dreaming of squash something

so we're off to tennessee and south carolina tomorrow for 6 days. if lucky, me and the kids will return home to a small portion of our house missing. this is a good thing. yes, andy will be releasing some pent up energy knocking out our living room wall opening up our main living space more. i can hardly stand it. me and the kids have been cleaning out the living room and play room for a couple days. and i have been repeating in my head the mantra "when we come home our house will be a big, dusty wreck." this is just to prepare myself and not surprise myself, but most of all to not say "honey, it's a big mess!"

anyway, aside from that excitement i have lost a good portion of our vegetable garden to ..... squash vine borers! my squash plants and one pumpkin plant we're growing along just fine until a couple weeks ago they slowly started to wilt and stop producing fruit. so my plan of zucchini this, squash that, and everything in between is a dream in the past. i swear everywhere i look and read there's talk of the abundance of squash, a recipe for squash this, a recipe for zucchini that. and it depresses me that to make all this goodness i'll have to now count on the grocery or my small CSA share to make it.

but what is more heart-breaking is the pumpkin plant. growing pumpkin was Kai's idea. i had found a variety called ka-kai. how sweet is that. so i have more seeds and again next year we will try to battle the squash vine borers!

been a while

yep, it has. sorry to disappoint you but there are no pictures today. just a quick list of some highlights from the past couple weeks. we've had computer problems lately, and the computer that i download pictures on got a little wet recently. so important letters like e and r don't work right now.

what we've been up to:

* adopted two little kittens last week - sophie and ali. Kai named them. at first he said digger man. i would have gone with it, but i suggested he think about it since it'll be a name they will have forever, like his. when he thought about the names, he said two of his friends at school were sophie and ali and they get along good so maybe the kittens will too. clever boy. and so far he's right.

* no, we do not own two cats and a dog now. Lexi returned home to the farm we bought her from. she was just too much dog for us. she wanted to run all the time, and bark at our neighbors. i couldn't keep up. i believe she loved us all and was happy here, but she will be much happier in a place where she has complete freedom. who wouldn't, right?

* the poopy-head, 4 yr talk continues to esculate. i'm pretty sure i've been called coo coo head, poopy head, stupid etc. more than mama.

* andy gave his notice at work last week, it went smooth. so 3 weeks until school starts.

* today we went to Deam Lake in indiana .... beautiful! i can't believe it was the first time since we've lived here. the kids had a blast and by the end of our time were very comfortable in the water. i'm going to try to commit to going every week for the rest of the summer.

* the weather here has been very pleasant for july. this weekend it's suppose to be in the mid 70's. yippie!!

* we continue to harvest some food from our garden. i wish it were bigger, but that could be overwhelming. the tomatoes are finally turning pink/red. waiting eagerly for the beans.

* our yard is slowly turning into a village: a teepee, two tree forts. i'm kinda liking it.

* saw the movie My Sister's Keeper last week and i only recommend it if you are in the mood for sad. all around sad.
but, i did see The Hangover a few weeks ago, hilarious and strongly recommend. Don't be fooled by the cheesy title, it was done very well.

*what Kai's been into: playing with friends, playing with trucks/trains, etc., playing with friends, playing with friends, gum (argh), reading, doing tricks on his bike, playing with friends, telling zaiah what she can't do and what she's too little to do, making sure he has the biggest of everything, holding sophie. what Zaiah's been into: having tea parties, getting naked, putting on dresses, eating anything with sugar, finally liking yogurt, asking "why?", hopping, putting her dolls to sleeep, trying to catch the kittens, and of course her binky.

sorry for the blunt, boring post. hoping to be back on soon with photos. happy weekend

harvesting

last week we had our first harvest from our vegetable garden (besides herbs): broccoli! pure thrill. there is something about harvesting, other than herbs and tomatoes, that is completely satisfying. Kai was beside himself. Since our first harvest last week, we've also harvested squash, potatoes and carrots. Remember my hope for the kids liking potatoes since we're growing our own? not happening. kai tried them and said he still does not like potatoes. zaiah didn't even let them touch her lips. potatoes pulled up from the ground and cooked right up and eaten immediately .... pretty much heaven. it'll be difficult to eat a store bought potato again.

if i had the know-how and time, i'd turn our entire yard into a vegetable garden. it is making me happy.



(above photo by Kai)