July 25, 2013

farmer jen

Our garden this year has been a mixed blessing. We are grateful for the abundance of veggies but frankly it's a real mess. To  much rain has the weeds out of control and the supports to the tomatoes flopping in one direction or another.


This is two days tomato harvest if you could believe it! I don't think we've ever had to break out the canning jars so early in the season for tomatoes but we are overrun. And that's a good thing! It's no lie when I tell you we eat them for breakfast lunch and dinner..


After we put all of those extra tomatoes thru the mill, cooked and canned them it amounted to 14 quarts of tomato puree/juice. Now we can use to make sauces, soups, bloody mary's, or to just drink fresh tomato juice whenever we like. We'll do this canning several time this season hopefully and have enough to last thru the winter plus to give as gifts.



I already showed you the finished product, my pickled beets already canned in my first smart phone post the other day here. This is what they looked like before. Have you ever eaten the greens? We even cooked the greens with some onion, bacon and a touch of cider vinegar and ate them with dinner.


We had to pick our potatoes a few weeks early so we didn't get as many as we had hoped. This is the basket of the larger ones. I also have two more baskets of medium and small. They should last many many months if we keep them cool and dry.

Is anyone doing any gardening this season. How's your garden growing? 

July 24, 2013

my crush

My friend Paula is doing a July Blog Challenge. If you click on the link below the banner that says Paula's Place it will take you to her blog if you'd like to join. If you click here it will take you to the list of daily topics for the month also at her blog..



TODAY’S TOPIC
Who was my childhood celebrity crush?

Do you remember the movie Sandcastles? I would be surprised if you did. It came out in 1972.  I remember being absolutely crazy about it's male star Jan Michael Vincent. Here's the story....Jenna is a lonely  musician, who meets a stranger Michael played by Jan-Michael Vincent

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Their romantic meetings are on the beach are something of a mystery since everyone she knows tells her he doesn't exist; that he was in fact a criminal and was killed. There are very strong feelings between the two and I remember being completely enamored with this story and him after seeing this movie.

I was 12 at the time.

July 23, 2013

day or night

My friend Paula is doing a July Blog Challenge. If you click on the link below the banner that says Paula's Place it will take you to her blog if you'd like to join. If you click here it will take you to the list of daily topics for the month also at her blog..



TODAY’S TOPIC
What is your favorite part of the day and why?

I grateful for any day I wake up happy and healthy! That being said I do have the most energy in the morning provided I get a good nights sleep and I usually get a burst of energy about 8:00 p.m too. Comes in handy to get in a bit of tidying up or for doing a load of laundry in before the end of the day. 

But as far as one particular time, I have no favorites!

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July 22, 2013

what bothers me

My friend Paula is doing a July Blog Challenge. If you click on the link below the banner that says Paula's Place it will take you to her blog if you'd like to join. If you click here it will take you to the list of daily topics for the month also at her blog..



TODAY’S TOPIC

Jen’s five biggest pet peeves.

1. I despise poor customer service. Drives me crazy when I’m in a store or buying a product and the person who is helping me would rather be at the dentist. Even worse is when I call to have a complaint/concern addressed (and I’m being respectful) and the person on the other end isn't addressing my problem because they’re too busy taking my complaint personally instead of doing their job.

2. I do not like when adults especially parents forget what it’s like to have kids. It’s seems to me some seem to have short memories and are the first to complain when kids have a temper tantrum or cry in public. You know who you are dagger eye throwers! I don’t know about you but my kids were not angels; are you shocked?? And since they did not come with instructions we learned together, oh the horror. Glass houses people, glass houses. Next time you see a kid meltdown in your local store or restaurant. Take a moment to remember.

3. People just don’t see and respect the elderly as much as they should. Please hold the door open for my 85 year old mother if you see her standing there with her cane. And that goes for all the elderly who appreciate the kindness and even a hello and how do you do. Older people deserve the respect and do not appreciate having doors closed on their faces; but adore a bit of polite attention.

4. Excuse-rs get a grip. Take personal responsibility for what you do and say crying out loud. Stop the dumb excuses. Nobody wants to hear you!

5. I get bothered when people are rude or when they say hurtful things to workers like waitresses, waiters, bartenders and check out people in the market. (basically minimum wage workers) who work harder than you can imagine for very little pay. If it's their view that these jobs which are to serve somehow gives them the right to treat these workers as servants thus subservient then they're SO wrong. To me they're just rude bullies. 

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July 21, 2013

body image

My friend Paula is doing a July Blog Challenge. If you click on the link below the banner that says Paula's Place it will take you to her blog if you'd like to join. If you click here it will take you to the list of daily topics for the month also at her blog..



TODAY’S TOPIC

What are your thoughts on how the media portray body image for young girls.

I cannot stress enough how many times I told my girls that starving skinny as a stick is not cool.  Don't even get me started on girls who think acting dumb is cute...drive me crazy. 

Dumb is dumb, having brains is attractive. 

