It's never too late to ruin your life.

That seems to be the theme of this year.  I keep hearing about people I know, or people I love, who I considered to be in a safe-zone, who have ruined their lives.  Old people, who are in the coasting time of their lives, mess it all up right before the end.  Young people who stayed chaste and made great sacrifice to serve missions, and were sealed in the temple, have wasted it all.  I don't know what it is about this year, but I'm hearing about it a lot, and at least twice a month, I say to myself, "It's never too late to ruin your life."  So hopefully I'll remember, and not ruin mine.

No more veggies!

Aliens have not taken over my body, and I wouldn't have believed it if you told me two weeks ago, but I've eaten enough veggies for a while.  In our farm share we've gotten A LOT of greens.  When we'd decided we had enough was when we got turnip greens.  They were awful.  The first bite wasn't good, but it got worse and worse the more we ate it.  Paul and I are not picky eaters, but we really really hated those turnip greens.  It was like the bad taste wouldn't go to the stomach with the greens, it just stayed in your mouth building, bite after bite.  I couldn't finish mine.  Paul's face was turning red.  It broke us. 

When it gets hot outside all I want to eat is fruit and salad, and fruit salad.  But really all I wanted that whole week when we had a fridge full of greens (not lettuce people, greens for cooking) was fresh peaches.  Peaches that juice down your chin.  Peaches that fill your house with sweet goodness.  Peach pie, peach tart, peaches and cream.  That's all I wanted.  For a whole week when I thought of food, I only wanted peaches.

I called the orchard every day, and every day I heard the message that they were closed to let the red haven peach ripen, but to call back tomorrow and maybe they'd be ready.  I had a bajillion things to do, but I was ready to drop all of it the second those peaches were ready.  Finally on Friday, I heard in a beautiful country southern drawl, the message, "Wur open fir peaches.  U-pick is niney cents a pound."  And I got the kids in the car and we were there by 8:30.  We got 1 1/2 bushels.  I was in peach heaven for two days.  We ate so many peaches, including cookie crusted peach cheesecake tart.  I made 17 jars of jam, 10 jars of syrup, and new this year....  12 jars of peaches.  

It is so delicious.  I didn't intend to take a bite out of the bread, but while I was getting new batteries for the camera, I couldn't help myself.  It is like heaven.  I think if my husband ever stopped loving me I could keep him here with the bread and jam.  It's very satisfying.  He's thanked me 4 times already today.

If I can scrounge up enough money, I'll get another bushel this month for more canned peaches, and for two new recipes I'm dying to try: tomato peach salad

and peaches with balsamic cherries

and for more peachy goodness before they're gone.

And last week the farm redeemed themselves with a big huge bunch of basil, with which we made margarita pizza.  And this week, everything we got was excellent, except for the wild blackberries, which are so deceitful.  For dinner we devoured a golden crown watermelon, corn on the cob, basil tomato mozarella salad.  And for tomorrow's breakfast, whole wheat zucchini bread with double zucchini.  It's delicious.  I snitched some.

After the peach extravaganza, I might even be able to eat the collard greens in the fridge.

Boone Update, followed by 'Maggie's skills'

Boone is everyone's favorite family member.  He is so smiley and cute and responsive, it's impossible not to make silly noises and faces at him.  The children are especially getting into him lately.  They always want to feed him (we've finally got it down to ask Mom FIRST), and give him toys and play with him through the bars of the crib until Mom can get him.  They really love him.  It is so sweet to watch.  

We put our children in the laundry basket.  When they're little we lay them in it.  When they're big they sit in it.  It helps them sit up when they're still wobbly.  That's what stage Boone is in right now.  I love coming upon Boone with the improvements the children have made.  Today while in the laundry basket, Axel gave Boone a blanket and a pink 'pearl' necklace, which he was chewing on.  We live dangerously.  Axel had turned on his favorite dance music and was giving Boone a dance concert interspersed with crouching in Boone's face and cooing, and tickling his neck.  It's enough to make a Mother glad she had 4 children.  Next time I came upon Boone this is what I found.    

And then he woke up.

I love the amo way he wears the necklace. Very macho.

Do you want to eat his face?  

Side note: While my brother was visiting and I was doing my typical, "Ahhhhh-m gonna ee choo" and biting his neck, my brother said, "Why do women always want to eat their babies?  You had them in your body once, and you want to put them back there."  I thought that was a funny way of looking at it.  Maybe he's right.  

