what's the story morning glory?

sometime in august i began to seriously neglect my garden.  my beds are overgrown, my containers are dead - its not a pretty sight.  i finally mustered up the courage to walk around and access the damage...formulating a plan for fall clean-up (which i have to admit i love just as much as spring planting) when i spotted the morning glories. 

what a mess they are making!  they have wrapped themselves around the hydrangea bushes and up the birdhouse pole.  they are hiding among the bushes and between the pots.  they will require a lot of time ripping out...........but how can you be mad at them? 

all around i see red and yellow leaves - maroon and orange mums......i must say a pop of blue here and there is quite nice. 

so i suppose i'll keep them where they are. clean up can always wait a few weeks more.   



Breakfast for dinner

when you start the day off poorly.....

late for church so no time for breakfast

cookies and coffee during sunday school

dad surprises the family with candy bars from work

juice and cookies as the "after soccer" snack

its nice to end the day with a homemade dinner that everyone loved..........potatoes with peppers and onions, cheesy eggs and french toast.

our daily walk - a new favorite

for the past 8 years i've driven my boys back and forth to school.  neither one of them wanted to take the bus so we didn't force them.  this year however - that all changed.  our oldest son started a new school with an earlier start time so driving him to school was just not something i wanted to do.  since the oldest was now taking the bus - our youngest son wanted to as well.

the picture above shows half our driveway.  the other half winds to the right before winding back towards the street.  its a nice long walk...and since we've had crisp, cool mornings since the first day of school - its been a beautiful walk.

our oldest only has one trip up in the morning and back down in the afternoon

our youngest makes the trip twice in the morning because he likes to see his older brother get on the bus.  even our dog makes the trip with us - which is no small feat for our 15 year old yorkie-poo!  most kids don't want their parents hanging out with them at the bus stop.  our oldest doesn't mind - and that is nice. 

then in the afternoon my husband and i make the walk back down to greet them - and together we walk back home....and in those 5 minutes we talk - about school, about the bus, about girls.

soon the weather will change. 

 it won't be so nice to make the long walk to the bus stop.  it will rain.  it will snow.  it will be freezing cold. 

so until then we'll enjoy what we have.  our 5 minutes together as a family - no tv, no video games..just our quiet daily walk.

can you?

(yes i am getting goat milk squirted directly into my mouth!)

cook two dinners

while cleaning out the fishbowl

and having a live chat with a verizon representative about adding new services for your business...

all within 30 minutes?

if you are a mother i'm sure you can!

what amazing feats have you accomplished today?

as summer ends........

even though it felt like summer ended with the first day of school - the true end of summer comes later tonight as we welcome the season of autumn.  i'm definitely feeling the shift - and the sense of being off balance - that the transition brings.

so before i begin to revel in the excitement that autumn brings - i want to share a bit of how we filled our summer days.

country fairs full of food, friends and smells (good and bad!)



amusement parks filled with old favorites and new thrills...some local - some worth the drive



hikes through woods, across boulders and up waterfalls

swimming in pools, lakes and creeks

all in all a wonderful few months! good bye summer!

you know - maybe i'm wrong afterall

for the first time in a long time - i laced up my sneaks and hit the pavement.  when i first started running (and before my recent LONG hiatus) i would run inside on my treadmill.  i didn't want to be seen as the big girl who was walking more than she was running. i was embarassed by what i couldn't do vs being proud of what i was doing.  once i got better i would occasionally venture outside.  i would drive to a park where i was sure to NOT run into anyone i knew.

but what i really wanted to do was wake up - lace up my brooks - and start running.  it bothered me that i chose to *drive* to a place to run when i could easily run around here. not that i have anything against driving to a trail - we have some truly beautiful trails around here that are full of runners.  its just that i would use the "having to drive" as an excuse.  often i'd say i didn't have the time to drive to the park - run - then drive back home.........so i just didn't do it.  now granted - my neighborhood is not a great place to run either ( i live surrounded by country roads full of wicked curves, blind hills and speeding drivers) but really it was just another excuse i could use.

well yesterday i decided i was tired of the excuses.  i was not going to drive to a park.  i was not going to be afraid of the speeding cars. i was not going to care about people thought of me.

i got up before work and ran....and as you can imagine it wasn't pretty.  i ran a bit and i walked too.  since it was before 7am there were a lot of cars - and alot of buses on the road.  there were parents and kids at the bus stops. i was immediately self concious of walking.  of FAILING at running.  i pictured everyone seeing me and thinking "haha - look at her.  she's too out of shape to run!  if she were thinner she could run!"

well - right then and there i said STOP - ENOUGH ALREADY!  you see, i've been reading dr wayne dyer's book excuses begone! and it has really made a difference in how i view my excuses.  i didn't beat myself up for having the excuses - i simply acknowledged them - and let them go.  then i shifted my perception.  what if the people in the cars and on the buses, the parents and kids at the busstops...what if they were thinking "man, i should really start running" or "good for her for starting" or what if they weren't thinking of me at all!!!! i thought about all the times i've driven by someone running or biking or walking...i have never really noticed them - let alone think something negative about that person...so why do i think that people would notice or even think that about me?? 

what a nice shift that was.  i was able to focus on what i was doing.  i was able to set mini goals to improve my running without looking at walking as a failure TO run.  not only did it feel good to run - it felt good to be wrong. how many times can you say that!

FIGS!!!!

this summer i cemented my love affair with figs.  my parents have a fairly large fig tree at their shore house that produces beautiful white ones and every weekend they've been bringing home a bunch of them.  i'm the only one in my family (besides my parents) that will eat them.  i've tried to coax my youngest into giving them a shot - he loves fruit and i was sure that if he just tasted them - he'd be hooked too!  but nope - he thought they looked weird.  the tree down the shore produces just enough to eat during the week - not really enough to do anything else with them....and i had recipes i wanted to try in the worst way.

(pretend there is a picture of a bowl of beautiful white figs here! i just couldn't seem to get my camera when i had my figs!!)

now, my parents have a friend who has a tree that produces the black mission figs.  one day he dropped a box of them off at their house but they were away so they asked me if i would take the box!  finally a chance to make my recipes! i quickly ran over then got to work.

(ok - now pretend there is a picture of a box of beautiful black figs covered with huge fig leaves here!)

i had just picked up a copy of emeril's "farm to fork" book and inside was a recipe for figs in syrup.  it was incredibly easy to make and how excited was i to actually make something that looked exactly like the picture in the book!  i made 2 pints with a tiny bit left over that i put into another jar.

the second recipe i found was for spicy fig orange microwave jam  this jam is delicious!  next time i will probably just make it on the stovetop but using the microwave was super easy.  i didn't have the right sized jars so i made a pint and a little more.  i had some this morning with some sunflower seed butter on sprouted grain bread.  i could have easily just have eaten it straight out the jar.

i am sure i want to plant a fig tree in my yard.  there are many more recipes i want to try and there are just not enough figs to go around!

soon i'll make the time

i'll get back to blogging - the more i am away the more i find i miss it so!

 i love uploading my pictures and picking out the ones i want to post.  i love writing about what's going on around me. i love being forced to slow down and notice the moment - the day - the season.....and finding the beauty in it - the part i want to capture and share. 

i keep telling myself and my friends - "i'll get back into the routine soon". i just need a few more days away to close the summer with my family. 

just a few more days...and i can't wait.