Girls need to call on both their intelligence and their emotional intelligence to wade their way thru this. 

We HAVE to teach our kids just as we teach them to walk or talk; why not make sure our kids we teach them to love and care for their own bodies. 

How? 

Eat right, exercise....

Don't let them be inundated so that they believe images from mags, TV of bony models, and TV stars are the norm. Let me just say another thing that I've said before in another post this challenge; kids need to be kids and not be overly sexual in how they dress. 

I also think parents have to help them build healthy self esteem by being loving supports to their daughters relationships, academic and sporting activities. What our goal is as parents is to help our girls to feel as comfortable as possible in their own body/skin. 


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July 20, 2013

jerk

My friend Paula is doing a July Blog Challenge. If you click on the link below the banner that says Paula's Place it will take you to her blog if you'd like to join. If you click here it will take you to the list of daily topics for the month also at her blog..



TODAY’S TOPIC

Write about the worst or the best date you've ever been on.

Before I met my husband I dated upon occasion but not frequently. Basically I had been involved in another relationship for a few years before him and wasn't in the dating pool.  But when I was dating there was this funny thing that happened that sorta fits this topic.

I was living in an apartment with my dog Baine and my cat Tinkerbell. My date let's call him Mitch came to pick me up for a dinner date. I let him in and he was sitting on the couch while I grabbed my keys and such. 



My dog went over to do his usual once over smell to check the guy out and the guy kicked him. Seriously WTF! Apparently not a dog lover my date....I turned around walked with him to the door (he thought we were leaving together). When he stepped over the threshold I told him to have a nice dinner by himself and that I didn't date ass holes who kicked dogs. Then closed the door on his face.

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July 19, 2013

well isn't she special!

My friend Paula is doing a July Blog Challenge. If you click on the link below the banner that says Paula's Place it will take you to her blog if you'd like to join. If you click here it will take you to the list of daily topics for the month also at her blog..



TODAY’S TOPIC

Write about someone you really care about.

I was reminded today in a conversation about the fact that you can pick your friends but you can't pick your family. It was about something else but it got me to thinking about who I'd write about in this post.

As I mentioned the other day in my about me post,  I have two brothers and no sisters.  I am lucky enough that I do have someone who fills that special role in my life. She's both close friend and confidante. We talk all the time and we have a comfortable loving bond that transcends friendship. There is no way to know for sure, but I often I imagine that's what a sister would be. 

I'm talking about my sister in law Denise. 

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July 17, 2013

more bs about me

Sorry for the disappearing act my friends, DSL was out. I hope you don't mind that I'm going to jump right back in although I missed a whole bunch of posts! 

My friend Paula is doing a July Blog Challenge. If you click on the link below the banner that says Paula's Place it will take you to her blog if you'd like to join. If you click here it will take you to the list of daily topics for the month also at her blog..



TODAY’S TOPIC

Tell us seven random facts about yourself.


  1. I'm the only girl and the middle child.
  2. Other than my morning coffee I do not consume caffeine drinks at any other time of the day. The reason is that I found I sleep better without the added stimulation. 
  3. I love to cook and I do so pretty much every day. 
  4. I suffer from chronic migraines and have since I was in my twenties. Now that I'm over 50 they're getting a bit better but I still get one or two a month. (with daily medication)
  5. I'm a bit of a clean freak. Or rather I should say I'm one of those freaks that likes to clean. It makes me calm.
  6. The three places I'd like to visit on vacation are... Prince Edward Island, Canada, Cork Ireland and Yvignac-la-Tour, (Brittany) France. My grandparents or other ancestors are from these places. 
  7. I am a court appointed Guardian for a Intellectually Disabled Adult who is a family friend.

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July 10, 2013

Not...Wordless Wednesday

I'm on my smart phone so I'm not sure I have this is going to come out.

My DSL is still not working. so to keep myself busy, I've been pickling vegetables. I've done 9 quarts of beets.

Then tragedy of all tragedies one of our tomatoes fell over and we couldn't get it to stand again so; I made eight quarts of pickled tomatoes. Four different varieties. (Basic pickle, hot, garlic. & curried)

The phone guy is supposed to to come tomorrow. hopefully! He better because I'm running out of vegetables that need pickling!!

I'll get to comments once my DSL is back.
Miss You...

July 6, 2013

15 minutes at sea

My friend Paula is doing a July Blog Challenge. If you click on the link below the banner that says Paula's Place it will take you to her blog if you'd like to join. If you click here it will take you to the list of daily topics for the month also at her blog..



TODAY’S TOPIC

If you could spend 15 minutes with any celebrity who would it be and why?

I have to admit I'm not a big fan of  any one classic celebrity "movie stars, musicians, tv celebrities and the like" so this was a hard one for me.

Being a typical Pieces and lover of any and all things related to the ocean however there was someone who entered my mind when mulling over this question. He might seem rather untraditional in the sense of celebrity but I think he's great.

 It was Jacques Cousteau. 

