Zinnias

I don't think I knew how much I liked zinnias until this summer. Amanda always liked them, and has planted them at the farm a couple times, but the weeds strangle them before we can usually enjoy them. This year I have a plethora of them and they brighten up my office, and make me happy, which is exactly what cut flowers in a vase are supposed to do. There are a few cosmos and black eyed susannes thrown in this bouquet also.

Summer

Less gardening, More canning

We also made pickles last weekend. Making dill pickles and making ketchup has been on my yearly list of things to do many times now, and this year I am accomplishing both. I think the trick is to let Dad and Lesa do all the gardening, and then I'm not so sick of the work and the garden to actually can something. I'm feeling very productive lately.

Give Us This Day Our Parisian Daily Bread

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I tried another one of Farmgirl's bread recipes over the weekend; the Parisian Daily Bread: A Four Hour Baguette. This is how I entertained myself while John read the book. Mine didn't turn out quite as pretty as hers, but they were tasty; I highly recommend the recipe. We sat down Sunday night to one of our favorite dinners ever, bread and roasted garlic; a head for each of us of course. I'm not quite sure if there are too many people out there that like garlic as much as we do.

In My Opinion

John was a little too excited about the tractor display at the Lawrenceton Picnic last weekend.

Love is:

when you wake up early in the morning to go to your father-in-law's house to spend all day cutting up 50 lbs of tomatoes and cooking them over an open fire in the middle of July to make 11 pints of ketchup when you really don't like ketchup that much and when all you can think about is the book that is waiting for you at home.

Thanks, babe.

Deathly Hallows

Do you know someone who looks like this today?

What This Blog is Missing Is Stories and Pictures of Babies.

My cousin, Heather, was in town for two weeks, and I got to see her and her sons 4 times, which was great. The picture on the left is her son, Gabriel, at the Science Center. He is a little over 2, and so cute and active, and learning so many words. Jack, on the right, fell asleep on me at the Zoo, and I can't imagine too many better feelings in the world. Can't wait for them all to return.

Homemade Well Wishes

Just like me,, my friend, Katie, over at Peaceful Bend Vineyards has a blog. This week, she sent this handmade card, and I thought it was so sweet.

Thanks, Katie.

Practice Makes Perfect

John's sister came to visit, and brought along with her, her son, Will. We had a great time with them, Melissa is always so easy to get along with, and Will is so sweet. Will and John shared a lot of quality time together, and that warms my heart. It's fun to picture ourselves hanging out with a kid all the time. Good thing, huh? If you're thinking Will looks familiar, you can watch him grow right here on the blog. Click here, and here to see in in March 2007 and here to see him July 2006.

One of my many dream vacations

is to rent one of these apartments and disappear into their culture. I could scan these apartments all day and dream of what might happen if I was there.

Household Debate Turned Into a Bet

After recently watching The Doors movie, and hearing last week that Lindsay Lohan just turned 21, I'm convinced that she'll be dead by the time she's 30. John is not so convinced. The stakes are that whoever wins gets to pick all the movies we watch for a year, and this is a huge deal because our taste in movies is so different.

With any luck, soon the world will include one less celebratard, and I won't be watching AI type movies for an entire year.

Where do you stand on this pressing matter?