...Chunky-Monkey Smoothie...

...the ingredients for my new favorite breakfast (anytime really) smoothie...

...one ripe-enough-to-be-sweet banana, 1/4 cup peanuts, 1 Tbsp ground flax seed, and 1/2 cup almond milk...

...just put everything into the blender...

...blend until smooth...

...pour it into a glass...

...it makes about 8 oz...

...I prefer to drink it through a straw...so that I can slurp up all of the yumminess...

...neat little Livestrong My Plate app...you just plug in the ingredients and it gives you the nutritional info...

...Learning to Drive...

...That's Scout in the DRIVER'S SEAT...driver's licenses are issued to 14 year olds here...so we thought we'd let him have a sort of farm boy's head start and drive the truck around an old farmstead...no ditches or traffic...if he ran off the road it would just be into a wheat field...fun for him and his papa...his mama's heart stopped at the thought of it though...

...a Weekend at the Lake...

...we had such a lovely weekend...

...at our favorite spot by the lake...

...just visiting with friends...

...the weather was gorgeous...no rain in sight...so we left the rainfly off the tent...

...the kid tent to the rear...

...the water was so high that there was no beach to walk on...

...there was a rousing game of 'hoochie'...I don't know why they call it that...it's pretty much tag football...

...sitting around...talking...and eating...

...a lovely sunset...

...we listened to the waves lapping on the shore all night long...

...and woke to greyer skies...

...after a huge breakfast...we packed up...

...it was just starting to sprinkle rain as we loaded the final things into the truck...

...and the rain moved in over the choppy lake...

...Teenage Geese...

...early this morning...before Church...these geese marched across our lawn...I love the little geese families...they really stick together...Mom in front and Dad in the back whenever they go anywhere...and the fuzzy little goslings grow up so fast...

...it's that time of year again...the geese will be flying away...we'll hear lots of honking as they leave...and then the skies will be honk free for several months...they won't be back until March...and that first honk is such a harbinger of spring...

...another harvest...

...I've been out to the garden for another harvest...

...lots of squash again...some more green beans and peas too...

...my first little pod of okra...YAY!...I'll probably fry it up with some of the yellow squash...

...and a pot of turnip greens...there's a few beet greens in there too...we'll have the tops now and the turnips later...

...and this time I pulled up the first row of onions...they're lovely and fat and juicy this year...still too strong for eating raw...but very nice cooked...

...they're drying in the garage for a while...

This is our procedure for saving onions:

1) We harvest the onions when the tops start to wither.
2) Then we spread them out in a single layer and let them dry for a couple of weeks in the garage - or until the tops have completely withered.
3) Then we cut off the tops and store them in flats (still in a single layer) in our unheated basement laundry room.

They usually last until Christmas or a little bit after...I think I paid about $1 for the bag of onions that we planted...and we'll probably harvest more than 10 lbs of onions...and that's just one of the things that I love about gardening...

...did you grow any onions this year?...

...Blue Belt...

...on the evening of the first day of school...

...Scout bowed in as a green belt...

...and after all the Katas and Kihons and Wazas...

...at the end of class, he tied on a new Blue Belt...with a big ole proud smile on his face...

...This test was quite a confidence booster for him...as we had been gone for 4 weeks of classes out of the summer (Wilderness - VBS - and Family Vacation)...so when we got back last week and they announced the test for this week...Scout immediately said that he didn't want to test - he didn't feel ready...but we talked about his feelings...we don't want to push him to do something that he really doesn't want to do...and we studied the Japanese words - that's a big part of the test as all the commands are given in Japanese...the student responds to the command with the word 'Hai' which means yes and signifies that he understands the command...if the student doesn't respond the command is just repeated...sometimes it takes a few repeats for it to sink in...anywhooo...after Scout felt more comfortable with the vocabulary...he thought he might be ready to practice his katas...so we looked them up on You-Tube (I love You-Tube)...and he practiced right here in my office...and some with the TV in the living room - using You-Tube on the Wii (I love the Wii too)...and in the end...he did just fine...

...First Day of Eighth Grade...

...headed out...

...ARGHHH!...Scout is back in school...

...he's pretty excited about it...his last year at the middle school...

...Satellite Sighting...

...You have got to do this...it's so much fun!...

Just go to this site:
Nasa site
...and choose your state...

...you'll get a printout that looks like this...listing the times and approximate locations for viewing different satellites...

...we sat outside and watched the sun set - still after 9 PM here...

...then a few minutes after dark we gathered on the deck and looked skyward...

...right on time...the International Space Station appeared from the Northwest...(there's a yard light in the back yard)...

...I set my shutter speed at 2 seconds...so you can see that it was streaking across the sky...

...continuing towards the eastern horizon...it was gone from sight in about 3 minutes...

...but 3 minutes well spent...marvelling at space...the final frontier...

...the Internet is a wonderful place...

...I have lots of wonderful friends out there whom I've never met in person...

...one of them is Elizabeth - she blogs at My Crafty Mess...

...just out of the blue...she sent me this lovely card and a huge package of quilting material...

...for the Lutheran World Relief Quilts...

...I love the old tags...and I can't wait to cut into the fabric for a quilt...it will make a lovely pink quilt...it's time I know...I'm setting another 12 quilt goal for myself again this year...

...it just doesn't get any sweeter than that!...

...I've left the photo large in case you want to try the recipe on the back of the sweet card Elizabeth sent...I'll be making a vegan version for sure...they are so pretty and I love Chai tea...

...so a great big

THANK YOU!

goes out to Elizabeth!

...the August Garden...

...Now that we're home...one of the first things that I needed to do was visit the garden...

...by August gardens can get quite overgrown...and mine is too...but I remembered the camera this time...

...Behold!...the Garden...

...a few herbs...Cilantro...

...Nanny's Basil...you can never have too much basil...

...and dill...I'll be making some pickles if we get enough cucumbers...

...carrots...two varieties...denvers...and atomic reds...

...my lovely okra plants...no pods yet...but still holding out hope that we'll get some before the first frost...

...turnips...I may have planted too many...

...and peas...yes...I'll be picking my first spring peas in August...

...green beans...it looks like there's a ton of beans on them...

...limas...I've never grown limas before...and they look pretty small...

...lots of blooms though...so maybe...

...and squash...oh my goodness...I've never seen so much yellow squash...

...there's a whole basket just of yellow squash in there...good thing we love it so...

...that's cucumber to the left and butternut to the right...we aren't getting a lot of cucumbers...I'm wondering if they're not too crowded by the butternut...which is taking over the garden with 20-30 foot vines...we'll have some butternuts this fall...

...Rutger's heirloom tomatoes...

...potatoes...we'll be digging some soon...and that's one of those butternut vines snaking it's way through the potatoes too...

...and Scout's corn...we have high hopes for the corn this year too...the last time we grew corn (2 years ago)...I think we got about 5 ears...

...not pictured were the two rows of onions...

...and my bounteous basket of fresh organic veg...