lately

Well, I can't get any pictures to load! I haven't posted in a while, the summer feels so busy, but in a good way! So, what have we been up to lately?

The garden- Our black hollyhock finally bloomed! Kylan started it from seed 2 summers ago, it's 'his' hollyhock, and we were both so excited, I'll post a picture once I can. It's really more dark purple, but it's so pretty! Harvested lots of zucchini, cucumbers, cabbage, garlic, onion, lettuce, chard, peas, bean, strawberries, blackberries. We harvested our first little batch of corn. Our winter squash is doing great!! We planted sugar pie pumpkins, spaghetti squash and kuri (sp?) squash. Lots of green tomatoes, but still impatiently waiting:)

The chickens- Well Sukey ended up being a rooster:( I wish we could have kept him, but Geoff dropped him off at a small farm this morning. So we have 4 hens, their coop and yard is built, but needs some finishing work, I'll post pictures later.

The Kids- Kylan got his own room. Basically. Its a small 7' by 9' room that was their playroom. He loves it and spends a lot of time in there although he still sleeps with us, which is fine, but when he's ready he has his own little space:) Evie would be doing great if he would just quit falling and bumping his head!

In the kitchen-I've been cooking like crazy! I did a 10 day juice fast last month, I was hoping to do it longer, but after a few unexpected expenses came up our budget it super tight. When ever we are this short on money I go into a cooking cooking frenzy. I just want to have plenty of food made so we won't spend money out!! So I've been baking our bread, making tortillas, homemade granola, black bean veggie burgers...I've had no problem using up all our zucchini...souffles, egg bakes, grated in sauces, grated in bean tacos, blackberry zucchini muffins, chocolate chip zucchini muffins... with cucumbers I make 'quick pickles' and yogurt cucumber dip. I made my first batch of kimchi, coleslaw, sauerkraut, cabbage pockets. Yay for garden veggies.
We also have been picking lots of blackberries...we picked 6lbs this morning in our yard! yay for free wild food, now I just need to learn how to mushroom hunt!

Canning- I made melon marmalade a couple weeks ago with...crazy good! I used cantaloupe , oranges, and lemons. Today, it was sooo cool in the morning all I wanted to do is can and bake, so I made blackberry jam and tropical marmalade (pineapple, orange, lemon). That's all I've canned so far, but my stash of empty canning jars is motivating me to take advantage of these cooler days and fill 'em up!

Crafts- Yeah, not so much these days. I'm trying to knit a baby blanket here and there. Want to do more!


This is a lot of text with no pictures. Other news, I've been thinking a lot about planning Kylans first year of home school kindergarten, I plan on starting next month. More about that later...

Beautiful blessings to you all! Enjoy the day!