Here we are at the end of another week. This one was an odd week. We started it in Utah and ended it in Idaho. The kids only went to school three days of the week. Brandon only went to work three days out of the week too. The jeep broke down. I worked four days of the week.
And with all that going on what did I take pictures of? My garden!!! The bulk of the pictures from this week are of my garden.
So here are all those garden pictures interspersed with descriptions of what happened each day.
We spent all of Sunday at Brandon's parents house. We had a nice visit with his parents and I took like three naps. That night his mom made a really nice Lasagna Dinner.
In the evening his sister Melanie came over with her kids.
Veronica wanted me to take a picture of this Cat Faced Spider that lives on the front porch.
Monday was Labor Day and we didn't have work or school to worry about. So we slept over at Brandon's parents one more night. We left early on Monday morning and drove home before the day got too hot. And wow was it hot! I considered taking the kids swimming because this was the last day that our pool pass would work. But we were all just so tired. We pretty much did nothing all day.
Our plan for Labor Day - before we'd decided to go down to Utah for a funeral - was to go hiking in the Sawtooth Mountains. But that plan might not have panned out anyway. There was a huge fire burning in the Sawtooths and at times the highway to the Sawtooths was closed. Also the day was just so hot. So hiking might not have been very fun anyway.
Brandon had to go back to work on Tuesday, but the kids were still out of school. We didn't have much planned. Last year we went to Yellowstone and came home late on Tuesday night. This year we just relaxed.
I took these picture while I was watering the garden that morning. Here are the peaches.
The plum tree. This is it's first year so it doesn't have any fruit, but it's grown a lot.
And here's another view of the peach tree. It's hanging down from all the heavy fruit.
Here's the Morning Glory.
I really love this.
This is the kids play area. It has a lot of sweet peas in it.
Here are the cucumbers.
We only had one pumpkin plant this year. I was still able to train it up the support.
We have one white pumpkin.
I cleaned my room a little bit and then helped Charlotte and Lydia sort through the chaos that had developed on the shelves in their rooms. I'd helped them clean their room a few weeks ago and realized that part of the reason their room is so messy is because they are living in two different worlds right now.
They have lots of "kid" toys like LOL Dolls and Barbies that they aren't really playing with much, but they aren't ready to part with yet. They also have "middle school" things like make up, homework, and art supplies.
So I bought some more clear storage bins like the ones I'd bought for Derrick's room. I helped Charlotte and Lydia sort things into the bins. That way they have a nice place to store their LOL's and art supplies. But those things don't have to be out constantly.
We cleaned off three shelves and it was INTENSE. No one got really emotional, but it was an emotional process. We threw away work books the girls had hung onto since 3rd grade. Art work they'd drawn in 4th grade, but didn't care about any more. And just a lot of garbage.
When we were done I went to work so I could have a break. (Yes, work felt like a break after cleaning off three shelves in my kids' room.) When I drove home there was a big cloud of smoke to the north of town. Later I found out this was a fire burning on the other side of the canyon.
Tuesday ended up being the hottest day of the year. It was 102 degrees. I would have liked to take the kids to the pool to cool off, but our passes had expired the day before. The air quality wasn't great thanks to all the fires though so I guess it was better to stay home.
We didn't do much that afternoon.
Well I felt like we did nothing. Lydia engineered a new amusement park ride out of her legos.
It was quite impressive.
Okay, I did do one other productive thing on Tuesday. I stripped the kids white towels. Each child was given a while towel when they were baptized. Derrick and Veronica's towels were still fairly white. But Charlotte and Lydia's were taking on a blueish hue. (I think they'd been washed with jeans more than once.) I put the towels into the tub with a mixture of Tide, Borax, and Washing Soda. I let them soak for several hours. Then I washed them out. This is what they looked like when they were dry on Wednesday morning. From this picture you can't tell whose towels are whose.
The meeting went great! Derrick has such a good team that cares deeply about his school life. We went over the IEP really carefully because we wanted to make sure it was set up right for when he goes to middle school next year.
After the meeting was over I met up with Berenice who is in charge of the PTO's Mustang Day's this year. I showed her how to use the copier and where to put the fliers.
I went to work for a long time on Wednesday and got all caught up on things that I'd let slide on Monday and Tuesday. I kept forgetting it was Wednesday. It felt like a Monday.
That afternoon I took Veronica to Physical Therapy. Normally Brandon does that, but he had an RV to work on.
Last year Veronica's second grade teacher read the class the book, "The City of Ember." At the end of the year they watched the movie. Veronica really liked the book and the movie and was constantly asking me to get them. Strangely the library didn't have a copy of either. They did have a Graphic Novel of the book so I checked that out and we read it. But that wasn't enough for Veronica. So I decided to buy her the books (turns out is a four book series) and movie for her birthday.
They arrived in the mail on Tuesday. We decided to start reading the book now so we could watch the movie on her birthday. So we've started reading the first book in the evening. It's been a while since I read the kids a book. We got out of the habit during those last few stressful weeks of my school. It's so nice to read again. And it's a really well written book so it's been a joy to read.
