The garden basket has been full and overflowing the last few weeks. It's been wonderful, and when I have felt myself feeling slightly overwhelmed at the massive amount of veggies and work, I remind myself of the blessing it is to have an abundant garden.
The can cellar shelves are starting to fill up and the freezer is full of berries, and there are still more to be picked and preserved. Simple but busy work to keep the hands busy and the heart full.
We recently returned home after spending about a week in South Carolina with our friends. It was such a refreshing visit, and neither Brad nor I were quite ready to return home. They really are like family, so we always feel right at home when we stay with them.
But alas, here we are and we returned to some craziness indeed. There were various happenings that kept me very busy and a bit on edge, and Lily (who recently started treatment for Lyme's disease) had a bit of a relapse that required an ER visit Sunday night. I had to take Ian to the doctor yesterday to get his finger lanced after he got stung by something in the ocean while at SC and it got infected. It's just been crazy and strange, you guys!
Lily... oh I feel so horrible for her. She's been laying around in bed since Sunday morning, so sick with the Lyme's as well as from side effects of the antibiotics she has to take. It hurts me to see my kids sick, it really does. I'm doing my best, feeding her nutritious foods and loving on her bunches, but she is so nauseated that she basically has to be forced to eat. I called the doctor today and we're going to give it a couple more days before we discuss possibly switching the med. She's on amoxicillin which is actually much milder than some of the other meds used to treat Lyme's. I'm really praying that she begins to tolerate it better so we can stay on course. So for now I'm trying to push protein-rich foods and giving her a daily probiotic.
We came home to a flourishing garden! It always amazes me how much a garden can grow in a week's time. We've been enjoying the bounty of those beautiful plants. Grilled veggies. Blueberry pancakes. Cucumber salads. Bags of berries for the freezer.
I'm also fermenting two jars of cukes. Fermenting is my absolute favorite way to prepare pickles. I throw in a bunch of garlic and some red onions as well as some dill, and the end result is just amazing! Pickles prepared this way never last long in our home.
I've also dove into the world of kombucha brewing. Our SC friends' neighbor brews his own and had some SCOBY's that he gave me to start my own. As with most things, I just jumped right in. I spent quite a bit of our drive home online researching kombucha brewing. The SCOBY is so strange looking. It actually looks and feels like a piece of raw chicken. It's very alien-like!
Today, I'm immersed in laundry (like most days) and preparing for an upcoming yard sale that I'm having. And I'm on my second cup of coffee which hasn't happened in a LONG time. Just need a bit more of a boost today.
Have a good one!
I spent the ENTIRE day in the kitchen yesterday. ENTIRE day. Cleaning, boiling, peeling, cutting, and canning tomatoes. By the time I finished up around 6:30 p.m., my hands were wrinkled, rough, and burning. But stepping back to admire the 22 quarts of garlic tomatoes and the 24 pints of salsa felt pretty darn good. I decided that this was going to be my last big preserving week. My focus this week is to get as much of the canning/freezing done as possible. I made dilly beans a few weeks back so I'm planning on making at least one more run of those. Good grief, were they yummy. And then I definitely have more herbs to dehydrate for the winter. I am so thankful for my dried organic herbs come winter-time.
We recently had the opportunity to visit the Creation Museum in Kentucky. We spent three days there two weekends ago. Children are free this entire year with each paying adult ticket. We've been interested in going, and the free tickets were certainly reason enough to make us squeeze this trip into our busy schedule.
We had an amazing time, and we all learned so much. I came away with a much better understanding of how dinosaurs, dragons, the Ice Age, and many other things fit into the young-earth equation. We listened to a most interesting and informational speaker who explained how the six days of creation are supported by the Hebrew language to be six literal 24-hour days. This was something I didn't have much knowledge about prior to this visit. We attended a workshop on the Ice Age with Buddy Davis, and the kids got to sculpt their own sabertooth tiger head.
We came home refreshed, educated, and with a bunch of resources, books, and DVD's that I plan on using to supplement our science curriculum this year.
And while upon the subject of homeschooling, we started our studies several weeks back. We've kept a loose, more relaxed summer schedule the whole summer through, but have been more intentional the last three weeks. The photos above are of the kids doing a taxonomy project last week. I was admittedly dreading this activity because I thought it might overwhelm them (and me.) Lily was a bit overwhelmed, but Ian enjoyed it way more than I ever thought he would. He organized and classified his Legos, and I was very impressed with how he chose to organize them. His mind is very tidy in this aspect.
Over this past winter, I had joined Audible's monthly plan which means I get one credit per month to use towards audiobooks. Most of the audiobooks are worth a credit so I'm basically getting one audiobook a month. This has proven to be a treasure in our home. I found some old desktop speakers in the basement that I plugged into my Kindle. We've been listening to audiobooks while we do chores, while we relax, and while the kids play quietly. I just purchased a kit that will enable me to plug my Kindle into my car and play the audiobooks while we're driving. We recently finished up reading Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time 
. I was going to order the next book in the series but, instead, decided to download the audiobook. I just have to say that I really love audiobooks. And my Kindle. I listened to The Hobbit yesterday while knee-deep in tomatoes. It really feels like I'm multi-tasking! Haha!
