Good Night Summer

Good night Summer.


Good night pool


















Good night turtle that floated in the pool


















Good night hanging basket


















Good night roses


















Good night line for hang-drying clotheses (deal with it)


















Good night to the lady washing the chairs


















And good night Gazebo



















Good night summer, we'll be seeing you.

Stop the madness!!

I know I have dropped the ball with this blog. Let me give you a quick rundown of what we have been up to.....

School started for both Sunshine and Bug. With it I started working for a friend of mine at a daycare doing transportation for her kids to and from school. My work schedule has pockets of spare time, but I have to drop off my own kids in the morning and then go and grab 5 other kids to take to school. Then I have 2 different kindergartners at noon to pick up and drop off. Then I have kids I pick up when normal school time gets out and drop off. It is a relatively easy job, just a lot of time in the car.

Then there is my new business. My friend Erin and I have started a new business. It is cooking and freezing home cooked meals for families that don't have time or know how to cook. You can read all about it (or order) here.

But it doesn't stop there. Oh no.

My mom has been having some trouble with the place she was living and so we decided it would be a good idea for her to move in with us for a while. So we have spent the past week or so moving her stuff over here and also a storage unit. We are all learning to make it work. It is not as bad as it might seem. My mom and I actually have a great relationship and so it is nice having a second mom on site to be the eyes and ears when I can't be everywhere at all times. Right now it is just finding a new normal routine to slip into.

Then last but not least, the kids started up with their extra curricular activities. Bug starts swimming next week (pictures to come) and Sunshine started ballet a couple days ago. She was so excited and so cute with all the other little girls doing their leaps and things. She really loves it. Plus I got a super cute picture I feel I must share with the class.
So in short I haven't had a night to sit and give my blog some love. But tonight is apparently the night that I catch up.

So there you have it.

Well as long as they can hang on to their dignity

So I was at the fabric store not too long ago and looking through the pattern books for some inspiration. Oh how I found something better.

I found this....

It is a bib designed specifically for the elderly.

Because nothing says "I still have my dignity " than a Mrs. Claus bib with a matching hat. Seriously what person would dress up Grandma in this drek? And further, what right thinking elderly person would agree to wear such a homemade train wreck?

Sometimes I wonder what is seriously wrong with people.

Sunshine's first day of Kindergarten

The big day finally came after much anticipation (mostly by her) for the first day of "big kid" school. Sunshine had her first day of Kindergarten. She is now going to the same school that Bug and all his friends go to. She was so excited to go because she wants so badly to be a big kid. I think I have had a harder time with it than she has. She just seems so little, but all kids must grow up eventually I guess.



Standing out in front of her class waiting for the bell to ring so that we could go in.

She didn't like having to wait even a couple more minutes

.

Getting settled in her classroom. She marched right in there like she owned the place. This one is fearless. She was practically shoo-ing me out of the room.


Ahh sigh. Two down only one left in the nest. During the day anyway.

Nice day for the beach

So after the week we had, what with school starting and me (sort of) going back to work, our week has just been brutal.

Wouldn't you know I would take it upon myself to get some yard work done along with draining the pool this week. I mean hey, school is back , that means it's fall right? Wrong! I chose poorly. Had I looked at the upcoming weather forecast I would have noted that 90 degree weather was coming this weekend. But I didn't. So with this crazy freak heat on the way and no way to cool our self off, I made the split second decision this morning to head for the beach where it is always cooler than it is here. The Oregon coast is notorious for being cooler than any scorching temperature we have here.

Today was no exception. It was perfect weather. Not too cool but warm enough to play in the normally icy waters.

It was a great day.

Now we are off to start another week, refreshed.....Mostly.

Peanut turns 3 !

I know I am late getting this one up. This is the plight of the third child sad to say. But his birthday was last Monday and we had all the back to school chaos this week. It's not that I love him less or didn't want to put his slide show together, I was just crazy busy.

We had a nice cake and opened presents earlier this week.

I think this one was one of my hardest to do because he still seems like a fragile little baby, but I guess they all grow up sometime. So he turned 3 and is hardly even fragile anymore :) He still likes to cuddle though, so we are still good.

Attention over 30 cougars!!

Only 69 days , 4 hours, 35 minutes and 47 seconds until I am fighting my way through a crowd of over sugared tweens and their pasty, overweight , under loved, cougar mothers. I fall somewhere in the middle but don't tell anyone.
But whose counting and judging?
Team Jacob 4 EVR!!LOLOLOL
Ok I am done.

Bug's first day of 3rd grade

So today was the first day of school for the majority of the Portland metro area. It has been anxiously awaited by the kids but counted down my yours truly. I love my kids, don't get me wrong, but man, it has been a long summer :) I am ready to have my house back during the day and a small break from the bickering even for a couple hours. My hat goes off to my homeschooling sisters in arms. I love the idea of homeschooling, but just don't have the temperament and patience. I was ready for routine to get back into swing.

So last night I set everything out to have it all ready for the morning so that everything would go off without a hitch and we would get out the door on time. I set out everyone's clothes and got toothbrushes ready. Packed backpacks , wrote names on everything in sharpie, even packed lunches.

We got up this morning, got dressed , ate breakfast got ready to head out the door just in time only to find........one of the cats had peed on his backpack. The one that was packed with all of his supplies. Yeah that's the one.

So I had to wash everything down, transfer his stuff over to his old backpack from last year. (which is all torn and falling apart) Then we ran out the door in a mad rush to get there just in time.

It was a bit of a disaster to say the least. There is nothing like rushing through , showing up all sweaty and panicked and with a ratty old backpack when everybody else has nice new ones. I felt bad and I wanted to inform everyone of our mishap with our geriatric cat that sometimes has accidents, just so Bug wouldn't look bad. But I figured I would just have to let this one go.

We made it in time to get him settled in his class and say "hello" to his teacher and then he asked me to leave. I snapped a couple pictures and he then thanked me for "not embarrassing him". Funny he was more concerned about me being a " smother mother" than about his ratty old backpack he was sporting.

That kid cracks me up.

Also he has the same teacher that he had last year as they are doing a 2nd/3rd grade mega class because of budget cuts. Not exactly happy about this, but what can you do short of selling plasma to put them in private schools. We'll see how it goes.

Riddle me this....

We have a 20,000 gallon pool to play in. Why is it they choose to play in a Rubbermaid container filled with water instead?

Priceless.

Summer extravaganza

So I know I have been sort of neglectful over here. In all honesty there has not been a whole lot of note worthy stuff going on here.

I have been doing a lot of canning as I do every summer. In case you have forgotten last summer...let me remind you. 2008 summer canning extravaganza

This summer has been no exception. Thus far I have done ......

• strawberry jam
• raspberry jam
• raspberry syrup
• blueberry syrup
• blueberry pie filling
• apricots
• beets
• pickles
• salsa
• peach/pineapple salsa
• pickled peppers
• bing cherry pie filling
• stewed tomatoes

My kitchen has been a nonstop conveyor belt of garden goodness. But I have not been documenting all this action on this blog. Instead I have been working a lot over at my other blog Gen x home ec. I have been working at putting up recipes and "How to's" for a lot of my basic stuff.

Come check it out and try some of my recipes out. Lord knows they are family tested.