Wordless Wednesday

Life Update Number I-Don't-Even-Know

If you're friends with me on Facebook you already know some of this, but maybe not all, so if you want to make sure you are completely informed about the mundane trivialities of my existence you will have to read the whole post. :-)

We spent the Fourth at home. We generally don't go to see fireworks anywhere--for our introverted, highly sensitive group such an event is too crowded, noisy, and this year, too hot. So instead we stayed in and enjoyed a slower pace, watching some tennis, grilling some burgers, and working on a few house tasks. I returned to my kitchen painting project, which has been neglected for months now. It is a slow process because in one of my rare daring moments I decided it would be fun to have a red kitchen (Valspar Heirloom Red, to be precise). What was I even thinking? I know what I was thinking. I am going to love it when it's done. But everything is requiring a minimum of one coat of primer and two coats of paint. And my kitchen has a lot of corners, so this is going to take a while. (One of these days I'll post before and after pictures.)

In honor of Independence Day, we took time after supper to read the Declaration of Independence. Have you ever done that? If not, you should. It's not very long and is a classic example of inductive reasoning. And, oh yeah, it's how our country got started! 

After reading aloud together we gathered around the piano for some patriotic songs and Evan did some robust flag-waving. Then we wrapped up the evening with a few episodes of the Peanuts This is America, Charlie Brown DVD. (And I can't believe the price on that item! I know we didn't pay anywhere near that much!)

Caitlin is not pictured above as she is away this week attending Higher Things, an annual conference for Lutheran youth. She is going with our good friends from Nebraska. Pictured below is the handoff, somewhere on I-80. You can see that she fits right in with this group! Trevor is not attending Higher Things but was along for the ride, as Phillip took him to Lincoln for a summer lesson with his piano professor at University of Nebraska on this same trip. While they were in Lincoln, Phillip, Trevor and Caitlin took time to visit the Nebraska state capitol building and Caitlin got a little more familiar with the UNL campus. College is still several years away for her, but she is starting to compile a list of institutions to consider, and UNL is one.

Hey, I think I recognize those t-shirts! :-)

I was devastated by the Supreme Court decision on Obamacare this week. I am too devastated to blog about it. What were they even thinking?

In spite of the extreme temperatures our garden seems to be doing well. We have been enjoying our romaine lettuce for weeks now and have made one round of pesto. Several of the broccoli plants played out early but one is producing nicely. Parsley is looking good, tomatoes are starting to ripen and okra is hitting its stride. The jury is still out on the cucumbers, peas and beans, though.

Today I am leaving to drive part of the way to Missouri to pick up Caitlin. I will stay with an old, dear friend in Iowa tonight and get a much needed hug. Make that ten hugs. It has been a very difficult spring. I do not want to share details at this time, but if you are reading I would appreciate your prayers for our family. We are in need of God's direction for us, and until that direction is made known, patience and faith and peace of mind and spirit. But most of all, we could use some answers, and we could use them soon. We are boldly praying and would deeply appreciate your praying with us for some things in our lives to be resolved in the near future in a way that would lead to much rejoicing! Thank you for reading. Stay cool!

Garden Progress

Little by little, we're getting there.

The concrete slab (cue ominous music). This is what it usually looks like in the summer:

And here it is in all its fall loveliness:


Our garden from a year or two ago. You can see the corner of the concrete slab at lower right.



No more concrete slab! More room for garden! Yay!

Men at work.

Can you tell they're related?



Now that's a respectable garden! (Of the back yard suburban Chicago variety, anyway.)

There's just something . . .

. . . about a man with a shovel.

Especially when he's as handsome as this one.

Good Riddance

This has been so long in coming. When we moved into our house over ten years go (!) the back yard was an overplanted, overgrown, overlandscaped mess. We have spent the last ten years removing superfluous fencing, hedges, and bushes and reclaiming the lawn that used to be there. The last piece of the puzzle was this concrete slab and four fence posts. I have no idea what its original purpose was. When we moved in it was enclosed with a chain link fence. We removed the fencing long ago but the slab has been an eyesore ever since.

