I got lost in the strawberry field?

Don't I wish!  I haven't even been strawberry picking yet, and they are almost done!  My apologies for my unexpected hiatus from blogging...  I wish I had a legitimate reason for it but it was really a lot of things all bundled up together that resulted in sort of a mommy meltdown.  To sum it up without sounding too dismal, I am just completely overwhelmed lately.  Hubby is here, then gone, then back again and we never seem to know when until the day arrives.  The garden was looking dismal for awhile due to the 6-8 weeks of rain we had, I thought it would never get planted!  I wasn't prepared for the toll that early hot flashes and no sleep are taking on me either, I break out in a sweat every 15 minutes like clockwork which means no sleep, ugh!  I was really hoping I had a lot more time left where those symptoms are concerned but considering my history of infertility and resulting treatments and surgeries I am really not that surprised, just annoyed!  I am now leading 3 dens of Cub Scouts so that is really putting a bit of stress on as well, hubby was my co-leader but with his deployment schedule it was turning out to be a one-girl show.  What update would be complete without the house carnage?  Yes, we had a pipe burst which left 700 gallons of water under the house and an expensive repair - after hours of course.  Our tenant also moved out so we had to find another quickly and paint the whole rental and do needed repairs there which has sucked up every weekend in May.  Okay, I think that about covers it!  I have kind of felt that I'm losing all the hobbies that bring me joy one by one.  Why is it that the stuff that brings stress relief and happiness are the first to go when life gets crazy?  My mental well-being I think has suffered a little more that what I let on here but you get the gist of it without 10 pages of venting :)  

If my Reader is any indication of how busy running in circles I've been - I am behind 185 blog posts!  That's right, I haven't even been able to read your posts and I am so sorry if I have missed any big events in your lives - I plan on starting to catch up tonight after swim team practice.  I won't be commenting until I get caught up on my reading since I find myself getting overwhelmed easily these days, but I will definitely be checking in!

Our lovely azaleas are done here in Virginia Beach, but I really wanted to share...

they are always so beautiful here.

Loch went on his annual Math & Science Academy field trip to Washington D.C., this year they went to the National Air and Space Museum.  They got to ride on the double decker busses again.

I am finally starting to see some things harvested from the GARDEN!

Below, a mostly fresh picked lettuce BLT (with no T) !

Next evening was pizza night.  The lettuce basil is huge this year, that's spinach on the left with the basil on the right.  No tomatoes yet of course so we are using up the last of the sun dried tomatoes from last season.

Daddy passing on the pizza skills to Finn...

Spinach and basil & sundried tomato pizza ready for the oven -

Hubs & I had an early anniversary dinner out at a local seafood place this past weekend - of course the kids were with us LOL.

Here, Loch is explaining to us the Masonic symbols on currency and giving us a rundown on the Illuminati - huh?  Yep, that was his anniversary gift to us.  Who IS this kid? 

Softshell Crab is in season and it doesn't last long, only a couple of weeks so here is a glimpse of East Coast tradition -  nothing better than eating a sandwich that has legs sticking out of it!

So TODAY is our actual anniversary, and I hope I remember to tell him tonight as we pass each other as he comes home from work and I head out to swim practice - indeed 2 ships passing lately!

If any of you are out there and haven't unsubscribed yet, thank you!  :)

I held off out of respect...

 ... respect to my friends in the Midwest that is - you are certainly getting sucker punched by winter this year!  Enough of that already! 

 No more groundhogs, either.  I'm sticking with this guy for my first sign of spring:

think I need some new gloves?

It was 90º here every day last week.  Yes, I just said it.

Look at that temp, just beginning to cool down to 85º at 7:30 pm!

We had a lot of work to pack into the past week.  We went from cold and rain to mid-summer temps overnight and all of a sudden I was really behind in my chores!

The center garden was a MESS.  Weeds, weeds everywhere, and grapevines, stakes, broken trellises and eyesores all of it.  Every time I reached my hands into the long weeds I was convinced I was going to come up with a handful of Water Moccasins.  Gardening in the south near water is not for the faint of heart!

Before:

After:

I left a few weed patches for a wetter day since they were pretty stubborn.  I did manage to plant out lettuces, spinach and bush beans in the center garden that day.  Of course the next day we had torrential downpours so I'm pretty sure I ended up planting the neighbor's garden!

