Still July...

I could have called this post, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," but that's not entirely accurate.  It's more like, "The Delicious, the Delightful, and the Disgusting."

Let's move on to the Delicious, shall we?

I borrowed this book from the library.  After making a couple of recipes, I was ready to press "order" on Amazon.  Last week, I ordered it. 

I'm so happy to have my own copy to write notes in.  I've made pasta and pasta sauce, ravioli, pizza (and pizza sauce), pancakes, waffles, homemade pop-tarts, hamburger buns, and the best yellow cake ever from this book.  I am burning through flour, buttermilk, and eggs like nobody's business.

The Delightful:  I am on my last round of the Granny blanket.  I am going to ignore the fifty million ends that remain, because I'm on the last round!

As my title says, it's still July.  Some days, you'd think it was late August.  The children are all done with being nice to each other.  They are tired of looking at each other--and they tattle to me when they do look at each other!  It's tiresome. I know I'm not alone because I can see other moms and kids out and about, and it's the same everywhere.  I've been seeing this in Target lately--which brings me to the Disgusting:

This was the boil on Bobby's arm last Monday.  The doctor drew the ring around it to show me that if the boil gets any larger than that, to bring him back in.  Yesterday Bobby finished his course of antibiotics (from the Target pharmacy), and the boil had not resolved.  We went back in this afternoon.  The examining room was full--Bobby, the doctor, a PA, a student, the girls, and I were all crammed in there watching the doctor slice open the boil with a scalpel.  I was not expecting blood; I was expecting pus.  Bobby was very brave.  The doctor drained it, cleaned it, bandaged it, and sent us back to Target with another prescription to have filled, and told us to come back tomorrow.

So as July comes to a close, I'm optimistic that we can buckle down and really enjoy our last month of summer break.  I plan on taking the kids to the pool as often as we can (once the wound has healed); I'm going to read as many books as I can and cook as many tomatoes as the garden will give me, and we may be adding a new family member next month.  The children are clamoring for a puppy, and we think the time may be right.

Back to Summer

This has been a typical summer week.  There were trips to the library.  As you can see I am still on a mystery binge.

There was crochet.  There was also knitting, but I'm lucky to get in a round or two a day.  It's my TV knitting, and there wasn't a lot of TV this week--at least for me there wasn't.  The kids are up to date on all the Disney/Nickelodeon shows, of course.

I got outside with my garden clippers and brought some pretty blooms inside.  Our hydrangea has finally (after five years) decided to bloom.  Maybe it was the plant-tone...

 Last night, there was homemade spaghetti.  It's worth all the flour mess.

And now, it's time to menu plan for the upcoming week!

What did your summer week look like?

Vacation--in Reverse

I planned so carefully when I packed for our vacation.  I even included the extra rechargeable batteries for the camera.  And then I left the camera on the dining room table!

Thank goodness for cell phone cameras.  And I uploaded everything in reverse date order.  So here's our vacation in reverse.

Washington, D.C. Only 102 degrees.  The Ford's Theater was air-conditioned.

This year's beach souvenirs.  T-shirts from the Piggly Wiggly!

Fireworks in Georgetown, SC

Extended family photo shoot.  This is why I packed the extra batteries.

Moonrise over Litchfield Beach



And we came home with too many fireworks.

We locked them up in Williamsburg.

Driving around DC on a Friday is more fun when it's 105!

So there you have it.  Eight days away.  Good times.  Glad to be home!