This n That

Andrew's gone for the week with work. I decided instead of pouting about it and feeling overwhelmed, I'd just enjoy the time with the girls. Last night, after playing outside, we went to Blockbuster to pick out some movies. Then I gave them a long bath with lots of playing and splashing, and we piled onto our bed to watch Brother Bear 2 on the laptop. Cora went to sleep, but Chloe stayed up to watch the whole darn thing - didn't go to bed til 10:00. I hope that kid sleeps late this morning!

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Speaking of staying up late, I think she keeps very different hours while she's at Mark's. She was exhausted yesterday while we had her friend Alyssa over to play, and wasn't very nice to her. And as soon as they left, Chloe took a nap for three hours. Poor kid.

And on the subject of Mark... he lost his job again, last week. He told me he put in his two weeks because his job was too stressful. Someone from his workplace said he got fired for harassment. Awesome. So he's unemployed again. I'm not sure how he'll survive, it's not like he has savings or anything. But whatever, I guess that's not my problem. I just don't want him living with his mother, because I don't like her around Chloe any more than necessary. But he may already be, from what Chloe's said. Argh. I wish she was Andrew's.

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I turned some stuff in at the fair for open class. I completely missed the deadline, realized it the day after. So when I was with my mom on Sunday, I had her stop by our house so I could grab some things and go and beg them to take them. I did a hat, sweater and scarf. I ended up getting one blue ribbon and two reds. I could've pulled off three blue (or more, if I'd been more prepared) but my stuff was all wadded up and not all freshly blocked and such, and didn't look spectacular. Ah well. I tried. I turned in some pickled asparagus too, but don't know the result on that one yet. I'm hoping we'll be able to pick up Alyssa tomorrow night and take both girls to the carnival rides at the fair. We did that last year and they had a wonderful time. Much better than me trying to fit my wide behind in those kiddie rides!

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I harvested some green beans the other day. Five of them. ;o) One three of my original green bean plants are producing now. I have about 25 more that should be producing at the end of August through till frost. I steamed the green beans and chopped them up for Cora. My first big tomato is just about red - might be ready to pick today or tomorrow. I'm thrilled. I"ve tossed a dozen now to blossom end rot, but this one hasn't rotted yet. Hopefully I can get it picked before it does! There are a good 3 dozen smaller tomatoes still growing and waiting to turn. I could have a pretty good crop this year. The corn looks pitiful, it's all yellowing and falling. Not sure what happened, and can't tell if we'll get any corn from it this year. The beans growing around it look great though. I have some baby bell peppers finally, and my grape tomatoes are going crazy, taking over my whole garden and about a foot taller than me now. I get 10 or so grape tomatoes each day. And that's the garden news.

I ordered 40 pounds of peaches yesterday from a local orchard. They'll let me know when they're ready for pick up, probably in a couple of weeks. I intend to can 20 pounds to use in cobblers and pies, make a batch of peach salsa, freeze 10 pounds, and eat some too. It'll be a lot of work, but I really love that kind of work, and I'll love eating peach cobbler with tree-ripe, home canned peaches all winter long.

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And I can't think of anything else to ramble incessantly about, so I suppose I'll close this now and go work on a little sewing project I started before my kids wake up.