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Of course it would be very difficult for me to meet with him for 15 minutes since he's been dead since the late 1990's. But since I like him so much I named him anyway..and it is my blog so I get to break a few rules now and then. 

If you're not familiar with him he was a wonderful explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, scientist, photographer and author who studied the sea and the creatures living in it. Gosh I remember being a kid glued to his documentaries on T.V. What an amazing man he was!

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July 5, 2013

Making my day and so much more...

My friend Paula is doing a July Blog Challenge. If you click on the link below the banner that says Paula's Place it will take you to her blog if you'd like to join. If you click here it will take you to the list of daily topics for the month also at her blog..




TODAY’S TOPIC

Post a picture of something or someone that made your day special.

Independence Day  is a rough holiday for me . On the third of July seven years ago our daughter Gretchen 30 and our son Eric 23 were killed in a horrible accident here on the highways of Virginia. 

As I reflect on my loss I cannot do so without also reflecting on the many blessings of our family, friends and a faith that continue to lift me up and give me strength. 

This part of the challenge was a no brainer for me. He not only makes my day but he is my rock.

My husband Bill...


Bill standing in our tomato garden. 


July 4, 2013

If wishes were horses

My friend Paula is doing a July Blog Challenge. If you click on the link below the banner that says Paula's Place it will take you to her blog if you'd like to join. If you click here it will take you to the list of daily topics for the month also at her blog..




TODAY’S TOPIC

If you could rid the world of one thing what would it be? 

War, poverty, prejudice..all of them jumped into my mind one after the other right off. 

War, poverty and prejudice...Is one more insidious than the other? What I know is the world would be a much better place without them. I honestly can't say if one is the root cause of the other two but I have my suspicions that at the very least they're connected at the hip. I honestly can't say if one were eradicated if that would relieve the peoples of the world in whole or in part of the others.  That's for you to judge.

That being said since I have worked with the poor in the past and that is not only my history but where my heart is.

My choice is I would rid the world of poverty. 


"If wishes were horses then beggars would ride"





July 3, 2013

Dim the lights the shows about to start...

My friend Paula is doing a July Blog Challenge. If you click on the link below the banner that says Paula's Place it will take you to her blog. If you click here it will take you to the list of daily topics for the month also at her blog..




TODAY’S TOPIC

What was the last movie you saw in the theatre?

I have a confession to make.... I'm a bit of a movie junkie and we have a large collection in our home. Give me a good action movie, spy or thriller and I'm a happy woman. The only thing is I really don't go to the movie theatre all that much. Reason? When I do go I'm usually miserable since I have RLS. (restless leg syndrome) Yes people I'm that annoying person in front of you who can't sit still.

Anyhoo, the last movie I went to see was Skyfall, which was the latest of the James Bond movies.

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I know everyone has their own personal opinion on who their favorite 007 is. I gotta tell ya. Daniel Craig has won me over and is my favorite. Seriously people the guy is gorgeous and he's got and body that doesn't quit! Did I mention the baby blues?

Oh! And btw the movie was awesome!

So what was your last movie?  And while you're at it you might as well tell me who your favorite 007 is too!



July 2, 2013

Listen baby!

My friend Paula is hosting a July Blog Challenge. If you click on the link below the banner it will take you to her blog. If you click here it will take you to the list of daily topics for the month also at her blog..



TODAY’S TOPIC

If you could give a newborn child one piece of advice what would it be?

My advice would be to relish every moment of your childhood if you can. I see so many children rush to grow up and miss all the fun and wonder of being a child. Enjoy your innocence, explore, learn, dream and play.


You will be a grownup soon enough. 


July 1, 2013

Goals for July

Sorry for the disappearing act last week! I went to visit some friends and ended up spending a week. Bill God love him stayed home and hung out with Mom so I could really have a nice visit.

I find the problem with taking those types of blogging breaks especially right on top of my vacation in the Bahamas is it's really hard to get back into the routine of blogging.

Especially with the hot lazy days of summer here. Lazy being the key word here!

Anyhoo...I did check out a few blogs that I read regularly since I've returned and my friend Paula is doing a July Blog Challenge. If you click on the link below the banner it will take you to her blog. If you click here it will take you to the list of topics for the month also at her blog..

I think it's a perfect way to get back into the swing of things for July. If you'd like to join us, here's  her link below, all are welcome!

Paula's Place
MY GOALS FOR JULY ARE:

  1. To keep up with picking the weeds in the gardens.
  2. To keep up with the vegetables in the garden. Sometimes the heat and bugs make it tempting to skip a day of picking and that's just  a waste of good veggies.
  3. To read more books. I've gotten out of the habit of reading the past 7 years but I really need to buckle down and read more.
  4. Exercise, the treadmill is collecting dust! 
  5. Do a bit of entertaining. Invite some couples that we are friends with over for dinner. We just don't do enough of that any more. 
So tell me dear blog friends. What's going on with you this July. Plans? Goals?