghetti squash! I was right about the squash, it was rather under-ripe and quite hard to cut in to it, but we did manage. I set about cooking it the usual way, by cutting it in half, placing on a baking sheet and baking it in the oven til soft. Then you are supposed to just scrape out the flesh and it comes out all stringy. Not so the case with ours.... I baked one half just upside down on the sheet (that one was mine), Jason wanted his wrapped in foil and loaded with butter, salt and pepper. Here they are below (Jason's has the stalk still on and I wrapped it in foil after taking the pic).

I cooked them for over an hour and here they are out of the oven....

That's my half you can see on the sheet pan, Jason's is still wrapped in foil. I think because it wasn't ripe is why it didn't come out stringy. All in all it tasted good but didn't have the stringy consistency, instead it was just soft squash, almost as if you'd mashed it.

Here's Jason's half after I took off the foil, you can see it's filled with the melted butter inside (not my idea of healthy eating!).

We also tried cooking our chili peppers. Jason found a recipe for stuffed jalapenos so used that recipe even though our peppers were a different variety.


We stuffed them with cream cheese, cheddar cheese and a dash of Worcester sauce like the recipe said, then you added crumbled crispy bacon on top. These turned out ok but we boiled the peppers first (as the recipe said) and found the peppers weren't spicy at all afterward. They were also a little too soft for my liking, but the cheese filling was yummy :-)

On Sunday Kristen and I went to church, and Jason stayed home and 'played' in his Farm! When we came back I made a yummy spinach salad for lunch then later went up to the gym with my neighbor Cheryl. What a difference having a friend with you makes. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical and then Cheryl and I did some upper body weights. It was so motivational having someone stand next to you, counting along with you. I feel like I have a personal trainer again and hope to get up to the gym with Cheryl more often.

Today is forecast to be hot again, so after I've done some housework I'll be taking Kristen around to the pool for an hour.

Daily Harvest

Warning: if gardening news bores you, please click your back button and go read another blog!

Just kidding :-) I know most of you who read this like to see what's going on in our little back yard. So this morning we went out to the Farm and harvested some stuff. Right now we get green beans and zucchini on a daily basis, but today we also decided we would harvest one of the spaghetti squash that seems to have finally turned from green to yellow. We aren't totally sure if it's completely ripe but we thought we'd give it a try because it seems to have been in this state for over a week now and not changing much at all. There is another squash on this plant so we'll let that one go a little longer. So here's our bounty from this morning. . . . .

We have 2 zucchini, and to the right of those two is one pickling cucumber, then we have some chili peppers, and a serving of green beans. You can also see the spaghetti squash (the big yellow thing) and to the left of that above the basket is another 'green' zucchini that I found this morning - yet another one that has been hiding itself from me. I doubt he'll taste very good at that size but we may try to get seeds from it for next year?

Thought I'd also share a before and after picture of our sunflower. I never got to post this picture last week (actually it's less than a week, I took this first picture just on Monday before my sister left). Here's Jason standing next to the one sunflower we have out there. (and the reason there's only one is because he noticed this tiny little plant weeks ago and figured it was a sunflower growing from seed from some he had planted the year before when our garden didn't do so well). Well this one was doing well. . . .

He has a metal pole in the middle of it now helping to keep it up. If you click on the picture you will see the metal pole sticking out of the top. And Jason is indicating the top of the flower with his hand.

Here's the sunflower this morning- just 6 days later. . . .

and again Jason is pointing to the top of the flower. Amazing isn't it. It's growing so fast. Right now there is a little flower bud atop all those leaves, and we can't wait to see it get bigger and open. And that thing really does follower the Sun. In the morning it's head is tilted toward our house, and by evening he's tipped his head the other way and is watching the sun as it sets on the horizon.

