August!

This month has flown by like all the others. I do not know why that still surprises me but it does. We have enjoyed having a bird and hamster in the house. They are adorable and entertaining. The first half of the month was raining and unseasonably cool. We have hardly gotten in the pool at all. The boys started soccer back so that is keeping us busy. We went blueberry picking in the rain because we were tired of waiting for a non rain day and we wanted to go before they were gone. You can see the boys enthusiasm in the pictures. We went letterboxing one day. That was the first time in over a year since we did that. Everyone had a great time and we found a new trail that we had never been on before. It was a beautiful walk through the woods. We cannot wait to go back in the fall when the path isn't overrun with weeds and briars. It leads to a second and third tunnel. Part of the Stumphouse Tunnel that was built before WW2. The boys have learned the joys of comic strips and they have been working on making their own. We are learning and having adventures in our part of the world. I hope you are as well! Adventure is out there!

Garden Pickings and Homemade Body Wash

This week I have been busy taking care of some vegetables that we got out of the garden. I blanched, peeled, chopped, and froze the tomatoes. I blanched and froze the green beans. I chopped and froze the peppers. There is nothing like pulling your own bell peppers out of the freezer in January to add to your chili! I would have been shucking and freezing corn but the squirrels ate it all! Every ear! Then I made homemade body wash. All you do is grate a bar of soap of your choosing. Not a lotion soap though. Mix it in a large pot with 1 gallon of water and 2 tablespoons of glycerin. Heat it until the soap melts. Stirring occasionally. Then you let it sit for 10 hours until it thickens. Mine was still too thin so I mixed 3 tablespoons of salt in 1 cup of hot water and added that to the soap mixture. Several hours later it was nice and thick. I whisked it real good then poured it in a gallon water bottle and 3 shower get bottles. Not a bad deal for $4.

New pets!

Because we didn't have enough to take care of around here, we added two new members to the tribe! Ranger the bird and Scooter the hamster. Adventure is out there!

My Baby is 8!

I will say it again, time flies! It doesn't seem possible that Cade was born just 8 short years ago but I remember it well. I will spare you all the gory details. Let's talk about Cade. Where should I start? Cade is awesome, amazing, beautiful, charming, daring, excited about life, fun, generous, humorous, independent, jokester, keen, lovable, mischievous, noisy, outgoing, passionate, quotable, rambunctious, stubborn, tough, unfettered, vivacious, witty, x-treme, youthful, zealous! Yupp! That about sums him up. Cade celebrated his big day with some of his friends. They went swimming, played capture the coconut, played video games, ate pizza, and some of them slept over. I think he had a great 8th birthday.

Brandon is home!

Well, Brandon moved back home today after 4 years away. These are some pictures of his new room and Cade helping him unpack.