Also, whenever I play this game, Lou becomes very concerned and tells me "You can't eat him!"  And she repeats it louder, and louder until I stop playing.  What a good sister.

Maggie's skills:  Maggie made this skirt.  

She really did.  I did the cutting and ironing and she did the sewing and serging.  I was right there and I did thread the elastic through the waistband.  But she did almost everything.  It turned out better than I thought.  She really did a good job sewing straightly.  I am impressed and I'm showing her off  here so you can be impressed too.

And her cranky face was not about the sewing.  This was taken a week after she finished it and did not want to pose.  We very nearly had a fall-down-feet-scratching-screaming fit.  It was avoided by not insisting she look cheerful for the picture.

The shirt and bloomers I made from $1/yard Walmart fabric.  I love that Walmart fabric because it makes sewing economical.  (I would like to insert here that there is one Walmart store in Nashville that has excellent fabric, the lady there knows how to order it.  If you're reading this thinking that I'm crazy because the Walmart fabric near you is junky, let me clarify that this particular Walmart fabric is excellent.  And thanks to that fabric-ordering-lady I have much too much fabric for $1/yard.)  Now my girl can play in that skirt without me cringing over her underwear.

Conversation with myself

Sometimes I envision what an earlier version of myself would think about my present life.  We talk sometimes.

13-years-earlier Alisha: You don't look as sexy as me, but better than I feared you would.  And you're getting Mom's bottom.

15-years-earlier Alisha: Instead of singing to this country song, you should be throwing up.  You disgust me.

8-years-earlier Alisha: You made that!?!  When did I learn to do that?  Good job!

5-years-earlier Alisha:  Listen, I know you feel a little frazzled, but you need to figure out how to keep the house cleaner.  This is unacceptable.  We were not going to be this kind of housekeeper.

Today's conversation was with 7-years-earlier-Alisha

7-years-earlier Alisha: What you looking at?

Present-Alisha: Houses in Vegas, this is depressing.  Why are the homes so strange looking?  What are they doing with the drywall art?  Why are all the walls covered with speckles?

7: I hadn't noticed how ugly it was, but now that you point it out, you're right it is ugly.

Present: And I'm not looking forward to rocks and cactus in my yard.  I think I can help it with drought resistant flowers, but still seems impossible to make the desert look like a garden.  Will I miss Nashville forever?

7: No, because you've moved a ton of times, and it's always the people that make the place and there are cool people in Vegas.

Present:  Will the cool people make up for me living in a house that has windows that aren't trimmed out, and zero personality design, and those horribly unimaginative bathrooms and kitchens that all look identical, and carpet, and 2 inch baseboards?

Pause.

7: Are you serious?  Are you that much of a princess?  Since when have I needed baseboards to be happy?  You need to do charity work until you're less selfish.  I can't believe we're even talking about this.  You know what, little whiny princess you need to take off your tutu and put on your boxing gloves.  Right now.

So I did.  And we punched each other.  And I felt better.
Thank goodness she knocked some sense into me.

I made a trellis

The watermelon plant is growing so well, it already requires a trellis.  So I thought I'd make one out of the enormous pile of honeysuckle that is still sitting in my front yard.  I bought some twine, picked my sticks, and watched an excellent youtube video on how to lash.  42 lashes later,  viola.  

Looks so primitive.  I love it.

I thought it was a good skill that I should've known already.  Wasn't too difficult, but it did take a while repeating the lash 42 times.  And it cost me just about nothing.  In case anybody is wanting to tie some sticks together, I made this short very educational video.  I'm such a cheeseball.

I think when the season is over, I might tent two of them together and put a tarp over for a play tent for the kids.

Dresser update:  Painted, waiting for knobs to arrive in the mail.

Today

A purple gladiolus bloomed.  I love purple flowers.

One little flower on the hydrangea has bloomed.  It soon will be too beautiful to handle.

My sunflower bloomed!  7 more to open soon.

This is a before picture.  I'm painting this today.  It is my girls' dresser, and it was mine growing up, and it's about to get a major face lift.

New Dress-up for Lou's BDay

Lou loves dressing up, and it's been a bajillion days since I sewed anything, so it was time to get my creative on.  I was less than excited about the usual princess dresses I was finding online as inspiration.

Plus I didn't want to buy any fabric.  And I don't have any of that cheapy fabric, and I'm not going to use my expensive fabric.  Hmmmm.  Then I found a cute peasant dress, got out my free-from-my-mom fabric, and got to work.

She looks very serious, but she really liked it.

Though, she may have liked the nerds rope Axel gave her better.