Other news - on our agenda today, I'm taking Kristen to a pool birthday party at 12 (til 2) then I might try to go up to the gym later this afternoon, or not! I am aching just a little from my stint from yesterday and I want to go again tomorrow afternoon with my neighbor, so I don't know if I should just take a rest day today? I'll decide later, depending on how I feel. Jason will no doubt be working in his home office until 8pm, when he'll be out in the garden again as the sun is setting. It's too hot to be out there before that. Hope you all have a lovely Saturday (and sorry this post got so long)!

Everything's BIGGER in Texas!

I've mentioned before that we have a few different squash growing in our garden. The main ones doing really well right now are the zucchini. We have two different types growing. I'm not sure of their names, but one variety seems to be the common green ones you find in your stores and the other one has a more stripey green skin (almost like a watermelon). I commented to Jason last week that this other variety didn't seem to be putting out much 'fruit'. We keep harvesting the green ones every day and I've made zucchini bread with them and also a zucchini cornbread casserole (I didn't blog about them at the time cos my sis was here and I just couldn't find the time).

Well imagine my surprise the other day when I went looking for zucchini and I found not one but two HUGE ones in the stripey variety. They have obviously been camouflaging themselves and because I hadn't seen them I hadn't harvested them. Jason was away in Denver at the time but I knew he'd be amazed when he saw them. Of course I had to get pictures.......

Yes, seriously, THAT is a zucchini you see and not a skinny watermelon! Kristen wanted you to see the length in comparison to her head!

and just for some real scale, here they are with a 'normal' green zucchini I harvested that morning too....

I think it's safe to say there's no 'black thumbs' around here ;-)

It's so quiet around here (sigh)!

Jason left for Denver yesterday and last night was one of the quietest I've had in a long while. Especially after having my sister and brother-in-law here for the past two weeks. I'm not saying they were noisy, it was just wonderful that the house was so full of love and laughter. Kristen was playing next door a lot last night and once it cooled down the kids were playing outside til after 8pm, and what with Jason gone..... well let's just say it was a little lonely for me :-/

But anyway, life goes on...... so I thought I should get back to regular blogging and give you a little update on 'the Farm' (which we still haven't named but just keep referring to it as 'The Farm'!). There are some new houses going up behind us and the other day we went over there once the workmen had left and took a quick look around. I was amazed when I looked out of the upstairs game room in the only two storey house over there and saw a birds-eye view of our back yard.... it looked HUGE! The next day the workmen weren't there, so I sent Jason over with the camera and told him to go take pictures (before someone moved in there). Here's what he saw......

You should click on the pictures to see them larger (and you'll see me and George on the back porch) ;-)

See that big patch of green grass in the picture above... we are seriously considering getting a pool in there for next year. We've hesitated until now because we think adding a pool might price us out of the neighborhood and we know if we ever need to move we would not get our money back when we sell. BUT.... let's just say after a week of nearly triple digits (and it's only June) we are starting to reconsider. The way we see it now, we don't have plans to move from here unless 1) Jason has made LOTs of money on the company he has part ownership in (and we wouldn't care so much if we didn't make a huge profit on this house) or 2) our wonderful neighbors moved out and 'crack-heads' moved in (and again, I'd be out of here so fast I wouldn't care if I lost money on the house!). So with those thoughts we may seriously call a few pool companies in the fall and have them come out and 'battle' for the job ;-)

The 'Farm' is coming along nicely, we've been harvesting lots of zucchini and green beans and patiently waiting for the spaghetti squash to ripen. We've even got a jack o lantern pumpkin growing which would be great to carve come October :-) Jason is out there every night and is loving it. He's been taking a ton of photos too so I'll try to share some over the next few days. I'll leave you with a picture of me, showing off our very first plate of cooked green beans.... and they were delicious :-)

Missing you already!

Hi Nenna and Horhay!

If you're reading this you should be home safe and sound now. I hope your flights went well and you didn't have any delays. The past two weeks have been awesome and I know you both had a great time too. I just hope we don't have to wait too many years before we see you again.

