One of my favorite things about carving pumpkins is what comes out of the slimy inside of the pumpkins — seeds! While I have fun watching daughter carving, I comb through the slime, separating the seeds from the orange goop, anticipating the salty, crunchy goodness to come. Continue reading
So, it appears at least two of my pumpkins have survived their battle with the squash vine borer. I say appears because I won’t totally believe it until the pumpkins are orange and decorating my front steps. But really, it’s been about 6 weeks since the vine borer first reared its ugly head. Since then, I’ve lost at least a half dozen tiny pumpkins. Continue reading
Yes, it’s a little late, but we finally got a couple pumpkins carved for Halloween. Well, daughter did the carving, but it got done. She found a Mickey Mouse pattern, drew it on, then carved away! I think she forgot how tiring it can be because she decided to freehand the second pumpkin, which is still being worked on as I write this. Continue reading
If darn dog Chloe had her way, she’d be back to her old ways, sleeping on daughter’s bed, jumping up on the couch and running around the back yard, barking at the neighbor dogs out for their daily walks. Three and a half weeks after having surgery to alleviate a bulging disc in her spine, you’d be hard-pressed to notice anything wrong with her if it wasn’t for the strip of shaved hair on her back. Continue reading
I think the worst of Hurricane Patricia remnants is over and fortunately, it wasn’t too bad for us in central Texas. It really didn’t start raining hard until late last night/early this morning. I woke up when I heard thunder and lightning, followed by pouring rain. Continue reading
The clouds look so cool in black and white, don’t you agree? And while the weather forecasters can’t decide whether we’ll get 4 inches or 12, the sun decided to shine between the rain. No you can’t see it in the photo, but it’s there. Continue reading
While watching the weather tonight and texting with my sister about all the rain we’re supposed to get here in central Texas, I started thinking about snowstorms in Wisconsin the last few years we lived there. I thumbed through my old Facebook photos because I know I used to be somewhat obsessed with snow photos. Continue reading
A month ago, my crape myrtle was full of blooms — beautiful, pink, velour-like blooms. They’ve mostly been gone for the past few weeks, until a couple days ago when I noticed a corsage-size bunch of them blooming near the bottom of the shrub. Continue reading
It’s only two months into daughter’s junior year, and it’s quickly becoming the most exciting year for her. She wasn’t but a week or so into the school year when she brought home an order form for a letter jacket. She surprised me when she said she wanted one because I always thought she considered them silly. Continue reading
My pepper plant may have been loyal, but it finally had to go to make room for the pumpkin plants. I had been training the vines in circles around the two far left raised beds, but the 8 feet just wasn’t enough for them. Wanda, the longer vine, had already grown through the cage holding up the pepper plant. So it was adios, see ya, dasvidanya for the peppers. Continue reading
Chocolate Chips and Chaos 