Bountiful garden, though late in the summer

Fourteen quarts of salsa today..I will post a picture soon, but I made 3 batches all at once...good to go on the salsa front. We also counted our yellow beans and we ended up canning 16 quarts of them here and there, so I feel a good number for us and add that to the green beans and we will have a ton for over winter.

I will have to post pictures soon of our ENORMOUS pumpkins and our gazillion egg gourds...a bountiful year for some vegetables and not so much for others.

We have had enough cucumbers on a every other day pick that we have given many picks away so that has been good as well...

Update

Haven't run since Monday, for some reason became very flu like sick everyday and then Wednesday we went all night with Mim's orientation and Ve & Tuki's Back to school night and then Thursday night Mim had her intrasquad run..she didn't do so well even though she ran all summer..I think after some discussion with her, she misunderstood something with her running technique and obviously it didn't pay off for her. Today after another morning at school (not scheduled) and and afternoon 3+ mile walk with the girls and dogs, we are going to our friend Pam's farm and pick some fallen apples for the chickens, eat supper and relax...my head is always spinning the first week of school with all the things I need to have ready for the students plus with this new class I am teaching and all the planning with it. I feel over whelmed before I have even got started....in a week or two things tend to settle down and it isn't so overwhelming.

I plan to run tomorrow so I don't get out of the newly formed habit....it is hard to keep exercising when just starting to recreate the habit..I forget this once my body craves it but now...not so much.

23

minutes of running and 2 miles of walking with the dogs after my first day back to school. I was tired and I didn't want to run but I made myself do it and I am glad for it...on a really hot and muggy summer day too.....summer has finally arrived weather wise and I am not off to enjoy it....oh well!! Life sure moves forward in a warp speed fashion.

End of summer update

I am on my last weekend off and then the craziness begins. I haven't really taken much time off this summer anyway since I am teaching a new class this fall in which I developed the curriculum and activities that will meet the learning objectives. It required a lot of running around to surrounding community members this summer, but if the class turns out like I envision it, it should really be fun and yet a thought provoking class, and real world application thus hopefully the learning will be more meaningful.

We are still finishing the final stages of the chicken coop, a few loose ends from the garage and still a lot of garden harvest and more bread making. We also have 1/2 a cow and 1/2 a pig coming for the freezer.

In addition our fall will include:
Mim's CC season until November
Ve and Tuki's skating season until next April
Ve and Tuki starting Basketball in November
My weekly admin class that will meet every Wednesday night until the end of December
Hopefully some more kayaking weekends as well

I am going to try and keep building up my running time and also attempt to keep our nightly family walks with the dogs as often as possible.

I decided to keep Tuki in before school care located at the school, but this year I am allowing Ve to walk to school (3 blocks away) about 1 hour after me and Mim leave for school. She is going into 4th grade and she wants to do this on her own and I think she can handle it and it will teach her to watch the time more closely and hopefully give a better sense of time since she seems to struggle with this concept. Both will walk home together.

Mim will be biking to high school until the weather doesn't allow for it anymore. This will make it easier for me in not having to pick her up after practice and it gives her some independence. She has been biking to her high school all summer for summer school so it shouldn't be a big deal for her.

Tomorrow in church we will be ushering and Mim will help lead the worship in the 11:00am service. She is both VERY excited and VERY nervous. I'm proud as to how focused and serious she is taking this. I can tell she really, and I mean really enjoys this...I have never seen her this excited about anything else except boys.

That is all the update for now...

21

minutes today of running and I feel pretty good too!! Slowly but surely.....and certainly turtle pace.

16

minutes of continuous running..and it felt good too, so I plan to run again tomorrow as well. I decided since I have tried many different types of workouts for very long lengths with little to no results, my workouts will now only consist of increasing my running time, abs and arms. This way my running feels good and I haven't worn myself completely out for the next day's workout.....Running has been the only real effective workout for me to trim my lower part of my body in a decent amount of time. Walking works too, but it requires a good two hours of walking to get the same effect that 1 hour or less of running can do....so my altered workout..we'll see how it goes.

Poop

Too much information...I think not!!
I just learned or maybe just focused in on it today at the dentist. Bacteria from your surroundings is attracted to the food that is left on your teeth (this part I knew), so, as the bacteria eats the food or any food left over even after a mediocre brushing they defecate....i.e. plaque, this acidic plaque (poop) hardens and because of the high acid content of the poop in your normally neutral body, the acid starts eating away on your teeth, thus creating a cavity. It is especially important to brush and floss well at night because your saliva, neutral, is a natural buffer against this acid, and your body creates less saliva at night. You can bet I broke this down real nice and simple for my daughters and will probably discuss it in my science class this year when we talk about acids and bases...and anyone who really knows me well, knows that naturally when I tell my girls to brush their teeth, I now say go brush the bacteria poop off....easy compliance...why a fancy word like plaque when a simple word would do!!!!