Okay, this isn’t just one week, but some photos from the past few weeks. Welcome to our crazy life…
The strawberries have been incredible this year. Because of an unusual amount of freezing temperatures this winter and early spring, the California strawberry crops lost many of their early blooms but came back strong with heavily flowering plants. My local organic produce stand said it looks like the strawberry crop will be going strong for at least another month. I am not complaining.
Cherries are in season now, too. The kids love them.
Most importantly, we are consuming at least 2 sweet, crisp watermelons per week. The baby is pretty serious about watermelon consumption.
My amazing sister-in-law, Lindy, came home for a visit from El Paso. Her husband is in the Army and they are stationed out there…expecting a baby due in the end of July. I don’t even even want to think about finishing a pregnancy and having a newborn in that kind of heat. Pray for her, will you?
This is a picture of my girls with their cousin. This is as much success as I could get grabbing a photo of all three of them.
Lindy is a little better with a camera, though, as you can see here with the most beautiful photos of my girls I’ve ever seen.
If you are in Southern CA or El Paso, and need some good photos, make sure to check her out!
Meanwhile, back at home, we had to adopt a Plymouth Barred Rock rooster- ain’t he cute? He was a backyard (illegal) chicken, so when the family started waking up to some crowing, they frantically searched for new home for this guy. He’s a sweetheart and actually lets us hold him because he was probably held every day of his life so far. My other roosters don’t know what they’re missing! The little bird on the right is one of my new chicks…I keep getting silver chicks from a black rooster and silver-laced red wyandotte hens. Weird.
Here are some shots of some beautiful early summer produce that spoke to me at my farm stand. It’s so pretty. I’m hoping some recipe ideas will speak up, though, because I have a lot of vegetables sitting in my kitchen right now. For some reason I picked up at least 12 heads of garlic. They were so pretty- tight and purple. I love it when garlic is still purple. You know? No?
Anyway, the girl at checkout actually asked me why I was getting so much garlic. I told her I was planning a garlicky chicken or duck recipe…which meant I would have to kill one of my ducks…which I’m totally not ready to do because they’re so stinkin’ cute…until they all have quacking contests outside my window at sunrise. Having a duck for a recipe wouldn’t be such a problem if I kept our shotgun next to my bed. (I’m kidding. I don’t kill my animals this way.) The fact of the matter is that I could eat all of the garlic in two days…easy. I would roast them all and either eat the brown, caramelized garlic goodness straight up or slathered on buttered bread. I would eat this all. day. long. I won’t do it, though, because my husband says that when I eat only one head of roasted garlic in a given day my body emits a strong garlic stench for days.
I KNOW! I’ll pickle garlic cloves! I’ve always wanted to do that and never have. Yay!
Sorry, I’m rambling. Here are the photos.
Yes, that is a crap-load of fresh herbs: parsley, cilantro, and dill. I have NO CLUE what I’m going to do with them. I kind of picked them up hoping someone would look at me thinking “wow, she must really know how to cook with all those herbs” then randomly come up to me and ask me if I blog so I could tell them to check out Real Food Family.
Ummmm….yeah. Pride is never a good thing, especially when it leaves you with five pounds of fresh herbs going bad in your window sill, two of which are dill! What the heck do you do with two pounds of dill?! At least they’re sitting in cute vintage mason jars.
Now for the Tipi. Teepee. TP. Whatever.
Here’s my hot hubby setting it up on a hot day. I was inside the whole day drinking lemonade and not helping.
What! There were dishes and laundry to do…that didn’t get touched.
How cute are my girls? Don’t ask me about their clothes. They were trying to be authentic.
Actually, I wanted to let you see their tan lines so you know it’s hot enough already to hit the beach and pool. My burn-resistant kids get tan so fast. It’s really not fair.
This is a real tipi, by the way. I grew up with it every year in my neighbors’ yard. The neighbors moved last year and after three years of us begging them for it, they graciously “loaned” it to us. Hopefully they’ll lose our phone number.
The reason we have the tipi up is because it is TOO HOT in our house during the summer. Some nights my mattress is so hot from being baked all day that I have to soak a towel in water then lay it down as a sheet. I was really looking forward to sleeping in the tipi this year until I opened the door during my little photo shoot and found these…
Yes, that’s a black widow on the right. A really big one. I want to throw up just looking at it. And get this, only this morning I was feeding my chickens and I heard a rattlesnake rattling close by. I screamed for my husband to come save me and we never found the snake. On top of that, the neighbors are telling me to brace myself for a lot of tarantulas this year because of how many earwigs we are having.
Awww, did you think I lived in paradise? It is really great for some of the year, but the summer sucks. I think about other places to live every day, believe me. Magical places with plush green grass all year ’round…a little snow in the winter and a little warmth in the summer but mostly 70 degrees all the time. There would be no rattlesnakes, poisonous spiders, tarantulas or other creepy things that can kill you. Would you please let me know if such a place exists?
I’m actually really grateful for the abundant blessings God has given us- including where we live. We are on three beautiful acres only 30 minutes from the beach. I have nothing to complain about…I just have to learn how to co-exist with these gross creatures and not let them totally freak me out when we cross paths.
Do you have any creepy creature stories to share and encourage me with? I actually find your horrible stories encouraging knowing that I’m not alone.
The only other thing I have to share is that on Friday I finished my third year of directing high school performing arts at Capistrano Valley Christian Schools. It was an amazing year and I love my job/ministry as a teacher. Here is my cast of “Anything Goes” at Orange County’s Segerstom Center for the Arts, with me and the kids holding our trophies from the 43rd Annual Macy Awards. I’m to the right of center in the back (you know, the one who isn’t 17) holding our school’s win of the prestigious “Theatrical Excellence” award. It was kind of a really big deal.
Have a great week!