This year I am really testing the limits of the seedlings.  In prior years I have always noticed that when I start 2 batches of seedlings a few weeks apart the younger ones catch up within days when planted outside, and since it is so warm already it felt a little ridiculous and a waste of time to repot them in larger pots, so into the beds they went... straight from their little peat squares with only 1 set of true leaves!  

Can you see them?  Tomatoes on the left, peppers on the right.

Another day I attacked the "East Garden"- (sounds so stately, doesn't it?)!

Still have a long way to go to get the Bermudagrass out that has encroached my mulched areas, but at least the beds are weed free now.  Don't you just love my hodgepodge o'crap?  I'm going to grow my zucchini in that "lump" of compost inside the old gazebo sides that are wired together LOL, and sweet potatoes in that big piece of drainage pipe.  Functional, yes - pretty, not so much!

The hubs was working hard all week as well in his limited time off.  Our fire pit was rotted (see old wood pieces discarded behind him), so he built us an identical new one in the same place.  This design worked perfect for us since the old firebowl gets surrounded by big chunks of rubble and river rock that had been dug out of the ground years ago when we found an old drainage field from another project.  Those rubble pieces get warm enough to rest your feet on and warm up without burning them.  The kids had to remove all the rock rubble out of the way, and then pile it back in to the new one.  Go ahead, call CPS on me... I made my kids move rocks all day...

The finished product:

Daddy was leaving this past weekend again so he had a "Guys Day" with the boys but couldn't resist a little fun...

As he and the boys were headed to the rifle range and it was a little chilly Saturday morning so I said "hey guys, grab a light jacket"...

Here is Finn explaining to daddy that "mom said a light jacket, not a LIFE jacket"!

I love this guy :)

But last night it was time for this again.  

Someone has to earn the money around here! 

The last cold day...

I hope!  That is what is being promised...

Virginia Beach

42°F Current: Partly Cloudy Wind: E at 7 mph Humidity: 67%

Sat 52° | 43° Sun 63° | 50° Mon 77° | 54° Tue 79° | 61°

I can't believe it, but this was just down the street from me, one year ago today.  

above and below photos from WVEC-tv

No fatalities, no serious injuries - it was a Good Friday miracle for sure!

With my hopes high of being outside working in the spring warmth tomorrow, today was my day to finish up some odds and ends.  I finally got my canning closet fairly squared away.  During the winter I seem to just shove empty jars in there willy nilly as they are used, not paying attention until it gets a little precarious when the door is opened!

I actually managed to toss out enough weird random stuff that was in there to empty out a shelf for my non-canning food storage stuff:  Food Saver, jar sealer, rolls of mylar and mylar bags, O2 absorbers - stuff like that.  Before I was digging behind jars for stuff all over the place!

I actually had the motivation to sew as well this afternoon since hubs and the boys were in the backyard (in the cold!).  Here is my new layout of my crafty bedroom.  Some of you may know that my bedroom also serves as an office and craft area so I have to be pretty creative.  This tall stainless cart solves all my fabric and scrapbooking needs (and is also why my seedlings have been demoted to floor status this year!).  I still have the "craft hallway" just on the other side of that door for all my knitting and sewing paraphernalia if you recall that.

See the white table in the upper photo?  It has two leaves that fold down so it tucks nicely when not in use so the interior door can be left open.  When it's time to sew a small project now, I can flip it up without wheeling it into another room as you can see below.  For big projects like quilting or pattern stuff I can wheel it into the other room and open up both leaves.  I wonder sometimes how the hubs feels about sleeping under a tower of fabric.  Me?  I'm totally cool with it - if you are a fabric junkie you'd sleep tight too!  Today's project was simple though... create Bermuda shorts from Finn's old high-water pants...all 6 pairs of them!

He is still young enough to think it's cool that mom can do that!

Ta-dah!

How's that for some mileage out of pants?  First they were Loch's, then Finn's, now they are Finn's shorts - ha!  Thank goodness for those side tabs kids pants have now since he outgrows the length way before the waist.  Now that I'm thinking of it, some of those pants were thrifted, so that's even more mileage!  They were all khaki-style ones kids would wear to church and nice places so I think that's why they stayed in such good shape.

