Cool Beans, Among Other Things

Bean tepee a few days ago.

Bean tepee this morning.

Those purple flowers are going to turn into PURPLE beans. Cool!

Left is a cantaloupe, right is a hubbard squash. I need to add the next wood piece to the trellis.

That's zucchini number three. I'll probably pick it tonight and make it dinner.

Apples

Grapes

The yard/garden is slowly beginning to yield the first bits of the harvest that I've been anxiously awaiting since February. Besides a handful of cherries from our tree, I've gathered several bowls full of spinach, about 10 pea pods, two zucchinis, 1 yellow squash, and 2 beets. Sadly, those 10 pods are probably all I'll get out of the peas this year. When the first round of them got sprayed with round-up accidentally by the farmer next door, I tried to replant, but by then it was just too hot, and they have been limping along ever since. I don't think they'll last much longer.

But other things in the yard are doing well! Our apple and peach trees are loaded. And unexpectedly so are our grape vines. I wasn't planning on a lot of grapes this year, what a nice surprise! All the squash plants are thriving and starting to climb their trellises, except for the sweet meat squash which the voles got. Grrr! And one of the two mini pumpkins which didn't get enough water. Our tomatoes are big and bushy and have green fruit on them. One of my goals this weekend is to get out and prune them and train them to grow around their cages better. The beets are getting big. I still can't tell if I"ll get enough of them at the same time to try pickling them, but I hope so! And the bean tepees are so awesome! I love coming out each morning and seeing a noticeable difference in how tall they are. And the purple beans just look cool. Cool beans! Hooray for gardening, it's always so fulfilling when you get to start harvesting things.

We had a great Father's Day...at least I hope Aaron did, we (the kids and I) tried to make it good without adding to the already stressful Sunday routine. We made him a nice pancake breakfast. Some of the kids made cards. Adelia was one of them. She was supposed to be making a card for Aaron, a card for Papa Kerry, and a card for Grandpa Swan. When I came up to see her cards, I found two bottles of poster paint dumped and smeared and layered onto three pieces of paper. I knew that was never going to dry in six billion years...so everyone just got a texted picture of their Father's Day card from Del. There are some days when I'm positive that her "great ideas" are going to kill me. I want to encourage her creativity, and I try my best to, but it's exhausting. 

A few days after Father's Day was Aaron's mom's birthday. Aaron's brothers and their families and Aaron's parents came over for dessert. It was a perfect summer night for a party. And the almond cheesecake from Kneaders was incredible. 

Back row: Esther, Kelly, Chuck, Debbie, Adelia, Ryan, Melissa, Aaron, Krystal, Ruby
Front Row: Ollie, Lincoln, and Ivan

The things you have to do to get a good picture! #leaningtowerofbackyardjunk

Our sports schedule had been a little intense the last two weeks. But Lincoln wrapped up his tennis session, and now baseball and tball are over. All the kids did well this season. My week day evenings are going to feel really empty and boring without any games to go to. Good thing the USA Olympic Swim Trials have been on TV the last few nights. The kids and I have had a blast watching those. And it's getting me pumped for the Olympics in August. I love the Olympics. It's the only reason we even own a TV.

Ollie and Cal's room is coming right along. I've made some good progress this week. Aaron's mom and I made a run to IKEA to pick out some curtains and to buy a few spice racks. The curtains are PERFECT. I originally thought I wanted gray curtains, but I am so glad we got the white ones with the gray and yellow pattern instead. The white keeps the room light, and the pattern adds a nice detail but doesn't stand out or over power the trees. (I'm trying to keep the trees as the focus of the room, and I don't want to add a bunch of other things that would make it feel too busy. I want this to be a calm, peaceful, happy room.) The curtains are floor length, so Aaron's mom is going to cut them off and hem the for me, and then use the extra material to make a floor pillow for the reading nook. The reading nook is just going to be on the floor in between the corner and the end of the bunk bed. I painted the spice racks yellow and hung four on either side of the closet doors and put all our picture books in them. I love how they turned out!

Currently I am about half way done sanding down the changing table. I've got the outsides all done, but the inside and underneath is proving to be difficult because the sander doesn't fit into all the nooks and crannies. I might have to use a paint stripper, which I was hoping not to have to do. But I really want to stain the changing table (as opposed to just painting it), because I feel like stained wood has a homey, cozy vibe to it which I'd like to maintain in the room. I feel like if I paint too many things a solid color (like I've already done to the dresser, nightstand, rocking chair, and book shelves) that the room will start to take on more of a modern vibe, and will start to seem sterile or unfeeling. Which I don't want at all. So I'll do what I have to do to make staining it work out, if I can.

I took the kids to the library yesterday....what a nightmare. We made the mistake of going right in the middle of one of the summer reading programs, so there were about a billion people and strollers, and no books left on the shelves. Ugg. Someday I'm going to start my own private Summer reading program. Somehow, even though every book my kids were initially hoping to get was checked out, we still managed to end up at the check out desk with 150 books. Only one of those books was for me. A Man Called Ove. I was supposed to read it a few months ago for book club, but couldn't get a hold of a copy. I managed to sneak in about 30 minutes of reading yesterday afternoon, it was glorious. And so far, A Man Called Ove, has had me laughing out loud in more than a few places.