I did not know that!

You know I'm quite a fan of fresh produce during the summer. I have access to it pretty much every day. I learn little things here and there about vegetables and fruit that I find quite fascinating for some odd reason. Anyway, yesterday after I had loaded up my car at the Nest and was waiting to leave, the farmer called us over for a little meeting before heading out. He does this often and our meetings are kind of more like mini sacrament meetings or missionary moments lol. He's so funny. Well, he told us a few things that, again, fascinated me. So I'm passing them on. We just got some red potatoes and garlic to sell at the stands. He kept emphasizing that we needed to tell people they were "new" potatoes. I thought this just meant the variety like CJ Hale peaches or brandywine tomatoes. Nope- new potatoes means they were dug this season. The potatoes in the grocery stores are old- as in "last fall's harvest and they store them" old. Same with the garlic- "freshly dug" was the tag line. And then! ( I know, the mind reels that there could be more), come to find out the same thing happens with apples! That's why they're all waxy and crap. The apples in the stores are from last fall's harvest. If you stop to think about that, it makes sense. Apples aren't even on yet...dah. Just so interesting to me.

Next, as you can see, my vast vegetable patch is finally producing! I've got yellow long necked squash and roma tomatoes. I've got to call Katie for her bruschetta recipe. I've also had a couple celebrity tomatoes but I eat them before I remember to take a picture of them. haha No cukes yet, though. I'm kinda sad about that- just lots of blossoms. Maybe I should do what Tagge's did and just uproot my life and become a farmer?

A few $50 renovations

I get the painting itch every so often...ok about every summer I've owned my house. I think the only things that haven't been touched by paint are the stairwell and the upstairs hallway. If you've seen my ceilings throughout the stairs you know why I'm not touching those. :P I love to see what color can do for a room. My project this summer was my "office space." One day it aspires to be a guest room/office but for now, its just "office" space. After much thought, I decided to go with something simple. Simple lines and simple colors. Here's the results!

This is the taping job that I eye-balled. Nope- didn't use a level. Just Grandma's old yardstick and a red pencil.

The paint drying. Want to sit and watch it with me? The base wall color was supposedly white. You know that nasty white that contractors use on EVERYTHING?! But put white up against it and you have gray. Add blue and your lovely blue turns to an even lovelier periwinkle.

This is one half of the room. My computer used to sit on this old kitchen table. I was going to get rid of it, but after thinking about it, I've decided to keep it for now. It will be perfect for scrapbooking or cutting out quilt squares or ..........something.

This is the other half of the room. Yep, that's the desk that used to be in the hallway nook area. And that's the nightstand that goes with the queen size frames that live under MY bed for when the aspiring office makes it to guest room. Follow that?

Being that I was trying to keep my mind off the events of this week AND I had a little extra paint, I went for it and did the extra bathroom, as well. I mean, why not coordinate the paint in the guest bathroom with the paint in the "guest bedroom?" Luckily it matched the shower curtain I already had and some odds and ends. The opposite wall that you can't see is the snow white of the stripes in the office.

I think that covers all my projects for the summer except my final DI run. I've got piles all over the place! If I ever move again, it will be bare essentials. :)

Irony

I just finished reading this book on Monday at my fruit stand. Its another recommendation from Meg. She always finds the best reads. Its a sort of biography, I guess you would say, about a man who has lived in 3 centuries. He is the grandson of a slave and has a mind like a whip. His dad told him when he was little "Life is so good and its only getting better." He lived by that philosophy his entire life. He's now over 100 years old. At 98 he decided to go to school and learn how to read. He hasn't missed a day since. Truly inspiring.


Switch gears. That same Monday evening I get a call from my mom. My 3rd niece has been diagnosed with lymphoma. She's 10. How do you wrap your head around that? Within a matter of hours, she went from being kind of tired to spending the next 6 weeks in a children's hospital with treatments that will be unimaginable to me. My parents are going to be with their family tomorrow. I don't understand it. I'm not asking to. I was blessed to be able to come through trials in life with a cheerful disposition, being happy, knowing that my Heavenly Father was with me and my family. I suppose this is one of the trials. I'll have to keep George Dawson's philosophy in mind over the next few weeks.

"Life is so good and its only getting better."