Today we finally said goodbye to the whole ugly mess:

The plan is to expand our tiny little garden plot into this newly excavated space. I'll post pictures as the plan unfolds.

Anyone want to come to a shoveling party?

Recent Pickin's from the Garden

Supper Last Night . . .

. . . was cavatappi with creamy pesto sauce. It was so easy! I used basil leaves and cherry tomatoes grown in our garden. Here's the recipe:

2 cups of basil leaves

2-oz. bag of pine nuts

1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese

2 cloves of garlic

cherry tomatoes (however many you like, cut in half)

cavatappi (or whatever kind of pasta you want)

Chop all ingredients finely (I use a small electric chopper) and mix with 1/2 cup olive oil. Add approximately 1 cup of ricotta cheese (I used whole, not lowfat). Mix sauce with hot pasta and add tomatoes. Salt & pepper to taste.

We had Caesar salad on the side. While I was cooking, Mr. Round Unvarnished made us pina coladas with real coconut milk! (Jewel had a sale on pre-scored coconuts and I couldn't resist). The thing is, I forgot that we don't have a blender right now, so the pina (I keep typing piano and having to fix it!) coladas were on the rocks. We used this recipe found online:

1 cup coconut milk

1 cup pineapple juice

1/2 cup rum

4 tablespoons sugar

Instead of blending with ice, we just poured it over ice cubes. Yum!

Farmer Cantor

"Ma?"

"What, Pa?"

"Ah thank Ah just might be gettin' the hang of this gardnin' thang."

"Really, Pa? What makes ya' thank so?"

"Weeell, honey bunch, just take a look. Here we have some tomaters coming along right nice . . .

. . . and some peppers doin' the same . . .

. . . an' Ah think we're gonna be cookin' up a mess o' greens any day now . . .

. . . an' glory be, just looky what I found this mornin' . . .

"Do ya' think we waited just a mite too long to pick these two, Ma?"

"Mebbe just a mite. But don't you worry your sweet little head about that, Hon, I'll take care of it. Looks like zukes for supper tonight!" (And maybe tomorrow night, too, and the night after that, and the night after that . . . . Anyone out there have some cool zuke recipes?)

Progress!

May



June



This is only our second year of vegetable gardening. I think we overplanted a bit. But things are looking pretty good, don't you think? (The credit for soil preparation, planting, and garden care thus far belongs entirely to my husband, altnough I did go buy the plants.) We have tomatoes, peppers, basil, rosemary, chives, sage, squash, collard greens, and cantaloupe. We are hoping to expand the plot next year--maybe add a strawberry patch. Hey, gardeners out there, what else might we successfully grow in a backyard plot in Illinois?

Planting Day!

We got our garden in yesterday! Or rather, the Cantor did, with a little help from his crew. My role was to shop for plants. So far we have three types of tomatoes, butternut and zucchini squash, basil, parlsey, chives (they are perennial, so they are already blooming in the far left corner), three types of peppers, and cantaloupe. We have room for a few more--I know that I want rosemary, and I'm considering a few lettuce plants for a couple of spots that get slightly less sun.







While this project was in the making, I put some flowers in pots and trimmed some hedges. Children also mowed, edged and weeded. Summer has arrived!

Our Garden

Several of my friends have blogged recently about their gardens, so I thought I would, too. This is only our second year to plant a small garden in our back yard. Last year we grew tomatoes, basil, chives, and sage. In spite of our inexperience, everything did remarkably well, and we had very little trouble with pests or critters. So this year we decided to add several more herbs (parsley, thyme, and rosemary) and three varieties of peppers. Here's a photo of our modest little agrarian experiment:





Here's a close-up of a banana pepper plant, already sporting some tiny little peppers!

Next year, I think we'll add even more--maybe some cucumbers, squash, and lettuce. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to some homemade pesto and fresh tabouli salad!

Tomatoes

Just had to post this photo of today's tomato pickings from our garden. To the more seasoned practitioners of husbandry out there it may not look like much. But to us neophytes it's a momentous event: the first day I was not able to hold the day's haul in one hand!