bacon

Some days are just good days. Not because of anything particularly special, but just a collection of little things. Like a Starbucks coffee on a grey fall day (and no, not a pumpkin something or other.. I may be the only person in the world who doesn't like them, but the fact remains that I do NOT. I much prefer my grande non-fat, no whip peppermint mocha, thanks), and a successful grocery shopping trip where I actually felt like I spent a hundred bucks and got my money's worth. And stopping here:

which is on my way home, and is apparently THE place to go for country hams. Foodie tourists make detours to get their hands on some Benton's ham and bacon. I've driven by it for years, and always thought I should stop, but never quite actually managed to make it happen. I picked up a pound of bacon, soaked up the delicious smoky pork smells, and drooled over the hams and shoulders and jowls and who-knows-what else hanging on racks all around. It was ham heaven, and I left there kicking myself for never having stopped sooner, and for not buying the bulk package of bacon ends and pieces. I also left there thinking about how blessed we are to live in an area where we have access to such amazing food. "Local" food isn't the rage here, it's just here. It's been here for years. Generations. We could actually get about 80% of our groceries from local farmers.. maybe more, but I don't know of anyone selling flour or other grains. Wish I did... that would be great. Either way.. it's great to live in such an agriculturally-minded area. And living down the road from the world's best country hams and bacon isn't too bad either.

just checking in...

3 weeks goes by so fast. This happens to me every fall... I get all excited, because yay! Fall is here! and then I get all wrapped up in.. whatever.. and bam! it's gone. And I'm sad.

But I'm trying really hard not to do that this year.

I'm trying to be present, to not miss things going on around me. So instead I miss things like checking in on my blog. Or doing the laundry. And then I resolve not to miss those things either, which in turn means I miss something else. Being me is exhausting.

Seriously, though. I really am trying much harder .. to pay attention, which is oh, so hard for me to do. To make things a little more manageable, I gave myself a schedule. Or rather, I started making myself pay attention to the schedule I made for myself about a year ago. It's a simple schedule - Mondays I do this, Tuesdays I do this, and so on, and so forth, but it helps, A LOT, in those moments where I'm really struggling to keep my head above water, wandering aimlessly around my destroyed-by-toddlers home and wondering what the heck I was doing, or supposed to be doing. That usually ended with me overwhelmed and seeking the soothing mindlessness of Pinterest, where I'd see some awesome something or other I wanted to do, and then jump up, start another mess, only to promptly forget about it because someone is screaming about something. Nope. Not any more. Now, I just think to myself, "This is Thursday. Today I clean the girls' rooms. That's what I was doing." And then I plop down in front of the computer and lose myself in Pinterest. Sure, it's not perfect. But it's helping. Our house looks a little less desperate these days, and I feel a little less manic. I'll take it.

So, all that to say that I'm really trying to enjoy fall this year. I actually got (most of) our Halloween decorations up in a timely manner. I've made soup 3 times already. I got to wear my fuzzy boots in the morning. This weekend, I have big plans for a bonfire, and hot cider, something, anything pumpkin related (most likely muffins. Who doesn't love muffins?) and all of this is much easier to do because I know what is (for the most part) expected of each day. Sure, some days I get thrown for a loop because the car dies, or the girls choose to have supreme-o meltdowns at exactly the same time (every time!), but that's life. My new (old) schedule is my rock, my fortress of solitude in the midst of the swirling chaos of life with toddlers.

What I'm saying is, I love my schedule. and I love fall. The end.

weekly goals

So this is a day late, due to our camping trip over the weekend, but it's time to lay out some goals for this first week of fall (hooray for fall, by the way!), and at least try to get them done.

For starters, I need to clean up the camping aftermath, but that's kind of a given.

I'm STILL trying to get some homemade mozzerella done. This really needs to happen.

I also need to make yogurt. Homemade yogurt is so good.

I've got a pile of peppers (all kinds of peppers!) to do something with. Need to do something with the last of the tomatoes as well.

I really, REALLY need to shear Cirrus, before the weather gets too cold. Don't worry, I've got an old wool sweater to put on her if she needs it.

And lastly, it's time to do some serious fall housecleaning.. there's only one  more week til October, and Halloween decorating time!!!!

Speaking of... we stopped at a pumpkin stand on the way home from our camping trip and let Punkin pick out the one she liked best. After much serious deliberation, she picked this one:

Not exactly the traditional choice, but the kid knows what she likes. 

camping with toddlers...

...is like .. uhhh.. nevermind.

Yes. We are crazy. Thanks for asking.

Also - I'd like to apologize to all the other campers who heard me say "Maezie, NO!" or "Maezie, get out of the road!" at least fifteen HUNDRED times. The child is nothing if not persistent.

and cute.

