EKjourney Backup

Phil decided to set up a movie (Curious George) before bedtime while I got the baby ready for bed, picked up around the house a little, and had a few minutes of quiet time. Toward the end of the movie, I hear Jubilee sobbing. She was very upset that George was put in a cage and taken away from the Man in the Yellow Hat. She kept wailing that she didn’t want the monkey to go away. She wanted me to hold her and take her away from the movie. It took her several minutes to calm down. Luckily, the Man in the Yellow Hat came to George’s rescue and we watched the happy reunion.

I found these treasures at a garage sale. I bought the entire table of costume jewelry - over 100 necklaces, 75 bracelets, and more clip on earring than I can count for 15 dollars. The children have a blast wearing their jewels and crowns.        

We got tomato paste and apple sauce made. Jubilee lasted about two minutes and Sawyer got maybe half the apples peeled before he was ready to do something different. Evi was happy to sit, watch, and play with anything that came her way.        

And thus concludes our summer… Phil starts back to work tomorrow and football has been in full swing for the past two weeks so we officially start the busiest time of the year. It is always a hard transition to go from flexible, non-scheduled, less work hours of summer to Phil being gone 11-12 hours a day Monday-Wednesday and 13-16 hours Thursday and Friday (depending on travel for game days). We all miss him terrible and my days seem really long without his participation here at home. But, we are blessed that Phil can take on a second job that works into his teaching schedule and that he LOVES!! Tomorrow the kids and I will make applesauce, tomato sauce, and lacto-fermented cucumber pickles. This will keep us busy until we go to a back to school barbeque hosted by one of Phil’s colleagues. Phil will be gone in the evening because the football program is hosting a guest speaker; Bryant Young (a defensive end and probowler) who plays for the 49ers. Having a former NFL star as the...

Don't you just love photographs that capture personality! Here we have goofball on one hand, and one that likes things orderly and for the most part serious.    

Evi is not really into eating. I tried baby food with her and she would have nothing to do with it. So, I just give her a little of whatever I am eating to explore with. Here she is trying out a fresh fig from the garden.        

I have used this last week before Phil officially starts back to school to “spring clean” the house. I find that decluttering, keeping up on the laundry, dishes, and putting meals on the table is about all I have time for so a thorough dusting, mopping, furniture rearranging, and window cleaning is a rare thing! So far, I have cleaned all three bedrooms, the livingroom, and the kitchen. I still need to tackle the bathroom, playroom, and laundry room. I thought a house tour would be fun so here are pictures of our cleaned rooms! Children's bedrooms        

       

       

This morning, as we were finishing up breakfast, our neighbor brought Brother Cat to us wrapped in a towel. She said something was wrong with him. He was obviously in distress so I called Phil (who was over at my parent’s house painting) to come home so we could take him to the vet (he had the van). The vet came out of surgery to check him and told us that he was very very sick. He gave him only about a 10% chance of survival even if we were to give him oxygen and an IV. We decided to end his suffering so Phil held him while they put him to sleep. We buried him up in the corner of our property. It was so very sad and there were lots of tears as we said good-bye. I know that death is a part of life but it is something that really creeps me out. The sadness and pain of losing a pet is so hard but the idea of losing a family member is almost more that I can imagine. Knowing we all must go through it and knowing that I will watch others go through it leaves me feeling, for lack o...

Pesto is treat for all seasons!! We make it when the basil plants are growing in the summer. If you continually break off the top of the plant before it blooms, you can have fresh basil leaves all summer. We make and freeze pesto to use all year. You can use as spaghetti sauce, on sandwiches, on freshly sliced tomatoes, as a pizza sauce, in salad dressings, etc.. Here is my Gram’s recipe: 1/3 C pinenuts (or walnuts) 1 t salt 4 C packed basil leaves 1 C olive oil (I use a dry measure cup for this and start out with about 3/4 and add as needed) 4-6 cloves garlic 2 T softened butter Process in a blender or food processor: pinenuts and salt, then add garlic, then basil and oil, add butter last. It keeps for quite awhile in the refrigerator but the top layer will oxidize (turn a little darker).      

I am having a hard time figuring out this blogger. My pictures won't show up until they are actually posted and when I write a caption, I can't seem to center it. I can only post 4 pictures at a time so I have to make multiple posts and if I forget to work backwards, my first post becomes my last. So, this post and the last one should be switched. Every adventure includes humor. Here is a lovely picture of Grandma and the Grandchildren.   Sawyer and his earphones (He does not like load noises. We have a pair of earphones in the car.)   Have I mentioned that Sawyer doesn't like loud noises? Here he is on the dinosaur walk.   Advert your eyes if you are offended by excited elephants. Yes, that is what you think it is and yes, it does touch the ground.  

We always enjoy a visit from Grandma Tracy!! She arrived via a plane Thursday morning (and went home Sunday morning). She often takes Phil and me on “a date”. My mom watches the 3 little ones while we enjoy a movie together. We so rarely go to a movie and seldom are without all three children at once that it is almost a strange experience. One that we enjoy never-the-less. Friday, we went to the zoo. We rode the zoo train and went on the dinosaur walk exhibit. On the way home, we spontaneously decided to go to the Hillsboro International Air Show. We had a great time and the kids did fabulous considering that they only cat napped in the car and we didn’t get home until 11:30 p.m. Saturday, Phil’s Grandma was in town so she spent the weekend with us. This goat was resting on top of this barrel in the petting zoo   Dinosaur walk (Jubilee was riding in the stroller because she was scared)     Biting Mommy's nose (this hurt!!)