On Thursday Derrick made up for the early wake up on Wednesday by waiting to get out of bed until AFTER 7:20.
Brandon had got up early that morning to drive to Utah for another funeral. This one was for his mother's youngest sister. Brandon had been asked to be a pallbearer. So he took the day off of work and started driving to Utah.
Well, around 7:30 he called me and told me the jeep broke down before the Utah/Idaho boarder. He was in the middle of nowhere, but he had cell phone and internet service so he was okay. He was going to try to get a tow truck back to Twin Falls.
After all the kids were off to school I watered the garden while talking to Brandon on the phone. He didn't think the problem was with the engine. That was still running. But the car wasn't moving. (So maybe it was a transmission problem?) He was bummed that he'd miss the funeral, but over all he was doing great. The day was much cooler than the days before. He had tons of free time and no honey do list hanging over him so he was quite happy.
He'd called our insurance for a free tow. They couldn't do it to Twin Falls so they took him to a Jeep Dealer in Brigham City. While he waited for the truck he wrote on his story, practiced his songs for Guys and Dolls, and practiced some card tricks for the play too.
Since Brandon wasn't stressed I decided I wouldn't stress either.
So let's just look at pictures of the garden. Here's my blackberries. We have so many of these clusters.
Here are the tomatoes. They did so well this year.
The kids were all cheerful helpers and did a good job. So I ended up paying each of them a dollar for their hard work.
Brandon wouldn't be home until 9:00 so we went on a walk to the school so they kids and Marcia could run around. Marcia had been really on edge all week. I think all the smoke in the air was making her doggy senses go crazy. She would go outside and bark over and over again. So she really needed a walk. 
Here are the kids running around.
The cows were really close to the fence. Marcia is always really interested in the cows. And this time they seemed really interested in her.
Here's what the sun looked like that morning. There were two big fires burning in the Magic Valley and so we had lots of smoke in the air. The kids all had to have in door recess at the elementary school because of the air quality.
Then I went to work and took care of lots of things there. When I was done with work I meant to go home and grab lunch, but I forgot and ended up driving to the elementary school.
And here is one of many raspberry clusters.
Here's the peach tree again. I tried one of the peaches and it wasn't quite ripe, but it had a perfect freestone pit. That will be so nice when these are ripe.
I love this picture. It looks like a label from a can of peaches.
And here's the little red maple sapling that is now taller than me.
I spent the rest of the morning doing accounting stuff. It was WONDERFUL!!!!!
First I sat down with my PTO binder. I've been so busy with all the other rolls I've been filling that I haven't had time to actually be the Treasurer. My binder was a MESS. I got it organized again. Then I wrote out reimbursement checks. The lady who'd bought candy for Birthday Club had misplaced her receipt. She was stressing out about it and had sent me a screen shot from her back account showing me the purchase. Using the info there I was able to call the store and have them email me a reprint of the receipt. When I texted her to tell her that I had the receipt she was pretty surprised. I was like, "This is what I do." I love this kind of book keeping stuff.
I also got our sales tax stuff straightened out. We only have to worry about sales tax on a few things, and so I'd been putting that off. I finally got it figured out and now I'll be much more on top of it.
After finishing up the Treasurers' stuff I took a break and then went to work on the RV Guy business stuff. I still need to get really organized with that, but I'm getting there.
And then I went to work and took care of lots of money things with that.
Yes it was a happy accounting day.
I left work a little early an went to pick up Veronica from school. She had a Physical Therapy appt scheduled for 3:00. So I checked her and Derrick out at 2:45. I don't quite trust Derrick to walk home alone yet. Well actually I do, but since I wouldn't be home until 4:00, and there was no way to know if Derrick made it home safely . . . . well it was just better for all of us to have me pick him up and drop him off.
We dropped Derrick off at home and then I took Veronica to therapy. She was working with her original therapist, Mr Spencer. He's busier these days so he only gets to work with Veronica every few appts. Veronica likes all her therapists, but she LOVES Mr Spencer. They get along really well. Really, she's like a little celebrity at Physical Therapy. Most of their clients are either high school athletes with injuries or people 35+ with injuries. So a blunt 9 year old girl is a completely different type of client. They all really like talking to her.
Brandon was texting me and letting me know that his parents would be driving him home that night. This was a relief. I'd been trying to figure out the best way to drive to Brigham City to pick him up without completely traumatizing the kids. So his parents driving him home was such good thing.
They would stay over night in our guest room so I had to make sure that was in good shape. And the kids helped me straighten up the rest of the house. We cleaned the living room, family room, and bathrooms. We've had this bathroom cleaning chart for a long time, but this was the first time we EVER had to use the "extra cleaning in the middle of the week" column.
Brandon made it home a little before 9:00. They kids were able to see Steve and Jacque for a few minutes, but then they had to go to bed.
Brandon and I stayed up talking with Steve and Jacque for a bit. They talked about the funeral and the rest of their days.
In the morning I took Brandon to work at 6:00 so I could have the Honda all day. Then I went back to bed. At 7:00 I started waking up Derrick and Veronica. We left for the school around 7:40 like we normally do. Steve and Jacque didn't realize we left that early so they missed saying goodbye to them.
