Well Them's the Brakes

Yep that's them....he he he.

Since my husband works out of town our weekends are always pretty crazy but this past weekend was extremely crazy. First off we have a family reunion/camping trip coming up so my husband is working a really weird schedule to fit it in and therefore didn't get home till dinner time on Friday night but leaving Sunday afternoon instead of having a week off. To make the most of it Saturday was spent doing random work at home that needed both of us followed by a nice family dinner at my mother-in-laws with us leaving the kids there. Sunday was spend with the two of us doing some more garden work and clean up from the day before, again trying to get as much help from him since he was leaving after lunch. Now here comes the crazy, hubby drove my truck the night before and noticed with in seconds that my brakes were squishy. We noticed a few weeks ago that something was up but since time is very limited right now we planned on waiting till hubby had another week off. 

Nope!!
Sunday our plans changed, on the way over to get the kids and have lunch, there was a bit of fluid on the ground where the passenger tire was. Hubby got out and checked sure enough, brake fluid! My brakes needed done immediately since we planned on driving the truck over 100 miles this coming week and he didn't want to try to rush and do it when he got home (the night before our trip) in case something went wrong. We figured its better to give up our early arrival day in exchange for hubby going to work late to fix the brakes. Thankfully my mother-in-law kept my kids so we could run in with her car and get parts.

Luckily brakes were done pretty quickly Sunday night (at least in my opinion it was quick) and hubby made it to work only a bit late since he waited till early morning to drive down.

Hoping he can make it home at a good time on Wednesday to help me load the truck,  if not I think my kids are excited enough for the weekend they may do it by themselves.

Until then I am a cooking and packing fool ready for camping!!

On a side note, that rain I requested the other night came a tiny bit. The entire time we put the brakes back together and bled them it lightly sprinkled. Not enough to really wet the dirt but enough to cool the outside down nicely and it even continued to sprinkle off and on all night. The garden loved it and needed to be rain delayed but you couldn't even tell it rained on the rest of the ground.

Well good night all off to walk the dog one more time and hit the sack!!

Where is the Rain?

I know I live in the desert but this is a bit depressing!!!

Normally by this time in July we have had multiple monsoon storms but this year.....

NADA!!!

This year is my sixth summer living out here and every year is always a tad bit different, but this is crazy.

This summer we have already had it above 100 degrees multiple times (which never happens till August) and now we are barley getting sprinkles of rain too. You know the "rain" that is just enough to wet the air and make you shut the windows but once you get that last one down it's done and the dirt is still dry.

It's kind of a bummer.

It wouldn't be a big deal but IT IS MESSING WITH MY CAMPING plans!!!!

Every year my in-laws gather together for a camping trip. Some family members travel great distances to make it. We rent a group camping site where we all set up a ton of tents and we each taking turns cooking for the group and playing games.

We love it!

Seriously!!

We love it no matter how it turns out, I mean we have had some years where we have had to change lakes, had flooded campsites or leaking tents, missing shoes or jackets. Those things just make it more interesting in my opinion. The part that is driving us all a bit nuts is the no campfires.

The sad part is every year the weekend after we have our big event the forest rangers open the fire pits for the season. This has happened  to us the last two years.

We took that as a sign to move our dates a week later this year and now it is even drier and hotter with the rain just teasing us.

It's not a big deal but I am really wanting a campfire.

I miss watching all the kids roast marshmallows or my nieces do "camping theater" as we all sit by the fire. Its just so fun and that smell of the fire just makes it even better!!

The last time we had a fire Baby Girl was only a few months old, she is now a little sassy four year old that is wanting to make s'mores with Grandma and the cousins.

So here is my  plea for it to rain as much as possible BEFORE we go camping next week. I seriously doubt its going to work but hey this girl has got to try!!

Now I am off to enjoy another rain-less night with my loving husband. 

Weeding and Planting

Today I spent the morning weeding.

I despise weeds!!! Not all weeds, just the nasty ones.

Mostly TUMBLEWEEDS!!! 

Why do they exist?? What is their purpose? Other then to stab me when trying to plant peas??

That is what I did today. Stab the crap out of my fingertips and plant peas. 

Snow and Snap peas, yummy!!

 We had some planted from the spring but they didn't produce much and something tunneled underneath them. 

