Garden Woes

Our garden was a total bust this year.  No cucumbers.  Five tomatoes. A handful of green beans and limas.  Oh and a couple of servings of lettuce and spinach.  No zuchinni, no peppers of any kind, and watermelons and cantaloupes that didn't ripen.

 

Look how sad this is. 

I was so disappointed that I didn't even take many pictures.  I'm not sure what happened this time around but I am seriously thinking of going back to the old row planting.  Not sure how we'll handle the moles/voles whatever they are, but this square thing isn't working for me.  I'm sure it works, I've seen other gardeners who use it, but I can't get it right.  I want to not only be able to provide food for my family during the growing season, but also be able to freeze or can items for future use.  I am so envious of the other gardeners I see or read that have been able to do this.

~R

He said, He said

We have a new little girl living in our cul-de-sac.  It doesn't bother her at all that only boys live around these parts.  Pete came in from playing the other day and said, "Girl are too hard to play with.  They're so bossy." 

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We had our annual termite inspection done on the house and we had the bug guy take care of the ants by the back door.  He let me know that while under our house, he came across a snake skin and it wasn't a black snake.  He believes it was from a water moccasin (we live on the water) and he laid the skin just inside the crawl space door to warn anyone entering to be careful and look for snakes.  Pete and RePete speculated on what other type snakes it could have been (BN had to kill one recently and the fascination with snakes is high right now) and RePete asked, "Do you think it was a black mama?"  He meant mamba.  

I burned water

 I've said for years that I wanted a personal chef.  I think this is proof that I require one.  I forgot that I put water on the stove to boil.

I've heard people use the expression that they are so bad at cooking they burn water.  I've officially done it.  I'm that bad. 

I wonder if my pan is safe to use.  It was actually smoking. This is a comparison of what my sauce pans usually look like and what happened with the water incident.

~R

D = 33

The other day, Karmyn commented on my blog post about schedules that she was disorganized and couldn't get her chaos under control. 

I've decided that since I turned 40, I am always in some stage of discombobulation.  In fact, I should probably start each post with my number.  You know, like a sleep number, only mine would tell my discombobulation number.

Today...not so bad.  I managed to get everyone up, get to the soccer field on time, clean bathrooms, clean carpets and now I'm settled in for a relaxing night.

~R

DonnaYoung.org Schedules

I started keeping our schedule on a form that I found on DonnaYoung.org and it has worked great except that it makes me think in weeks instead of days.  If we have a holiday or an impromptu visit from family or friends and we miss a day of our "week", then I get all discombobulated.

I then have to add that day to the next week but since we can only school four days during the week, it leaves me having to double up or skipping, or moving that last day to the next week and it's like bowling pins falling one after the other.  At some point we knock them all out, but it takes time.  And I'm frazzled.  

And slightly crazy.

I could save myself the frustration by using a weekend day to complete the work or the evening of that missed day, but those times are sacred to us as a family.  And even though I like to consider myself a hip homeschooler and an outside the box thinker, in reality, I like the inside of the box.

So I need to do something else.  I think it will be as simple as erasing the days of the week from the top of the page and just doing the next day.  Technically, I already do that, but seeing that Monday, Tuesday... at the top of the page really makes me crazy when it's Monday and we are doing Thursdays work!

Now where's my whiteout?  Do they even sell it anymore?

~R

New Laptop

I got a new laptop.  RePete broke my old one a few years ago and I just couldn't justify buying another - although I pined for one.

This year I decided I could justify it.  My photos are taking up all the available space on our home computer.  Add Pete's *films to the gigabytes* have officially overloaded the Mac.

Between being able to move my photos here and having the mobility to work on them while the kids are in co-op and being able to bring school work with us, I bought one.  What I couldn't justify was the price of a new Mac, so it's old school for me.  Windows?  I am having to reteach myself what that means.  Are they still called IBM compatibles?  Mine is a Sony VAIO.

I miss the Mac. I miss my comfort level and I don't like that every time I turn this thing on or off, updates have to load before either happens.  What happened between yesterday and today that is so important that it just has to be uploaded?  You'd think that as long as Windows has been out, it'd be a done deal by now.  I can't figure it out.

The other learning curve is that I no longer have Adobe Bridge.  I use it on the Mac to organize my photos.  It was left over from when I had PhotoShop CS3.  Now I use Elements because I just don't need all the bells and whistles on PS.

Elements 9 has its own organizer and while I like it, it has bugs, I think.  Every so often it quits on me.  Or is it Windows fault?  I have no clue.  My technologically challenged brain can't comprehend these happenings.

Which begs an answer to why I think I can scrapbook on the computer?  Circle cutters anyone?

~R

Fall

I love this time of year.  I love that the heat will simmer down.  I love that nature turns on the colorvision and I love that school starts.

Even though my kids don't hop on a yellow bus and leave me at home, we do get back into a routine, or more like a rhythm.  Our co-op starts.  Soccer and bowling leagues start.  We participate in homeschool days at local sites and of course we "do school" each day.

We started our bookwork about five weeks ago and this week I decided to take off.  We had a pool party with our co-op today and tomorrow we leave to visit family and I figured we'd just enjoy this last week of summer without school.

That turned out to be a mistake.  My natives are restless and I am so glad this week is over.  It's really put a damper on things having the squabbling start back up.  I've found that keeping them busy prevents most of the fussing.  Bored kids don't have time to fight.

Their future looks to be VERY busy.

~R