Oh My Gosh, Where Did The Summer Go?

Whew! Life has turned insanely busy with the whole kids-back-to-school and me-back-to-work Season...

The Unnamed School District I work for, in their infinite wisdom, moved me to a brand-new Special Ed. classroom this year. Which they neglected to tell me was (under)staffed with unqualified, crazy people who had no business or experience working with Special Needs students - which I guess worked out OK, they all quit or were scared off after a couple days.

I kid you not - 3 weeks into the school year we have gone through, let me count... 3 Lead teachers, 4 assistants and 6 Classroom Support Teachers have come and gone (Yes, even the die-hard Support Teachers like me! Except I haven't quit!).

Oh, and did I mention the Administration's belated "apology" for placing the children with the highest needs (serious behavioural issues!!) here in my classroom when they "realized some staff might not be the best fit..."(Absolutely true story. But that's the short version. Ah... really, it's a story better left for another time.)

I'm not here to vent. I swear. It will get better. It WILL.

I'm here to share the little "Field Trip" the kids, dog and I took to my Mom's garden. She somehow lives out of the cool zone that we're in, and her little green acre is still producing enough for a small country.

We hung out for the day playing in the garden, visiting Grandma and picking veggies. The dog couldn't believe all the wide open space. He was happy, happy, happy. Only, when we pitched rotten tomatoes to the sidelines, he somehow thought they were tennis balls that he needed to chase, poor thing.

My daughter found her very own 8-lb baby zucchini that for reasons unbeknownst to me, she HAD to name Marge. It'll be great for zucchini bread anyway. Sorry Marge.

I thought the praying Mantis I found among the beets was far more interesting, but my bug-phobic offspring weren't so thrilled...

Then there's this great shot of my Mom and her ten-foot tall sunflowers! She's so proud of them! The pic doesn't do them justice however. They (flowers AND my Mommy) are WAY more gorgeous up close, of course!

We came home with boxes of produce; tomatoes, giagantous beets, peppers, turnips, corn, squash, parsnips, cabbage, greens and potatoes... (again, crappy picture - my BUG pictures are better than the veggies lately - what's up with that!?!) that I happily froze, canned, and cooked up into all sorts of garden yumminess. I feel like I'm ready to hibernate and face the winter with my pantry (and freezer) well stocked.

Happy Monday.

Good-Bye to the Garden.

:Sigh:
It was just last week that I took these bright, cheerful, green garden pictures.
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But looking out today, I sadly realize "gardening" is probably, officially over for the season, (save for the kale we'll be able to harvest all winter long).
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I love my garden and the vegetables we harvest; the work and time we invest, the weeds we pull.
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It's very much a part of our summer routine even though my kids aren't always huge fans of weeding in the hot sun or picking slugs off the tomatoes. (Secretly they love it. They do. I swear...)
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Regardless of my kids' opinions, I for one am sad to see it all tired and wilt-y, with powdery-mildew taking over the last bits of zucchini and squash.
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We didn't do a whole lot of variety this year, I regret, now, that time got away from me this spring.

But as always, I have bigger, better plans for next year.
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Who knows what the new season will bring!?!

Happy 4th of July

No parades or picnics here, we stayed at home like the boring people we are...

No, seriously, I used today as an excuse to finally get my back patio cleaned up and all 20-something pots cleaned out and replanted with flowers and herbs... I know it's late, but we'll be enjoying them through the end of September easily...

The Sprouts were a huge help today! We worked hard transplanting, cleaning, scrubbing the cement, cleaning the furniture, splashing the hose....

Afterwards, by popular demand, my oldest Sprout made everyone's favorite: Taco Ring which I guess I've already posted somewhere back in the foggy past.

EDIT: Please note I finally linked to the Taco Ring recipe for those who are lazy like me and didn't want to dig for it .

(Ignore the Mike's Hard Lemonade bottle in the picture... we were celebrating America's Independence... or something...).

We had some beautiful Rainier cherries from the Farmer's Market, to go with.

Then we sat on the back porch, enjoyed the flowers and plants, ....and the view... of hundreds of dollars worth of incredible, amazing (and most-likely illegal) fireworks that our neighbors for miles around were setting off ... beautiful.