I then built a trellis for my one pickling cucumber vine that made it. I kept scratching myself with the chicken wire so I decided to use some old wire shelves I had. I have plenty of it left for the peas when they are ready. 

I can't wait for the garden to start producing food.

Onions are starting to fall over and random potatoes are drying up. Squash are coming and hopefully tomatoes are soon to follow.

Here are some photos from Saturday.

Eight Ball (Green Round Zucchini)

One Ball (Yellow Round Zucchini)

Green Patty Pan

Hale's Best Cantaloupe

Wednesday = No Kids

It's pretty weird having Wednesdays all to myself.

For the past month I have dropped the kids off at Grandma's for "summer school" and  when she also started taking them to Wednesday night church it just made sense for them to spend the night giving me quiet time.

Now the question is what have I done with a day of no kids. 

 The first day I literally cleaned like crazy. We had been super busy the weekend before so the house/ kitchen really needed a good cleaning. Then by 4:00 pm I was going a bit nuts, the house was too quite. I don't like quiet!! Being a mom of four kids quiet feels like something is wrong. I solved that by blasting my music. I don't get to do that much with kids, someone always asks to turn it down (their dad's influence even though he used to blast music too!!) I also found myself in bed early, like 9 pm early. Lights out and everything!

Second time I didn't work myself nearly as hard but cleaned out "trash" or what I call trash and the kids called treasures. I bagged it all up and then tied the bags so they couldn't see inside, then when they got home they helped load it up to take to the dumpster. 

Week three was a different since I wasn't home. I helped my brother in law and his girlfriend take their dogs into be fixed so I spent the day driving back and forth to town and preping school and this time I decided to take it easy again. 

Now here on Wednesday number 4 without kids I finally relaxed for a bit. I started by eating breakfast since I didn't eat with them before they left. Then I walked the dog (we adopted a new dog last week that likes to chase ANYTHING that he sees so he has to be walked on a leash). Worked on breakfast dishes and a few other things in the kitchen, with me going shopping for the month next week cleaning out the fridge and inventorying the freezer was needed. I also watched some NCIS, we started watching them a few weeks ago and I am totally hooked. 

Then I decided since it got cool outside a little earlier then it has been the last week I would go feed the garden. I have been wanting to do this since I noticed some squash on the vines Saturday. 

It took me over an hour to feed all of the squash and cucumber plants, grapevine and sprinkling it around the tomatoes. 

I then transplanted some chocolate mint from root cuttings my husband got and  my aloe plant that has been needing to go outside. The aloe will have to come back inside at some point before freezing nights come but I am hoping this will be good for it. 

Then I transplanted some standard mint and a tomato plant. I had to transplant these guys because something is messing with my waterlines. We noticed something wonky with the watering this weekend but assumed it was because of the unusually hot weather we were having last week. I assumed wrong!

I still don't know what is up with the water but plan on getting out there tomorrow night with a kid or two to find out and to dig up a few more herbs that are getting deprived of water. I am hoping moving them at this time of year won't hurt them to much, but since the waterlines are buried where they currently are I can't figure it out without digging them up. Hoping that with monsoon here (in a way) it will help them.

I spent over THREE hours out there working before I realized the sun was basically gone.

Tomorrow I am planning on doing a good cleaning job inside the house since Friday will be spent helping at the food bank and hubby comes home. 

That's enough for tonight. I will be back tomorrow with new tales of gardening work and how much laundry I folded (staring down some that's been calling my name all day).

Goodnight!!

Returning to Blogging

I want Serenity Life to be my online journal of our accomplishments or experiments with the children. This year they are going to start journaling their days as part of school so I figure why shouldn't I join in that fun, one day they can even read all of my entries.

With school starting in a month I figure if  I can blog a tiny bit each night I will have a routine down before life gets crazier. These blogs may be completely pointless and the void of any real interest but I want to do it. I am going to do it!

I have so many ideas running thru my head as to what I should blog about and will start with them tomorrow. 

Topics to come:

2013-2014 Curriculum choices (still narrowing things down and preping but I have a general idea)

Garden Journal (first squash will be here any day)

Food Experiments (even bad ones which I have had recently)

Kid Funnies (with four kids I have quite a few)

Tips for the house

If you like my posts please let me know, that encourages me to keep going.

See ya tomorrow!