Show me the sunflowers!

The other day, Mama Pea of A Homegrown Journal asked for her readers to show her their sunflowers, so here they are! Not as many as I would like this year, I kind of forgot... but thanks to our long growing season I was able to recover and let the kids plant a few!

If any of you remember my "mud clump" that I brought home last year, here it is - the green bush with no flowers yet in center of photo! A fellow Master Gardener had divided her perennial Maximillian Sunflower last fall and was kind enough to bring a truck bed-load of "mud clumps" to class one morning to give away. I am very excited to see it bloom this fall, it has grown immensely since I planted the 1'x1' clump of mud last fall!

I think it's time for her to visit the hive, she was so loaded down with pollen she was having a hard time fighting gravity and staying on the flower when I took this!

What a great way to start the morning... FOR ME!...

When I returned from my early morning harvesting and photo taking, I walked into the house to find my two kids up and had made themselves breakfast! Of course I would prefer they wear shirts at the table, but I'll take what I can get. I think we are finally turning a corner in the child self-sufficiency department. Only days ago my morning would have been greeted by them whining out the back door at me in the garden "I'm hungry, mommmmm!, NOW!"

This morning's harvest included the 1st Roma of the season, I would prefer a little more ripe, but as I was checking it fell off into my hand! Don't think those jalapenos are all that needed picking, there are at least 200 out there but I am ignoring them, just picked a red and green for a heat check!

I want to thank all of you who posted comments yesterday, I was having "one of those days", and it was so nice to know there are others out there making it work, and I got such good advice and inspiring words, I am ready to tackle today with a clear head. It is supposed to be in the low 100's today so I will be in the kitchen all day, and instead of brooding about budgets, I will be taking action! I plan on baking bread today, and organizing my cabinets better so I won't put it off all the time (like having the bread ingredients so high I can't reach them LOL). I have a renewed energy today for being finance-challenged and embracing it rather than ignoring it hahaha! Thanks for your support, everyone!

So Mama Pea, I see your sunflowers and raise you one "Summer Fridge"! How 'bout it, everyone? Let's see pics of your "stuffed away, don't know what I'm going to do with it, help me I hate this vegetable but can't bear to throw it out, pickled" fridge contents!

Oh yeah, some of you gave me way too much credit for my "mommying": don't think I'm super-mom with my kids all the time LOL, today for instance, with the heat they will be plugged in to kid's movies on tv all day or I would never get a week's worth of bread made and kitchen cabinets organized!

Making a mess...

Oh no, what have I started????? This happens more often than I want to admit, and it IS a problem with me - organization! I am such a polar opposite of hoarder that it tends to get in the way of my life - and it takes on frantic levels during deployments, some kind of subconcious signal to rearrange and throw stuff away, the closest thing I can think of is the nesting instinct one gets while pregnant.

Meet my kitchen: you have seen it in pictures before but what you may not know is that I only have 980 sq feet in my house and no garage or laundry room to store things, and no dining room either! You can imagine the high expectations of this little galley kitchen. I demand alot out of her and she is suffering from trying to do too much, sound familiar moms?

I tried all winter to have a dining room table in there but at what cost?

Oh yes, that's a FREEZER my living room! And wait, it gets better...

A KEGERATOR in my tiny living room too!

I started the morning by just wanting to get my canning supplies together in one spot, and this has quickly progressed to completely clearing counters and any moveable furniture out and wiping baseboards, yeah, it's that crazy here! Now instead of digging a new asparagus bed I will be trying to reassemble my kitchen. I am thinking to just scrap the idea of ever having an actual table to eat at in my eat-in kitchen and making it more functional to ME! And this time of year, that means planning for harvests, canning, dehydrating, messing with seeds and glue, you get the picture. What I intend to have by tonight is a Farmhouse "Summer Kitchen" in my little apartment sized house. I know it sounds a little far-fetched, but you have never been in my way when I am on a mission to create space - watch out! Hubby has been here to witness the craziness right up until he was booted out of the house until I was done. I know he is thanking his lucky stars that he is out on the high seas right now and chuckling while reading this.

It's overcast and supposed to rain outside so I actually do have the time to do this instead of being outside, but why couldn't this have waited until, say, "Freaky Friday"?

I hope to update with pics tonight, if you don't hear from me, it's probably because I got swallowed up by that kegerator! Hmmm, or vice versa!