Can We Just Skip August

The heat of August is here...the worst month of the year for me. I am sorry if you have a birthday in August, but I would insist on celebrating it in Alaska if mine was! All of Spring and most of summer has already gone by since my last post, but not without boredom, excitement, or humidity.

Gone are the mornings of sitting out on the deck enjoying breakfast...at least for another month/month and a half anyway. We absolutely love eating outside on our deck, but ironically, if we eat out, we prefer to be indoors. But eating out just isn't the same anymore. Sadly, the cost is unreal and the food just doesn't taste as good. I won't even talk about service....or seed oils! So, we're just over here doing out best to try and eat out less, shop our local farmers' markets, and starting to freeze/can all the good stuff from our garden.

Homemade fresh milled bagels

The gardens are amazing to watch. It seems like just a couple of months ago Bill got out there and planted my babies. Of course after planting came a lot of praying; praying for good weather, praying the deer stay away, praying the bugs have decided to find new homes in neighbors' yards, and praying I labeled everything right (if ya know ya know). As much as we hate it, the humidity did amazing things for the gardens. However, we noticed this year we got a lot of greenery, but not a lot of vegetables.

JUST PLANTED GARDEN

GARDEN READY TO BE HARVESTED

We also made sure to take the opportunity to get a special little someone's hands in the dirt! The child has no choice but to learn about plants in this house! Unlike other kids his age, he's not big into putting anything into his mouth so we are going to have to wait a year or two to get him to eat some veggies right off the vine. But that didn't stop him from farming with Pops!

Must rearrange the garden statues first...

There's no sound to the video, but I'm sure you can imagine what was being said as he threw the cucumbers in the basket!

We started a couple new veggies this year; watermelon, potatoes, and butternut squash. The squash did great, but not the watermelon. But hey, we tried. Honestly, I'm not exactly sure what goes through my mind when I think to grow something that has a 30 foot vine...

Our garden isn't the only thing growing! Someone once told me that once the first grand baby comes, it's almost non-stop after that. Well, this past February we got to welcome our son and daughter inlaw's first child Nolan! Grand baby number 5! What blows my mind is that he's actually going to be 6 months old in just a few short weeks! And look how adorable he is!

Then in June we got to welcome our 6th grand baby (and 5th boy!) Judson Cash to the world. His poor momma (our daughter) was super ready as you can see below.

But all that waiting and discomfort brought a very healthy AND ANOTHER SUPER CUTE baby into the world...

And of course his Pops got to introduce his big brother to him! This just happens to be one of my favorite pictures as well.

Then, the cherry on top came 4th of July weekend! Our youngest daughter and her family drove up from Virginia to visit, meet both new babies, and spend some time with us so we actually had ALL 6 GRAND BABIES here! So fun to have them all together!

And let me tell you, those two in the middle, Weston & Walker...yea T-R-O-U-B-L-E. It's like you can see it already! Their names together make them sound like Old West outlaws 😂 Sweet Brooklynn was in heaven with the baby and Michael did his darnedest with Nolan, but sweet Nolan isn't used to the LOUD and obnoxious family we are!

And speaking of Nolan, these are our Mother's Day and Father's Day gifts from him. TOO FLIPPING CUTE!

My flower pot had all kinds of fruit and even caterpillars made of finger prints and Bill's plate was made of his foot prints. Seriously, aren't they adorable?

And to round out all this excitement we've been having, I wanted to share some fun news! So, most of you know how I am REALLY into herbalism and natural medicine. What you don't know is that I am CONSTANTLY watching videos, reading books, following other herbalists, etc. Well, while researching and reading, a couple of things happened. First, I found that there is going to be a herbal symposium coming locally! I know, hold back your excitement lol. However, I am over the moon about it. It's a 3 day event (all day all 3 days) and I get to see and meet so many of the herbalists that I already follow. In addition, I'll be able to take classes hosted by them! ANDDDDDD, in a separate issue altogether, I was awarded a scholarship to a very well known Herbal School to complete several herbal courses for a certification. I'm shaking inside I'm so excited! 🤗 I honestly CANNOT wait to share so much with you all!

On that note, I am going to close, but be sure to check back (or sign up for email notice) in the next couple of days as I'll be posting about COLLOIDAL SILVER, a must have in your personal apothecary. Hopefully I'll be able to get out there this weekend for the Longest Yard Sale that's happening. I'm never sure what I need until it finds me! Enjoy the rest of the dog days of summer!!