Summer Things

Call me Judy Moody, but this has been a bummer summer. School got out mid-June, then we spent all of July going to various doctors offices and hospitals for all our issues, and of course the insurance company had to go and deny several of the claims, then we were gone for most of August and it wasn't a fun trip, especially the week when we were in Kronenwetter by ourselves and the one day it didn't rain, the car wouldn't start. By the time we got home, school was starting in a few days and that week, we had an emergency water heater replacement. And now, our car is making a funny sound and our "emergency fund" is drained. Needless to say, I am happy to put this summer behind me.

                                     

Dad's not the only person who got Lyme disease this summer.

Andrew slept like this several times on the way to South Dakota.        

Lauren thinks Meghan is her cutest cousin.

                                   

We did, however, manage a few fun/interesting things this summer despite all the madness.

I started doing "school" with the kids. We would focus on one letter each day, we'd talk about words that start with or contain that letter, Lauren would practice writing it in uppercase and lowercase, and I printed off these letter pictures for them to color. I thought I would do it a couple times a week, but they demanded it everyday, so I sucked it up and did it every day.  We displayed the pictures on the wall, but now that we're through with the alphabet I think we'll make them into a book.

I also started reading chapter books to Lauren at night (Andrew listens too). We started with Mr. Popper's Penguins, then went through Little House in the Big Woods, Stuart Little, and are now on Ramona the Pest. Lauren very much enjoys it and I also enjoy revisiting some old favorites.

We went blueberry picking. It was fun and the blueberries were only $3 a pound.

                                     

                                     

Very few blueberries made it into Andrew's pail. Do his teeth look blue?

                                     
I was the only one who didn't sample the blueberries before we paid for them.

                                      
We enjoyed participating in  BYU50, even though we didn't win. The box was actually pretty close to where we were, but it was inconvenient to get to it (typical Boston).

                                      
We had a long layover in Minneapolis on our way to Wausau, so we took the shuttle over to the Mall of America for a bit.

I miss the free entertainment.

                                   

We planted our garden in an existing bed on the south side of the house. We didn't really know what we were doing, but it did quite well, especially considering that I was away for the most productive part. We had a good number of cucumbers, zucchini/summer squash, peppers that nobody would eat, and a lot of roma and cherry tomatoes. Next year, we will plant fewer and a different variety of tomatoes; the same amount of cucurbits, but I will be more vigilant about taking care of them and protecting them from powdery mildew; peppers that we will actually eat, like bell peppers; maybe some winter squash, and I would like to try my hand at broccoli and cauliflower. We'll probably add a couple of raised beds in the one sunny patch in the back yard.

This plant popped up in a bare patch in the front yard and did better than any of our other squash plants. I just noticed another one coming on, then it will probably die.

It has been nice to just walk outside for a side dish, or the main dish itself.

Lauren started school and we are all happy about it, although I'm not sure about Andrew. He spends most of the time she is gone asking if it's time to go pick up Sissy from the too buh.