Infection Control!

With school comes more exposure to germs. Sure enough I have some kids that are already fighting colds. Aaron was the first to come down with it, then Natalie, then Emily. The ones that are still well are a little nervous about getting sick, too.


Today, Beth found out that I have some masks in my storage, and hopefully not too late, she pulled them out to try to protect herself.
Natalie, one of the worse offenders of spreading the germs, decided she wanted to wear one as well! We are trying to teach her to cough into her shirt, she's slowly getting the idea, but she'll probably be over it by the time she is productive about it.
Maybe this will help!!

(Sorry the picture is blurry, Melanie was playing with the settings on my camera earlier and I didn't know the manual focus was turned off!)

ParKour

Ben had an assignment at school this week to get a picture of himself doing something he likes to do. I thought these turned out pretty cool...

This one is my favorite!! It so looks as if he is walking up that wall and he's just going to keep going!!!

AMAZING!!

Still Harvesting!

I am amazed at how well my gardens are still doing. Yesterday, this is what I picked out of my very own yard!!

I thought I was losing my zucchini plants. I thought for sure these would be my last harvest for them. The big leaves were dieing back. Yesterday, I noticed there was new growth on every one of the plants. So I did the only logical thing to me, I started cutting out all the dead or dieing branches. I'm hoping that will rejuvenate them and I'll be able to glean a few more good zucchinis out of them, afterall.

My pumpkin plants are dieing back as well. I was very disappointed to have only gotten one big pumpkin out of the two plants. At the beginning, we had several baby pumpkins, but the first one took over and the rest all died out. I must have done something wrong. Anyway, the pumpkin is just about ready a whole month early. (Note to self...next year, don't start pumpkin plants early in seed starter pellets with everything else!!)

My bell peppers are about the only thing that isn't doing well at all. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong, but they are shrivelling up and yucky before they are ready to pick and eat. I've noticed they are doing that up at the ward garden as well. I'll have to do some investigating.

Can you believe all those tomatoes and cucumbers?? I didn't even try to count the tomatoes. I think I will try to make some salsa or more tomato sauce with those. I don't know what to do with all the cucs. We eat cucs everyday, but not that many. We picked about 50, in all sorts of sizes. I really should get a good dill pickle

recipe and pick them smaller and just pickle them. Hmmmm.

The potatoes plants in the front yard are getting so big and seem to be doing well, too.

I feel very blessed and am already making notes and plans for next year. It is very rewarding to grow so much food right in my own yard!!

First Week of School!

We've actually had a good first week of school. We are slipping into a nice routine fairly smoothly! This is about all I really like about school is the routine it forces us into. I like the early to bed, early to rise philosophy. Well, I guess I also like that they are not on the games systems quite as much, too. Last week was a fun week for most of them, get to know you games and let's see what you remember from over the summer.

This week should be a little more involved with homework schedules starting. This is the part I mostly don't like....Homework patrol! I always have to watch close to see who it is I have to "sit" on this year to make sure things get done. I like to start clean each year because eventually they realize that it's tons better to get the homework done on their own, rather than have mom on their back! So I try to give them a chance to shine and figure that out. Who will it be this year?

I want to post the first day pics...



This is the usual scene we get for early morning scriptures and prayer!



Here the High Schoolers are ready to go right after 7am prayer.




You can tell by their faces, who is excited and who is NOT!!

I made poached eggs on toast for our first day back as requested! We qualify for free breakfast and lunch at school this year due to our lay off. So I probably won't be making big breakfasts everyday this year, for the most part anyway. The kids don't seem to mind at all, I guess school lunch isn't what it used to be (most of the time, anyway)! I like it because they are at school earlier, we should have less tardies this year. I can hope, can't I??



Tiff kind of feels left out, she thinks she should go to school, too. She has to wait another year.




Steven is next to leave. He's my only Jr. High this year.




Then last, but certainly not least, the Elementary kids leave.


You might think I would get lonely with only the two girls to tend, but there are still several people hanging around. My mom is back from spending the summer with my sister, Jon and Melanie have varying schedules, mostly night shifts, though. And for now, Doug is hanging around, too!

Back to Square One!

I am sad to report that we were informed that the job we had been hoping for in Lehi was given to "the other guy". I think I am more affected by the let down than Doug is. He's disappointed but not as much as I am. It's so hard to understand the why's sometimes, we just need to have faith that something better is around the corner. And be patient.

We are now back to square one again in looking for a job. Doug did get an email from Zion's Bank of a position that just opened up. He is investigating his options again.

Fun Food Blog!

I have really enjoyed a new Recipe Blog I recently found and wanted to share with you!!

Mama, I'm Hungry!

I put the link on my side bar, go have a look see!!

Hey Jenn, she found your Provident Pantry Blog through my commenting on her blog and your Squash recipe was featured today!! I thought this was cool since she mentioned your blog and she is visited from all over the world!!

One Week Left!

I'm not sure where summer vacation has gone, but we only have one more week til school starts, and I can hardly believe it!!!