Seriously, though. We took our girls on their very first camping trip this weekend. After a whole lot of thinking and rethinking and wishing we could go to Florida, we decided on Cades Cove. This is usually one of my favorite spots - it's so peaceful, restful, tranquil. Other than the excessive traffic and "bear jams" every 500 yards or so. Still. I've always loved to get out into the woods and walk by a quiet stream, and imagine what it must've been like to actually live there a hundred years ago. I was excited to share this with my girls.

What a perfect place to spend the first day of Autumn!

All things considered, it could have been much worse. While it was definitely not tranquil, or peaceful, or restful, it was good to take the girls out and let them get some camping experience. I firmly believe that they will get better at it with practice (and age). Punkin did great - which wasn't surprising because that kid LOVES to be outside. Maezie learned a lot about boundaries this weekend, and delighted in pushing them. I learned that a firmer parenting hand with my youngest is probably long overdue.

There were a lot of special moments.

There was very little sleep.



Hello, gorgeous.



Bottom line?

I can't wait to go again.

yes, please

end of season

Yeah. So that's our vegetable garden. Under about a foot and a half of water. Oh dear.

So glad our house is on top of a hill.

Just the other day Davey and I were talking about how we'd like to eventually build raised beds up by the house for all of our vegetable gardening needs, and converting all of the lower areas into pasture (animals can be moved in bad weather.. plants - eh, not so much). This morning, that seems even more like a really, really good idea.

Sunday, I went out and picked everything that was ripe in the garden - pretty much a ton of peppers and tomatoes, a dozen eggplants, the last of the shelling beans, and a few pumpkins. I have no idea what this flood will do to the potatoes...  I'm hoping that if the water recedes quick enough that they'll still be diggable. Same for the parsnips and onions. The peppers and tomatoes? Who knows. I think the sunflower heads will be ok if they can get dry - the sun is supposed to make an appearance tomorrow. And oh.. our peach trees!

(Also - we've had crazy rain for 2 days, and somehow, we still have internet. This is big news, folks, since this has been the summer of  "oh,no! It's overcast - bye bye internet! We'll see you in 2 weeks!"
Seriously, I have no idea why it's working through this mother of all rainstorms but didn't work every other time we had a little sprinkle. It's a great mystery of the universe, apparently, because the satellite company can't explain it either.

Sorry. End rant.)

I'm so thankful this happened at the end of the season, and that we had been totally lazy about planting any winter greens yet. We'll still plant them, because we're eternal optimists, but clearly it won't be happening this week. Instead, it feels like a good week for soup. And bread. Is it too early for a fire in the fireplace? Because I'm so there. Summer is OVER. Minus the whole raging floodwaters thing, I'm pretty excited. It's time to cuddle up on the couch with my snuggie and a cup of something warm while the girls watch Annie for the umpteenth time and wait for the sun to shine again. Maybe make some cookies. Start contemplating fall/halloween decorations (don't worry - I won't actually start decorating til Oct 1st - but it helps to have a plan). It's my time of year - pumpkin and hot cider and sweater time. The other seasons all have their special charms, and I appreciate all of them, but fall - fall is mine. It's when I wake up from the long swelter of summer and feel ALIVE. Unstoppable. It's magic, pure and simple, ya'll.

the herb garden

Lookee, lookee!! I got my paws on a working camera! Finally. So what's the first thing I did when I could at last take pictures again? Why, take some embarrassing shots of my overgrown herb garden to show you, that's what.

 So yeah. That's my "herb garden" from the front. The part people see when they walk up to our front door. Oh the shame. The bushy line running right to left across the bottom is a volunteer pumpkin that came up. We let it do it's pumpkin thing, and it's pretty much taken over the whole yard.

This is my herb garden from the back. This is actually a raised bed, done in cinder blocks, which you can't see for all the grass. There's cilantro blooming there in the center of the photo. There's also sage, horehound, strawberries, lavender, fennel, borage, and some other stuff that you can't see. No one can see it. 'Cept Jesus.

Look! Basil! It managed to beat out the rogue pumpkin and some crazy agressive morning glories for a little place in the sun. Considering that it's had zero attention, other than picking it to make yummy stuff, it's done surprisingly well. 

Oh, look, and there's some dill! The dill also did very well this year. Again, no credit to me. 

 Rosemary. I had to use a machete to find it. Oh dear.

One of the reasons my herb garden is such a mess. We had such horrible luck with pumpkins this year, and this guy came up, and thrived, so I let it be. And it repaid me with general weediness, and butt pumpkins. They're not really butt pumpkins. That's just what Davey likes to call them. They have some other, much more pleasant sounding name for sure, I just can't remember what it is. 

 Truth be told, the herb garden is not a total loss. These are the random flower seeds I threw out into the bare dirt this spring, just to see what would happen.

 Magic happened. That's what.

And look! I'm about to have me some zinnias!

I'll be back soon with more pictures - the critters need a little face-time, too!