What a Summer

Well, its Labor Day and for swimming pools, government offices and other local municipal bodies, it effectively marks the closure of summer-related activities and with the Vernal Equinox just weeks away, the department stores and the ilk are already preparing for Haloween, let alone that football season has already started.  Don't get me wrong, I have not complaints about Fall and the goings-on it entails but with the weather we've been having I wouldn't hold out for a typical autumn, and I certainly doubt it will arrive on Sept. 21.  At least I hope not.

Who would have guess at the very beginning of this summer we'd end up in a mild drought with a string of 100 degree weather to cap off August?  I think I mowed our yard more in the month of June than all of July or August combined.  This weather pattern of course made our first attempt at a garden an interesting venture.  I am pleased to say, though, that we have two plant varietals doing well....pumpkin and tomatoes.  The carrots held up for awhile but they didn't enjoy the lack of moisture.  I tried to water but they could not survive.  The herbs also did not do well, and the peppers didn't want to show their faces I guess.  But yes, our pumpkins have spread their vines like mad and we anxiously await for them to start budding some actual pumpkins.  I'm not sure if they should have by now.  Our neighbor down the road appears to have at least one pumpkin on the vine.  Will ours just not come?  That'd be a bummer; the kids are very anxious.

The tomatoes, at least, are holding up to the weather.  They are thick and lush and we have to pick them daily to keep up.  We have four varieties going now, but its the Romas and the cherry tomatoes that seem to be ripening quickly.  We have a few bigger slicing tomatoes plants, which product a rip tomatoes about every other day.  There are some big green ones out there which we are anxious to pick (and eat).  Lizzie is a big fan of Caresse salads so she has definitely been enjoying our harvest.

We took our first camping trip this past month as well, staying a few days at a local campground.  We are part owners in a pop-up camper (we share with Leisa) so the setup can be time consuming but once up, we enjoyed the scenery and other accoutrements of the camping life.  We were right next to the beach area too so the kids enjoyed long hours at the beach.  BellaRose was especially glued to the water and it was near impossible to tear her away at dinner time, even when we got a visit from Grandma and Grandpa, bearing gifts nonetheless.  She's always been a bit of a fish though, moreso that Jude.  The jury is still out on Finch.

Speaking of her, Finch just enjoyed her first birthday and we celebrated by systematically getting the same flu-like illness one after the other.  Consisting of mostly a fever, body aches, head aches and the chills, this little bug seemed to last only a day or so before going away but at its peak it was nigh on intolerable.  It even kept me away from work a day, which has only happened twice in the past two years.  I was definitely glad that it was a brief illness and that all the kids tolerated it well, especially Finch, who was a real trooper.

She had a full week of celebration, really, kick started on Sunday with a dinner with her Omi & Opi, complete with gifts and cupcakes.  Per usual, Omi sent us home with a boatload more cupcakes, which we all lived off each night until Wednesday, when she enjoyed a some more cupcake on her actual birthday.  Then, on Friday, Finch got her 1-yr. check-up, including but not limited to four shots and one finger poke, but she did impress her pediatrician and she measured in at over the 90th percentile for height.  I'm guessing she gets this from her mom's side.  Then, later on Friday, her Grandma visited and brought more gifts (as is her tradition, it seems) and thus was the end of Finch's week long party.

With summer slowly going bye-bye, we start to prepare for all things fall.  Lizzie is going to start homeschooling and supplementing with some weekly curriculum programs we have signed up for through our church.  We hope this goes well but I have great faith it will.  Hopefully our pumpkins will start to come in and we will have no need to purchase any this year.  Who knows, we may have more than we know what to do with.

Also, my running season will start to come to a close as next weekend Lizzie and I are both entered in a local 5K walk/run and then next month is my big half-marathon that I've been training for.  I am eager for the race but also a bit nervous. After that its just run as much as I can before its too cold to do so.

Well, that's the basic happenings in our life thus far.  We are eager for the start of a new season, which brings different events and things for the kids to do.  We'll keep you apprised of their progress and all the other fun fall activities we get ourselves into, whether voluntarily or not.

Thanks again.  Toodles!

The Green-ish Initiative - Vol. 1, Issue 1

We are nigh upon the summer and with it, great change has come to the Davis household.  Not another baby (yet) but we are turning over a new leaf and trying our hands at some new skills, of which we are yet to fully acquire.  Practice makes perfect, right?

Anyway, we do hereby enact a new family initiative this summer.  With some reluctance and much uncertainty, we are making our first attempt at so-called "green living", a.k.a. "organic living".  It all seems very liberal and "hippie-ish" but really we are just being miserly and attempting to save some coin with attempts at homemade items, DIY projects and the always elusive at-home garden.  The end goal, of course, is to make millions off our line of "natural products", vinegars, pickled everything and yummy jams and jellies, retiring shortly thereafter.  The goal of this post, it seems, is to use as many "quotations" as possible.  So far both are coming to fruition.

Accompanying this new found niche of ours is a revamping of this blog.  Yes, you will still find occasional family updates, but more frequently we intend to post updates around our progress in the aforementioned "at-home projects" as well as recommendations and suggestions for your own, similar projects.  Here are some things you can look forward to learning about and we intend to do "at-home" this summer:

1. Home-brewed apple cider vinegar & root beer
2. Homemade cleaning products
3. In-town gardening & composting
4. Landscaping ideas
5. Various home projects
6. Kids craft ideas

That being said, we've only barely kicked off the summer fun.  We were on the verge of planting our garden when the winter spell hit, dropping some snow on use in early May.  Once we are snow free we'll start our garden.  Got the spot picked, got the plants and seeds, just need to till and plant.  Also waiting on the compost but all of this is for another post.  You'll have to come back for more.  Just a little tease, I guess.

So, with that, I bid farewell until next morrow.  We'll post with pics soon our progress on the above mentioned items and so much more.  Thanks so much for reading the Famous Davis Family's "Not Green, Just Cheap" inaugural blog.  Here's to a great summer!