Such good reading

I've been reading this summer. Not as much as I had hoped, but reading, nonetheless. As I've mentioned, I already finished 1776. Took me awhile, as its not really light reading, but it was totally worth my afternoons and time inbetween saying "Nope- Utah corn will be on in about 10 days..." This is the next book I read. I swallowed it whole. And then I immediately called my sister who recommended it to me. I was in tears more times in this book than I think I've ever been in any other book. Each time I remembered it was a true story, the more astounded I became. I'm obviously recommending it. Its truly an amazing tale about the human spirit, about America, about the power of believing in a Heavenly Father regardless of your religion and about the power of an individual. Beautiful work.

The Reason we loved Kansas

While traveling back across the country with Meg and her family, we fell in love with Kansas. Who knew it was so beautiful? Maybe it was just the time of year or something but we took our sweet time going across the amber waves of grain. We stopped in a little town we affectionately refer to as Radiator Springs to grab some lunch at the local A&W. On the way out of town, we stopped for gas. I ran inside to get a beverage for the road and found this postcard. We got back on the highway and I showed Meg my memory of Kansas. She was suddenly jealous and bribing me with everything short of a plane ticket to her house in the fall! We stopped in the next town to see the Prairie Museum and had to make 4 separate stops at gas stations to try and find another postcard exactly like this one. Nope. I apparently have the only copy in existence. She has since begged for it for her birthday and just for being a great sister but I'm keeping it. :/ I DID promise her I'd scan it in and she can copy it. So Meg- this one's for you!

1776- again.

I just finished reading it yesterday in the hot afternoon sun. Wow. I've had several people ask me about it while I'm working at the fruit stands. What did I think of it? Is it any good? Is it really well researched or just another typical American Revolution story? So let me tell you. I thought it was one of the most well written, well researched books about our country I've ever read. *granted, that's short list* Yes, its very good. I don't know how some one could read it and ever feel the same about our founding fathers and the early immigrants. I think it should be required reading for every high school senior PRIOR to graduation. I've recommended it to everyone who's asked me about it. And even some who haven't. I could go on and on but you'll have to read it yourself.

My next book selections are from my sister, Meg. *like that's a surprise* I'm starting Same Kind of Different as Me while I sit in the sun today. And then Life is so Good after that. More book reports later.

July 4, 1776 and 2009

I've been reading 1776 this summer as I work at the fruit stands. Last summer was John Adams- now 1776. Its given me a lot to think about and a lot to be grateful for. As it IS the Fourth of July, 2009, I thought I'd share some of my thoughts. First, I'm amazed at the research of David McCullough. Wow, how I'd love to have dinner with that man a couple times. Next, how can people deny the hand of God in the founding of this country? In getting this country a constitution and government that is suppose to function FOR the people and BY the people? Don't worry, I'm not going to go all government right wing on you- I'll leave that up to Meg :D. However, reading the circumstances under which our ancestors fought for this country, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone of them saying God wasn't involved. With that in mind, this is my little tribute for the United States of America.
I live in a free country where my niece was able to get baptised today into the true Gospel of Christ on this earth. I might add, this country was founded so that the restoration of that religion might be possible.
These are three of my nieces and nephews. I live in a free country where they are able to get an education, have medical care, walk down clean streets and live in homes with comforts other people don't even know about. They'll grow old and be well taken care of.

This is one of my nephews celebrating our freedom with a sparkler. As Meg reminded us tonight, John Adams said we should always celebrate with our families and throw big parties. We do that well.
These are my siblings Meg, Herc and Emi. I live in a free country where I was able to grow up with all of them. None of us were sold off to slavery. None of us have ever had to fight in a war. None of us were ever separated due to civil war or religious persecution.

While I know none of the men and women from 1776 will ever know about or read my little blog, I'd like to thank them for their dedication, their perseverance, their belief in what they were doing. Happy Independence Day!

Sleep over with the nieces!

My two oldest nieces live in a galaxy far, far away. Therefore, we can no longer have sleepovers as we used to do. So since they are here for a couple weeks, of course we had to have one! The littler kids were having them left and right between grandma's house and Aunt Emi's house. Nancy and Molly were just not quite feelin' it. Aunt Fame to the rescue! We had my semi-annual shoe and jewelry clearance sale out of my closet and they took home some pretty sweet deals for the low price of free.99! Then we went shoe shopping at DSW and scored some major bargains on way cute shoes for all of us. Afterwhich, dinner at the Mayan since the girls had never been there. We watched The Moon Spinners later on and then the next morning, returned to Bath and Body for more great deals at the summer clearance sale. Yay for us! We finished off the day with some garlic pizza for lunch and then Night at the Museum II. So much fun! Wish they were closer to do it more often but grateful we got to do it at all!