I do have a mental list of at least 3 bed quilts and a few mini-quilts I really want to make, but this coming week I will just have to dream, since my presence is required in the garden!

Until then, I will use my library card to dream in the evenings!

Rush was right...

HA!  Made you look!  I was referring to his disbelief in global warming... what the heck, where is the sun?  Where are the spring temps? It's raining here and 50º, the same as every day. Hmmmph.

I know that slamming you with photos is not the proper way to blog but I have simply lost my way and am trying to find something garden related to talk about but it's been too darn cold and wet to get anything done, so here comes the photos of everyday drudgery.

The annual murdering of the seedlings - this never gets easier, does it?

I have been very, very lax in my dinner-making responsibilities lately, and this week I am trying to accept the fact that I don't have as much time to cook as I used to and am trying to get my freezer stocked up again with ready to go meals.  These enchiladas are some of our favorite, they are perfect freezer meals.  I prefer the green enchilada sauce, but it's hard to find here except W@lmart, and we all know how much I enjoy shopping there...

Actually, I did get to Wally World the other day to pick up my new glasses and I saw something that just warmed my heart... the safest little girl in the world! 

I'm so glad neither of them were looking at my camera because I really respected the whole protective daddy/little girl/gun combo and would hate for them to be identified by me.  This guy already has prom night mapped out for sure.

 Although I prefer to be more covert, we can open carry here in Virginia and many do.  It's Virginia, after all...we love our rights, forefathers, and all that jazz and are often found with pocket constitutions on our person!  :)  Yes, it's all true.

In other news, Finnegan wears a fedora everywhere now.  Everywhere.

 Who do you think brought this gem of a test home last week?  

"They're/Their/There"... flawless!

He is my kid for sure.  I am the grammar girl, and this was a proud day for me and I know you are proud ma, you are the original grammar girl!  Yes, I can talk redneck and often do now, but you better believe I got me "my papers" saying I had a clear command of the English language first - that's right, I'm certifiable!

Loch aka "Smarty Pants"

Oh look, there's me... this was fun times.

(pause for effect)

It's really not as good a story as it could be, I was chasing Sprocket the Rocket to grab her so she wouldn't jump on guests that had come over and I ran into a doorknob.  A big, lever style doorknob.  I haven't been this bruised since hazing was legal in the Navy and I made rank many moons ago!  Lesson learned here is to not attempt to chase Australian Shepherds.  Especially ones named 'Sprocket the Rocket'.

Last night I fed my starter.

This morning I am greeted with this:

Sense a pattern here?  I'm afraid to get on the road at this point!

Today was another rainy and miserable day so I went ahead with more freezer meals, and since I obviously don't know how to measure how many beans to soak for one batch, I ended up making a doomsday batch along with some sourdough rolls to have for tonight.

 Considering the mess on the counter, I knew my starter was ready to go!

Chili made with 5,357,399 mixed beans :)

Tomatoes were definitely the stars of this batch - 4 quarts of stewed Brandywines and 4 pints of Brandywine tomato sauce went in.  I have been trying to go through my stash of remaining canning jars so I can get them cleaned and organized and ready for the season, which usually takes me by surprise every year how quickly it comes.

I have dried red chills and dried chipotle poblanos stored and sealed in canning jars with a FoodSaver so I just floated one of each on top of each batch and fished them out when the chili tasted just right for us.  

I had already eaten mine when I remembered I needed a photo... luckily Finicky Finnegan wasn't eating anything except bread so I did get a photo!

I really need to get a grip on this bean soaking thing... at least there is plenty in the freezer now!

These will probably disappear quickly though since the hubs works odd hours now and needs to take a couple of meals with him to work.  Hence the beans, I could never afford to make meat chili for this guy to eat at work!  The best chili I ever made was with elk and one other batch made with deer venison.  I am embarrassed to tell this story but what the heck...

