Home for the Holidays, by Thomas Kincaid

Monday, July 19, 2010

Happy July Day!

The gardens at Mount Vernon

"Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is
jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief
that all's right with the world."
- Ada Louise Huxtable

Happy July day! I hope that all is well with you and yours. Summer is rolling along here. The days have finally grown hot, but they don't bother me. Of course, I am indoors during the worst of it and go outside for work in the cooler evenings. I putter in the garden with the cats by my side. They spend their days under the cool of our neighbor's bushes, but as soon as they hear me moving around on the back porch, they jump the fence and are with me in no time.

The veggies are growing quite well. I am watering them less this year and they are doing much better. I am embarrassed to say that I watered way too much in the past - ah, the learning curve of beginning gardening. Unfortunately, some of my plants could not survive the humidity. This year, my pumpkins are all doing great. I have my first ripe tomato and the peppers are ripening their first fruit. The corn is getting tall. I am only concerned about my cucumbers. I am keeping an eye on them. Green apples hang from the tree and there are even a few peaches on the small peach tree this year.

The children are spending a lot of time at the pool with their friends. They leave the house for their water fun bundled up with towels and sunscreen. I use the time alone to calm my brain from a house full of kids and laughter.

We are hoping to go camping in August, someplace fairly nearby and scenic. It will be really nice to get away from phones, to have a break from daily chores and just be together.

How are your Summer days going? What are your plans?

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Usually, I post my week's menus on Mondays. However, I am confronting this week all out of ideas about what to have.

For one thing, I cooked a huge pork roast yesterday and am looking for ideas about how to use all the leftover pork. I got it for only 99cents a pound (wow!), but now what do I do???

Here are my favorite cooking sites, if you are also looking for ideas.

Mennonite Girls Can Cook

One Perfect Bite

and OF COURSE,

I'm An Organizing Junkie! (for menu ideas)

Have a great one!
Elizabeth

3 comments:

Myrnie said...

Fun! Our Best Bites I think has some great pork recipes- Sara served her mission in Brazil, she knows her way around that kind of stuff :) (We were in YW together.) http://ourbestbites2.blogspot.com/2008/12/pork.html

Seems like Pioneer Woman also has a recipe for leftover pork...carnitas, with a splash of lime juice and chile...yum!!

Sybil said...

Hi Elizabeth, Our summer has been great so far this year what a change from last year which was a complete washout ! we have had at least 3 great weeks !!! still very hot today however heavy rain forecast for tonight, just hope it remembers to stop !!!
Busy here with the hospital run once or twice a day...today only one run so having a bit of a rest tonight. My dear Brother in law is still very poorly and we still await definitive news about the future another meeting is being held on Friday..so praying that we will have some news then...
Love Sybil x

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