Happy Birthday, Levi!

Hope your day is as happy and full of sunshine as you!

What to do with all these tomatoes?

I mean, we have them covering the kitchen counter...

...the counter on both sides of the sink.

There are more on the cutting board beside the dishwasher as well.

Beautiful, red, ripe tomatoes.  We have eaten them sliced.  We have eaten them chunked with Chicken Salad or Pimento Cheese.  We have eaten them on burgers, ham sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, and chicken sandwiches.  We have eaten them as bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches.  We have eaten them with sausage, egg, and cheese on a biscuit.  We have also given a multitude away!  They have been fabulous.  But, the plants keep producing and the fruits have gotten ahead of our consuming.

So, yesterday, we made Salsa!  Yep.  Yummy Salsa.

First, I had a great volunteer to help me peel and dice tomatoes.  Then, I prepped the mixture and filled the  jars and processed them in a boiling water bath.  There were nine pints of salsa when we finished.  (Hop over to my recipe blog for info on how we made the salsa.)

Well, there was also a small sample bowl of salsa as well.  I thought it turned out yummy.

 My volunteer tomato peeler and dicer must have thought it turned out pretty well, too!

Now, what are we going to do with the other half of the ripened tomatoes?

Today is spaghetti sauce day!

Silly Boys and Water

I think most everybody has memories of running through a sprinkler during the summer time.  Now, Levi will have such memories as well!

Doesn't that look like fun on a hot summer day?  Thanks for sharing the fun time, Bonnie!

Silly boy!

Happy Birthday, Lillie!

Hope your day is a smooth ride!

Funny Face

I don't know if Levi has learned to make silly faces from seeing folks make selfies or if he was planning to blow us a kiss.  Either way, this photo sent by his mom made Mike and me chuckle!

Sweaty

I wish I looked this cute and happy when my face is sweaty like this boy's!

Our Own Piece of Mythology

When I received a photo of one of the grands recently, I immediately thought of my time spent in tenth grade where students learned a bit about mythology.

Sorry, but the only credit to this image I could find was THIS.

I wondered if Levi's mother thought the same thing when she snapped the picture...

I mean, it looks like we have our very own Greek god, Atlas, doesn't it?  Well, maybe not.  You see when I got the photo in a message from Bonnie, it really looked like this:

He is cute, however, isn't he?

The Garden is Coming In!

Well, actually, the garden isn't coming in.

Well, maybe it is actually coming in.  We seem to track pieces and parts of it in almost every day.  I cannot keep up with the sweeping or the mopping the floor needs, it seems!  I haven't given up as yet, though.

Actually, what I really mean is that the vegetables are maturing and we are enjoying the bounty of Mike's garden.  It seems that every day I have a kitchen counter with vegetables setting there waiting to become dinner.  Love it!  We started out with a planting of twenty-plus tomato plants, a couple of hills of cucumbers, and a handful of hills of squash.  There were a few tomato plants which were just not sturdy enough for transplanting from pots to the ground at that time.  So, after a bit of a panic, we wound up setting a handful more tomatoes.  Then, a week or so ago, we set out the last few plants that needed a bit of time to mature.  They may not mature enough to make juice or salsa but we hope to at least get a batch or two of fried green tomatoes.

We have For dinner we had fresh squash, boiled with some onions, and fried okra and a sliced tomato alongside some home-made meatloaf and it was delicious!  Mike also ate a few of one of his favorites, Cucumber and Onion Salad.

The other day I cooked us some squash for dinner and in a pot right beside it, I boiled more squash for a few minutes, plunged it into ice water, and bagged it up for the freezer.

We had a few ears of corn shared with us and we ate some and froze some.  Mike cut it off the cob and I did the blanching and freezing duties.  He also cut up some more squash and I blanched and froze it as well.

Those first few pieces from the garden always taste the best!  Now, I'm sure that as the work days grow longer and the energy grows shorter, I might not have as much enthusiasm for storing up the veggies for later use.  But I know that as the temperatures dip and the daylight hours grow shorter, I will appreciate the ready food supply tucked away in jars and the freezer.

Mike had a new addition to his gardening repertoire this year in an unintentional way.  He thought he was getting Cayenne pepper plants but when they began to bear, he realized that these peppers were way too big for that.  We have since identified them as Cowhorn peppers.  They are excellent for adding spice when cooking.  I am trying my hand at drying them for later use.

I used a similar technique to what I had done with the Cayenne's a couple of years ago.  I just strung them onto some strong, unflavored dental floss and hung them from the end of the cabinet.  For these, I strung them similarly and just looped the floss over the hinge of my newly cleaned cabinets.  I thought I should watch them pretty closely since I'm not certain they will dry as well.  So far, so good!

Today I'm battering and freezing a bit of okra and stirring up some granola.  We are going to have a few yummy days ahead anyway!

Expecting a Baby!

We got word a while back that we would soon have another baby join our family!  Of course we immediately got excited.

Harris announcing that he would soon have a baby sister.

Then, we found out whether we will be getting a granddaughter or grandson.

Last weekend we joined together with Jessica's family to add a little bit of pink and girlishness to their household.

We all signed in by guessing the new addition's birth date.

We feasted with delicious food and fellowship provided by Jessica's brother and sister-in-law, Jacob and Whitney, and many of their neighbors.

The dessert table looked more than tasty, it was a picture of girly pink, ruffles, and sweetness.

There was a beautiful and delicious strawberry cake...

There were also cupcakes with ruffly rose icing set up in the shape of a pink baby onesie, too!

The children had a place to decorate their own bit of sugary deliciousness as well.

We showered them with gifts of a practical nature...

...as well as a few of those frilly extras that a girl might need in her repertoire.

The growing family posed for a few photos.

Then, Dad-Bryan gave a speech thanking everybody for their generosity and expressing their excited anticipation.

Now, we wait...and hope this boy is just as excited about having a baby sister as he is about getting ready for her!

Before and After

I got a message from our daughter-in-law the other day that made me laugh out loud - literally!  Here it is:

Before and after...innocent swim day turns mud bath

Sharing the Fun

I love it when the grandchildren interact, share, and just generally have childhood fun.  When Lydia was here for her Days, we went up to visit Levi and Easton (and their parents as well).

Levi invited Lydia to join him in a bit of jumping on the trampoline.  He sat and watched her and enjoyed the bouncing for a bit...

Then, he decided to join her in the fun.  He was soon up and hopping around like a jumping bean and I'll just tell you, folks, I could not keep up!  I only had my cell phone to capture photos but I didn't get a single one that wasn't just a blur!

This little one thought he wanted to join the fun on the trampoline.

He didn't get far from the entry point of the safety net before he decided that jumping with those bigger kiddos was not for him, though!

They also did a little climbing together.

Levi really liked it when Lydia climbed up on top and dropped down inside the geodesic climbing dome.

While he thought it looked fun, he wasn't quite ready to climb to the top and drop down inside.  However, he did figure out how to get over into it and then back out.  (Little mother hen had to hover just in case he got stuck and needed a little help!)

The chatter and giggles they shared left a smile on all of our faces!