Saturday, July 10, 2010

We WON!

We were in Brady today for the baseball tournament. We needed to win one more game to win the championship.

It was tight. Tied 2 to 2 for three innings. Tucker stole home on a wild pitch to give us a one run edge and the win! Victory is S W E E T! Hats off to Brady's team. They were tough and played great.

For someone who didn't know "jack squat" about baseball in April, I think I'm hooked now! I've had a blast watching the kids. I adore the other baseball parents, they are an awesome group to hang out with! This has been a very FUN season and I look forward to the ones to come.

Thanks Matt and Joe for coaching the team; you guys rock!

Congrats Tigers! Way to Go!

Friday, July 9, 2010

Peppers n corn

I'm glad I've worked diligently the last month to mulch and weed. Today I am totally unmotivated, I am resting on my laurels, taking a break to take it all in. Its been a busy two months and this week, it caught up with me.

I'll not have the luxury of sitting back this weekend though. We have baseball games tonight and tomorrow and a Jr. Rodeo on Sunday. I have a NAJPA article begging to be written and a fabulous book to shape. I could begin ki readings as well as countless other to-dos that have been on my desk for days now! But, its summer time and I'm really starting to figure that out (so I'm not the sharpest needle in the basket!)

I savor being able to kick back and relax in the summer. I just forget from time to time that I AM THE ONE who has to DO IT!

I have grand ideas of golfing every morning next week; I may just pull it off to, the boys will be in sports camp and it is half way there so *sigh* I might as well just not go home, right?! That's my awesome excuse anyway.

The garden is coming along, perhaps its too early to say for sure but things look healthy, green and growing. I picked five Early Girl cherry tomatoes today but with BS around, they didn't stick around for a picture. I see blossoms on several and a few green orbs so I'm hoping the 'maters take off soon.

I'm sure this "lazy streak" will pass soon, perhpas in time for canning season which is just around the corner. I do look forward to it, though it is hard work. I'm out of my t. soup (red gold) and so that is motivation enough to get after it.

I see its nearly 4:30! I better hit the shower and get my game face on. Go Mayville!

Melons cukes n squash

Beans peas n corn

Onions and potatoes

Thursday, July 8, 2010

The River


Remember I said I would post pic of rainbows? Here it is. I've loved looking at rainbows since I was a young girl. Every time I see one it is always a good omen. No matter what I am doing, no matter what I am worried about, it's always turns out great. I make a wish as soon as i see one and then..............I send my hope to the clouds.

Parker's birthday was on Sat. We took a four hour tube trip down the beautiful Niobrara River. Though I would love to say it was "heaven" with an 11 and 9 year old, it was not exactly that. It was loud, it was fun but it was certainly NOT peaceful. There's something about being on the river that makes the world right though, even in the face of distraction and brother fighting.

When we got back to camp, we promptly fired up the grill and ate a quick bite. Then it commensed to rain. For a while, it poured. Parker's cake was a soggy, damp mess, so we bypassed that and went straight to opening presents (he didn't mind, this is a child that requested watermelon in lieu of cake for his 6th birthday!)

We had a fun night, in spite of the rain storm. The boys got to camp and Mama got a real bed (I used to love to camp but NOT with a cranky 5-year old. No Thanks!)

I captured tons of pictures as I stood in awe of this brilliant rainbow. I am pretty sure I know where my post of gold is!
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Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Just Go To The Garden!



As my disorganization would have it, when I went to make crispy tacos for lunch today, I realized I was out of a few key ingredients like......lettuce. If I were out of a lot of items it would force me to drive to town to make a grocery run. Being out of one item doesn't warrant the gas.
I did have a red pepper and an onion. I can create a masterpiece with just one onion so I didn't worry. I see these situations as a way to exercise my cre8tive abilities, that said, some days are not as "sharp" as others. I can get by though and luckily my family isn't too picky (BS is excluded, she's a ranch cook's nightmare but that's another story!)

While I was chopping up the pepper and warming the meat, I remembered that I had a slew of spinach still in the garden. I figured if my family is as tired as I am, perhaps they won't notice that I slipped spinach into the taco and they would possibly eat it anyway? As I was cutting the delicious and very large leaves, I spied my ever-growing cherry tomato plant and with "adult on-set ADD" I found myself admiring the pepper plants and noticing the lavendar that has failed to take off and oh my! What's this? To my sheer delight, I noticed the red leaf lettuce that I planted in April is actually growing. *SHOCKER* I had already pulled one wilted plant and left the other because I'd gotten distracted (not a surprise at all around here). So with a skip in my step I siddled on over to the lettuce plant and pruned away! Yee Haw!

This may sound really crazy but I did forget all about growing this lettuce! Who needs a trip to the store when one can "just go to the garden"? From July through October, the living garden does become my grocery store. I send the kids out for beans, peas, corn, cucumbers, melons, tomatoes or whatever else may be growing out of control to appease the appetites of my family. There is nothing better than feasting on fresh produce that you've grown yourself from a tiny seed Mother Earth has grown for you just by dropping the seed into the ground and adding a little water!  It is one of the wonders of the world!

Dinner was amazing, by the way. We had grilled tacos, topped with red leaf lettuce, sauted onions, garlic and red peppers. I ate entirely too much and I may or may not have slipped into a dark, cool bed room to sleep it off. I'll never tell and neither will Marley, we made an agreement already!

Next on the list is tackling the mountains of laundry that have accumulated (again.......no surprise there!) I recieved what looks to be an AMAZING book from a dear friend of mine in the mail today call "The First Lamp" this will be perfect for my intention next week of living in a hammock for at least a day. (Da da, Da da, Da da.......will I really pull it off? Stay tuned to find out!)

And for those of you following my posts on facebook...there's been no further mountain lion but we did see two mysterious aircrafts over our canyon last night around 11 pm. To their surprise, we were NOT in bed. We decided to light our family fireworks on the 5th of July instead! If we believed in UFO's we'd be posting messages, photos and videos to various internet websites today. These were certainly "unidentified" or at least, not claimed by any agency or person that we've contacted. Surely they aren't looking for a mountain lion that doesn't exist? Its probably a stray dog that they were after!  Ok, enough of the sarcasm! I'm extremely pooped after wrestling with three children along the Niobrara River this weekend. I am retiring my position of "the cool mom that takes her kids on amazing adventures" to the "boring, homebody-mother that never goes anywhere fun"! If I am lucky I may have all of this crap put away in a month!

Golf is just around the corner though, so I should probably rest again! If you know my husband and read this blog, please share with him your amazement at what a hard worker I am. He's way too busy to read my posts, so hopefully my secret is safe with you!