August in Bloom

Mom's crepe myrtle is beautiful this year.

I guess this is a lily of some sort.  Mom has them in planted in 2 places.  The ones at the side of the house bloomed once and haven't bloomed again but these in the front have bloomed all summer.

Daddy loved moss roses so I always plant some.

I don't know what these light purple flowers are but they're pretty.  They're planted in a container out by the shed.

I can see this flower bed from the kitchen window.  We just sprinkled some packets of flower seeds in the bed and it's been so pretty all summer.

This strawberry planter belonged to my mother-in-law.  We meant to plant strawberries in it but we never did.  Phillip brought this petunia home one day and planted it there and it thrived.  It's part of my view from the kitchen as well.

We planted marigolds in the vegetable beds this year.  If you look closely you can see a tomato on the vine.

This little sun flower sprang up in one of the tomato beds.  The poor little fellow is trying his hardest to bloom.

Lucy is really proud of the flowers she "planted" in the sand box.  When she got finished, she said, "Ta Da!"  She was proud of her garden.

July

 Lilly tried on Devin's motorcycle helmet.  Lucy thought it was interesting but she didn't want to try it on.

 Our garden has been producing overtime.  We've canned lots of green beans, tomato sauce, relish, salsa, and pickled green tomatoes.  We put squash and zucchini in the freezer. 

 Lucy and I made a tutu. 

 The kids have been swimming in my brother's new pool,

 and in our much smaller pool.

 Caleb, Jack, and Sam came for a few days.  The cousins enjoyed spending time together.

 I let Sam go swimming in his clothes.

 This is the water fight section of a long battle with Hannah pitted against Caleb, Jack, and Devin.  Hannah eventually took them down, but a couple of days later, they got her back.

 The computer and Wii got a real work out while the boys were here.  Jack is letting Lilly have a turn while Caleb watches in the background.  Caleb is playing a game that he wrote all by himself on the computer.

 Rachel and I took Sam and her girls to the park for a breakfast picnic one morning.  Sam declared that he was a pirate so I couldn't take his picture, but I managed to get a couple of him.

 He liked the dolphins that spray mist.  It was a hot morning so it felt good.

 Lucy had a good time.

 Lilly liked the mist, too.

 Sam and Lucy played a duet.

Lucy's Tutu

Lucy spent the morning with me.  We used some rolls of tulle to make a tutu.  She loved twirling in it. 

Mama's Recipe Box

Mom was a very good cook, a talent that skipped right over me and thankfully landed on my daughters.  She has a shoe box filled with recipes.  Most of them are clipped out of newspapers or magazines but some are hand-written.  I love looking at those and I thought I'd share them occasionally.  This first recipe is one of her specialties.  She loved this dish and so did the rest of the family.  She sometimes even tried to make a little section without cheese for me.  Mom was thoughtful like that.  She used to say she wondered what she did to make me dislike cheese since she loved it so much. 

Spaghetti Bake

1 1/2 lb. ground beef
1 cup chopped onions
1 garlic clove minced (dash garlic salt)
1 (28 oz.) can cut tomatoes
1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 (4 oz.) jar mushrooms drained and sliced
2 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. basil, crushed
8 oz. spaghetti cooked and drained
8 oz. pack of mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup parmesan cheese

Cook ground beef, chopped onion, and garlic until beef is brown and onion is tender.  Drain off fat.  Stir in tomatoes, tomato sauce, mushrooms, sugar, oregano, salt, basil.  Bring mixture to a boil and boil gently for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove sauce from heat, stir in cooked spaghetti.  Pour half of spaghetti and sauce mixture into a 13x9 baking dish.  Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.  Add rest of spaghetti mixture.  Top with parmesan cheese.  Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

I didn't seriously proofread my typing of this recipe so use her instructions and ingredients if there's a difference between hers and mine.  

Working on the Den

We finished painting the den last week and had new flooring put down yesterday.  I like it a lot.  We still don't quite have everything organized but it's coming along.  Our next project will be the bathrooms.  That's a bigger job than we can tackle ourselves so we'll need to hire someone to do it.  Our hold-up is finding someone reliable to do the remodeling.  If anyone knows of someone in this area they would  recommend, please let us know.

Utility Room

I finished painting the utility room.  I didn't do a perfect job but I'm pleased with it.  Phillip put up new shelves and I reorganized and decluttered.  It still looks pretty cluttered but it is a utility room, after all.

New Car

We down-sized from our mini-van to a 2011 Mercury Mariner. It runs when I turn the key. It goes forward in D and backwards in R.  It stops when I put on the brakes. It has a/c and a heater that work.  It tells the outside temperature.  It's automatic.  I think I can park it. It does lots of other things I don't understand and don't really care about.  Those are the things that are important to me.