There is so much to do to get these kids ready!!

I'm not so sure I am ready for this. I like having a routine, earlier bedtimes and getting everyone up and going earlier, but I really don't like homework patrol, or how strict everything needs to be in order to run smoothly. I guess I need to just stop fighting it, it's coming, whether I like it or not, and make the best of it all.

Still no word on the job, Doug's lunch went really well, we think. I hope we find out this week.

Great Sales!!!

I know I am a little weird when I get excited about food storage sales.

But I do and I guess I am!!

Macey's has some great food storage sales this week and I just wanted to share the news.

Wheat 45 lbs pail for only $15.99

Other items are wheat gluten, dough enhancer, powdered items, water storage items, the list goes on and on. You can go to their flier to see more details. Go have fun and beef up your storage!

I'm off to go shopping!!

PS. According to Doug, the lunch went really well. We did hear that they called all his references and his boss said he'll be surprised if he doesn't get the job after all they had to say about him! But alas, we're still waiting to hear of their decision.

"Let's Do Lunch" - Probably a Good Sign

I'm not sure about you, but I sure feel like this job is being drug out to what seems like forever!! But I guess it's not a bad thing if they haven't said no yet.

They called Doug on Thursday and asked him out to lunch! So, he is going to lunch with the guy that's hiring, his boss, and two other guys, tomorrow. I guess that's a good sign, would you take someone out to lunch to tell him sorry, we're hiring the other guy?

We don't know if they are taking both out at different times, just to get to know each one better. Could they both be that close? We are still praying that all works out the way HF wants it to.

I'm just having a hard time waiting and not knowing. Doug really hasn't been job hunting any more, not really on purpose, though. He's been trying to get ready to teach a class at the UTOUG Sigfest in September (good exposure). He has to have his presentation in by the 14th.

I just hope we get this job and we haven't lost this last month waiting for it.

More Tree House

I'm still trying to play catch up on this Tree House.

Next we put up the walls over the framing.

We had to paint some of them before putting them up because they were going right up against the trees. We quickly found out we needed to protect the wood not only from rain, but from our neighbors sprinklers, too! So we started priming and painting as soon as we could, even before they were all up!

Next was the Roof! The kids are way excited about this roof because it will also be another deck to climb up on! I will feel so much better when we get the stairs and railings up!

Doug working on the overhang, upside down!!

The caulking we used on the deck was already cracking so we had to get better stuff and recaulk the seams, Doug grabbed the camera and said we had to have some pics of me working too! So here I am recaulking the deck and priming the inside of the Tree House.

As though I don't have enough pics in this post, I thought I would throw in a couple to show off our awesome trap door!

Keeping Our Fingers Crossed & Canning, Canning, Canning!!

Doug talked to Gerry (the guy hiring) at Young Living yesterday, and it looks like we are in the top running. He said they were trying to decide between Doug and one other guy. He asked for work references and recommendations and what he wanted as salary (don't you hate that question?) You never know what to say, either way you could shoot yourself in the foot. Doug told him it would be negotiable. We are exercising our faith, that if this is where he's supposed to be, it'll all work out. We hope to know by the end of this week, but it could drag into next! Keep praying for us!!

I've been way busy with preserving and canning all sorts of things from the gardens. Today has been green beans and tomatoes. I still have to wonder if all the work of home canning is worth all the work when we can get such great deals on case lot sales. But who can complain when the food is free??? Can't get any better than that!

I got the kids involved with the green beans this morning, I could hear them fighting and arguing and told them all to come up and sit at the table. I put all these green beans in front of them and showed them how to snap the ends off and break them in half. It turned out great, they ended up having a great time, and I didn't have to do it! Even little Nattie Bug was helping. Steven had to keep an eye on her to keep her putting things in the right bucket, but they all did a great job! I wish I would have thought of it sooner. Guess who's going to be doing beans for me the rest of the summer!?!?




I posted a great Cinnamon French Toast recipe on the provident pantry blog the other day. There is also a great summer squash casserole recipe other there too, we had it for dinner yesterday! Yum!

Gina reminded me about the Bountiful Handcart days performance that Jon sang at again this year. Melanie & Shawn each had a couple of numbers as well. They did a fantastic job. I'll have to get to work on getting it on here. It takes a little more work because it's on the video camera and not my digital. Please be patient with me! :)

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House!

We almost let this opportunity pass through our fingers. I guess I was waiting for the Bishop to announce that he had tickets like he did for the Draper Temple, but he said they didn't get any tickets and we had to get online. When I checked the dates we had plenty of time. At the beginning of the week I decided to check and lo and behold we only had one week left. We had to coordinate our schedules so those who wanted to go, could go, and we went on Wednesday.

Here are some of them enjoying the cookie refreshments at the end of the tour.

On our way out to the car we kind of got split up waiting for potty breaks and such. Some of us ended up walking to the front and took a couple more pics. I wish the rest of the kids were there, but they had already headed to the car, oh well!