the end of July

The end of July brings many mixed feelings. It is our end of Christmas in July. I have more movies than month, so that just doesn't seem right. But we had fun watching all the old movies. Yesterday we watched "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby & Danny Kaye. Why don't they make singers like that anymore? Man, Bing could sing! We've also watched Home Alone 1,2,&3, Santa Clause 2 (can't find 1), the Christmas Story, Peanuts Christmas, Jingle all the Way, Flintstones Christmas, Here comes Santa Claus, Jetson's Christmas, Little House on the Prairie - 2 different Christmas episodes, Frosty the Snowman and the animated Grinch. I am not sure what is on the viewing list for tomorrow, but it will be good. Still need to see Rudolf and Muppet Christmas Carol. I have collected these for 25 years, so we have alot!

It is also the end of our vacation from school. we have done alot of planning this week and written most of it down. Some lessons are planned till the Tues. before Thanksgiving. This is a first for me. We did this over 3 mornings and spread the school books out and got it done. Yeah, for us. I say us, because the kids sat and helped me with everything. We have also tried to schedule out our days which is proving to be a bit more difficult than I imagined. We have different schedules for a couple of days, which don't fit into the norm. Still figuring that out.

We are going to try our hand at making sweet pickle relish this weekend. My cucumbers are producing great quantities and they are going to turn into relish. One of them weighs 1 3/4 pounds! This is a further attempt at exorcising High Fructose Corn Syrup from our lives. I have found some organic relish that we like, but our one organic store here doesn't carry it. So, we are trying to learn a new skill.

Before the torrential rain hit today, we pulled up the green bean plants in one of our square foot gardening boxes. They were not at all productive. We replanted with more bean seeds. Then the deluge hit. Hopefully all the seeds didn't wash to one end of the box. I would still like to grow enough beans to can and eat through the winter. But, if not, I will buy them at the Farmers Market and can them. They are locally grown and will be better than anything else I can buy at the grocery over the winter. We went and bought some today and had them for dinner tonight...yummy!

Time for reading and bedtime. Tomorrow is another day!