When I came back home Steve and Jacque were awake and eating breakfast. So were Charlotte and Lydia. Steve and Jacque left a little later. And then Charlotte and Lydia left for school.
I worked on figuring out how to put money on Charlotte and Lydia's lunch accounts. They've been taking their own lunches for the past month, but the novelty of that is wearing off. So they want the option to eat school lunch. That's fine with me. The elementary school has free lunch for everyone, but at the middle school we have to pay the reduced price. So I figured out how to put some money on their accounts.
Then I got ready for the day and went over to the school to help with Mustang Day. I wasn't planning to be there until 12:00, but that night I'd woken up with the realization that I'd put the smencils somewhere weird after open house. So I wanted to try to find then rather than make Berenice do it. I'm glad I did that. They were in the T-shirt box.
I was like, "Oh well, I'll eat later." And just went inside the school. There were six other parents helping with the Mustang Day sale. It was so great to see so many people working together. I got checks signed and handed out and then started bundling the cash.
I was able to see Derrick and Veronica which is always fun. They are both so tall.
When it was all over I counted the cash. We had almost $80 in coin alone. We brought it almost $1000. It was AMAZING!
I took the money to the bank. When I walked in I was like, "Who wants to count a lot of cash?"
Then I went home and ate and ate and ate.
At 2:00 I picked up Brandon from work. I was listening to the Baconsale Pay-con-bit (a bonus episode just for Patreon subscribers). When we got home I kept listening to the episode. I laid down on the couch and fell asleep so I missed nearly half the episode. I had to go back and listen to it again.
I picked up Derrick and Veronica from school and a little bit later Charlotte and Lydia came home. Brandon was asleep on the couch and we didn't want to bother him so we went downstairs and watched Clue. I'd checked this out from the library again so Charlotte and Lydia could see it (the rest of us had watched it while they were in Utah at the end of the summer.) I slept through most of the movie.
Brandon woke up and put freezer pizza in the oven for dinner. That was about all the energy we had for dinner that night.
Charlotte had ordered a dragon lego set with some money she'd saved up. It arrived while we were watching the movie. They kids all worked together to help her put it together.
It turned out really cool.
All that rest of Friday really paid off on Saturday because we go so.much.done.
We did ALL the laundry, I helped Charlotte and Lydia sort through the things in and on their desk. Brandon helped Veronica and Derrick clean their rooms.
We got the dog poop picked up outside and Lydia mowed the front yard and part of the back yard.
Brandon picked grapes off the fence where they've grown over from our neighbors side. (She says we are welcome to the grapes on our side.
He ended up with FIVE bowls full of grapes. You might look at this picture and wonder where the fifth bowl is.
It was already in the sink getting washed off. I washed the grapes and removed the stems.
Then I mashed the grapes and boiled them for 10 minutes. I poured all of the grapes stuff into cheese cloth and let it hang over a bowl and drip out.
Then I took the juice - added an insane amount of sugar, boiled it, added pectin, boiled it some more, and then put it into jars.
This is where Brandon came back to help. He helped me with the canning part of this project. I've wanted to learn to can for a while, but this is the first fall I've had time to can.
This turned into quite the war.
I think we all ended up with bruises from these balloons.
So I tried to get things a little more organized.
But in the end it all just devolved into a water fight.
'
And I *think* it worked!!! At least everything seems sealed and the jelly seems set.
(Funny story: The title of the Baconsale Pay-con-bit last week had been, "I'm getting into Botulism." This had been in reference to Botox, but it's what I thought about as I was learning how to can.)
After all that work we needed some playing. Last year I'd ended up with extra water balloons and I'd never done anything with them. Derrick had been on my case about those balloons lately and so we'd written on the calendar that we'd play with them on Saturday. So at 3:00 we got the balloons out.
They were the type that were easy to fill.
'The kids had a blast.
I went and hung out on the patio. Here's Derrick - probably taunting someone.
And I just really like how this all looks right now.
In the evening I went around and watered everything. I thought we were done harvesting for the day, but I realized the carrots were ready. Lydia wanted to pull them and ended up pulling a lot of carrots. I never thinned them so there were some in really fun bunches.
Lydia took all the carrots inside. I washed them off and she cut the tops off. I thought we'd save these for later, but everyone liked eating them. We went downstairs to watch the Mandalorian and all the carrots were gone by the end of the evening.
We watched 4 episodes of the Mandalorian. We were done at 10:00 and the kids were so sleepy. It had been a week since they'd been up that late.
Today we have Stake Conference. We are watching it from home. I LOVE that Stake Conference is available online now. There were so many times when my kids were little and we had to drive over 20 minutes to the stake center where it would have been wonderful to have the option to walk Stake Conference from home. So I will watch it from home every chance I get.
And that catches us up for the week.
(Oh and I'm sure you are interested in a update on the Jeep. So am I. But I don't really have one. I'm not even sure it's been looked at by a mechanic yet. Brandon says he thinks it might be the catalytic converter. I guess I'll have an update on that next week.)
Thanks for reading.
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