One time we got a bunch of beautiful West Virginia whitetail venison from a friend.  Frozen, wrapped beautifully, lots of it...  but some was unlabeled.  I had a big slab thawed out and was yapping on the phone with a friend, not paying attention... I had hacked a backstrap halfway through with little stew meat chunks for my batch of chili before I realized what I had done.  In horror, I hung up the phone, managed to save 3 nice filets but ended up making chili with venison filet mignon!  Hubs is like, this is really good!  It took awhile to tell him what I had done.  I still cringe thinking about the carnage, the pure idiotic lack of respect for a cut of meat that day.  You better believe when we grilled those remaining filets with a nice butter and scallion sauce... we ate very, very slowly - and to this day they were the best steaks ever.

Great, now I'm all upset again thinking about it...

Seedlings are up!

Well, most of them.... still waiting on a few peppers to sprout.  Once again, it seems I have planted too much, ooops!  Looks like I will have enough to share again this year :)

For your laughing enjoyment... that setup is in my living room right at the front window... I expect DEA agents knocking on my front door any day now as soon as they see the flourescent light emanating from the cracks in my shutters.

When I say I'm strapped for space in here I'm not joking.  I will be able to put them on a small vertical shelving rack in the back of the house as soon as all are sprouted but I only have one heat mat the flats have to share so this was my only option!  Every year my ideas get more puzzling brilliant than the last...

Life is demanding oodles of time right now, I'm still waiting for that winter "slowdown"!

Loch did his first "marathon" last weekend.  He ran the Operation Smile "Final Mile", which is the last mile of the full 26.2 annual Shamrock Marathon here in Virginia Beach.  I had to meet him and the hubs down at the Oceanfront and it took me awhile to find him... there were 4500 kids from the surrounding cities there.  That's a small percentage of our elementary students here but when they are all crammed onto 2 blocks of Atlantic Avenue it made finding him pretty difficult!

that's a lot of kids...

There he is!

Here's a video of the start... he's the one jumping with his friends in the green caps and red shirts -

Loch on the sand at the finish line, not even looking winded :)

Not one to let his brother hog the spotlight... Finn showing off that he was the lightest of his group and therefore could actually make it across daddy's bicycle parts invention without his feet dragging on the ground!

Now for this other matter, SPRING... it's the first day of spring on the Virginia coastline and we are forecasted to get SNOW tomorrow!  So no, the garden is not cleaned up yet... still waiting on those warm days to arrive!

For the Family!

This is the 3rd time I have tried to publish this... our winds are being clocked here at 67 mph!  Taking power hits and hoping my internet stays long enough to post.  I sure hope you friends farther inland and north"er" than us are doing okay with this storm, it's just wind and rain here, no snow.  Stay safe!

I've been meaning to get these videos up for 2 weeks now. This post is mostly for the family that misses out on the kids' events, one of the reasons technology is so great for military families!  Of course if swimming doesn't bore you to tears, you may enjoy it as well!

I apologize in advance for the loud yelling... it's a pool, they aren't very quiet places :)

We will start off how every good American sport should... with our National Anthem!

Please forgive me for straying sometimes from the lane I'm focusing on, I am also a Stroke & Turn judge so while I'm filming I'm actually having to judge 4 lanes of swimmers on technique - I actually never get to watch my own kids swim at the meets because of this, so I requested to have the lanes where they were swimming this time.

Finn 25m Freestyle

Finn 50m Backstroke, 2nd place

Loch - 25m Freestyle

(he is 2nd in from the right, ignore my dyslexia in the video)

Loch - 50m Backstroke - 1st Place

-what kills me here is look how slow he is, even in 1st place... imagine how fast he could be if he could swim against faster kids and not stop and do his hair and makeup at the turns LOL

This was the last meet of the season, so they do a "Coaches Relay", the kids love seeing their coaches race!  Funny thing you will notice, our team only has 3 coaches instead of 4 so for the second swimmer they subbed in an 8 year old kid!  Although they were last in this video during the 6-8 year old meet, they did the same race again an hour later with the 10-12 year olds and again subbed in a kid and took 4th place.... shame, shame on the coaches in 5th and 6th LOL!

I saved the best for last... check out the oncoming lifeguard as we were leaving...

I may be showing my age here but...

all I could think of was...

...Bluto!

Quick "Deal" Alert!

Right now Amazon has the Hunger Games Trilogy Kindle edition for $5... yes that's 5 bucks for all 3 books.  Now is a good time if you have been holding out!  These usually don't last long, 12-24 hours so get it quick!

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