It's 4pm Monday as I type this and you should be just taking off from Houston heading for Paris. Let me know when you're home either by email or leaving a comment here. The house is so quiet right now. Jason went in to work and Kristen just went over to Connor's. There's only me and Boo here (and he doesn't say much)!

Off to do more laundry. Sending much love and hugs to you all
xxxxxx

Fun Pictures

I've been posting some pictures on Facebook, but for my big Sis and anyone else who isn't on Facebook, here are some photos from my sister's visit so far.

Here we are at the Oasis restaurant on Lake Travis..



The Alamo, San Antonio...
Shopping in San Antonio's 'Market Place'....
The Riverwalk, San Antonio...
Having fun in the back yard - George playing on Kristen's new water slide...


Fun at the pool....
Fun in the sun can wear you out!!!!

3 days and counting....

Seriously, I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas, waiting for my sister and bil to arrive. I can't believe they'll be here in just 4 days. Monday seems so far away, like it'll never get here, but we all know how quickly the weekends usually go, so it won't be long now!

In the meantime, we have the last day of school to look forward to :-) Yesterday I went to Kristen's 'award ceremony'. We're so proud of our Kiki. This year she made the Honor Roll, achieving ALL A's in her tests (which doesn't start until the 2nd grade). I thought the honor roll was when you got just all A's, but they also had an A and B Honor Roll?! Kristen also got an award for 100% attendance this year, which is pretty rare considering a lot of kids get sick during the winter time. And she got an award for 'Concern For Others', one of the school's ethical principles (as did all the kids, for different reasons of course).

Here she is with her certificates (looks like she only has one cos she held them all together!)....

and with her teacher Mrs. Cochran....

The Farmer's in her DEN... and other news!

I've just spent the most wonderful weekend with my best buddy Sue and her hubby Doug. Sadly I have no photos to share just yet because I didn't even pick my camera up while they were here! I know, lazy of me, but I was kinda too busy looking after my guests, and Sue of course was snapping away with her camera so I have asked her to send me the pics when she gets them uploaded.

Of course their visit went by WAY too quickly. They arrived on Saturday afternoon. I'd been looking out the window every 2 minutes wanting to rush out and meet them as they pulled up, but I miss timed it. I had gone back in to the kitchen, was doing something for Kristen ... and the door bell rang! "They're here" Kristen shouted :-) Hugs all around and then we never stopped chatting for the next two days ;-) Sue, I miss you already but I am so thankful that God has brought us together and has blessed us with yet another visit with each other. I can't tell you enough how thankful I am that you are a part of my life, what a blessing both you and Doug are to all 3 of us (well 4 if you include Boo) ;-)

And now, I only have one week to wait before my sister and bil arrive. Despite still cleaning up around the house for them coming we're still making time to 'play' down on the farm. Wanna see how things are coming along?

OK, first up, here's a view of 'the farm' (we're still working on a name for it) looking at it from the house....

and below is a view from the opposite side, looking toward the house ...


Pinto Beans, coming along nicely (below) ....


and here's the 'squash bed'. There's lots of different types in here, mostly zucchini, (they are the tall ones at the back) some spaghetti squash, butternut squash and acorn squash.

My finger in this picture is touching the tip of a flower (see the arrow in yellow), and the red arrow is pointing to the start of the zucchini.




Remember the spaghetti squash I bought as a plant from the grocery store? Actually forget that question, I just looked back over my posts and realize I didn't show a picture of it... well here is the plant on May 10th...


and here's how it's looking today, less than a month later....

Yes, honestly, that is the same plant! We've had a couple of pretty orange flowers that have just opened up then died and fallen off, but here's a close up of a new flower, and I think that 'bulb' shape right below it may actually be the start of the squash (fingers crossed)!

Oh, and look.... a tomato!

Exciting stuff, don't ya think? That's all for now folks! (gosh I hope I didn't bore you with all those photos?!)