Minnesota is Heaven, But Virginia is Home

As usual, these are in completely random order - someday, SOMEDAY I will learn how to put them in the right order. Or maybe not. Mt. Vernon, yesterday. Josiah & Annika on the front lawn with the Potomac in the distance--the Washingtons had quite the view. Josiah, Annika, Jake & Luca watching re-enactors making ice cream. Luca, Josiah, Jake & Annika on the banks of the Potomac. Mount Vernon Waiting to start touring - luckily there is a pen of sheep right at the entrace to keep the kids enthralled while the adults queue up for tickets. Poor, tired Annika...we ran them pretty hard over the weekend. She's asleep in the car just before we met the Sturgeons for supper in Old Town Alexandria. Me! Whadda ya know? We brought our little old digi camera along and let the kids go nuts with it--unfortunately, most of the pictures look like someone with Tourette's shot them, so they aren't blog suitable! (psst: new hair color as of last Thursday) Satellites at the Smit...

Our little garden has had some ups and downs this week. I'm pretty sure that my peas are dying...there's a reason why they're called spring peas, after all. This very hot, humid weather is not conducive to pea growing. I'll start some more pea seeds late in August when it starts getting cool and see if those work. My lettuce, which was growing like crazy and giving me a salad a couple times a week, is also looking pretty done-in. But the tomatoes...boy oh boy, I've never had tomatoes that looked this good. They are climbing up the side of the house. I have the plant pictured, which are plum tomatoes--I ate my first red one off that plant last night. They are very, very sweet. The other is a "big boy". Those will be for slicing and for eating in my favorite summer sandwich: toasted bread with a thick schmear of mayo, thin sliced tomatoes and plenty of salt. What else to report? Josiah missed two days of school this week due to an undetermined illness that i...

May 2010 May 2011 So...it's been pretty dang hot in these here parts. There was no "Intro to Southern Heat" or "Southern Climate Adjustment 101". We just launched from Spring straight into "Advanced Sweating" and "How to Survive a $300 Electricity Bill Due to Excessive A/C Usage". I'm just saying: Dear Virginia, it would have been nice to have a little lead-up into this heat, a little segueway, if you will. If you were a dude, you'd be the dude who comes on way too hot and heavy from the beginning. No subtlely. We've been trying to stay cool. I've been busy modifying my dreams of children spending the day in the backyard (when school is out for the year) to children playing inside due to imminent danger of heat stroke from exposure. This is like Minnesota in reverse...instead of frostbite, I'm afraid they're going to get dehydrated or sunburned. Anyway...enough about the heat, right? Moving along. Pictures are from ...