summer sauce

Every August, I look forward to what I refer to as a taste of pure sunshine. The anticipation of that first taste as the aroma fills the house while the tomatoes are cooking. But there is so much more than that. There were the first chilly months of March and April, when I tucked those tomato seeds into a small peat pot of soil and cared for them in my warm home. I diligently watered those baby tomato sprouts until they were ready to be planted in my garden, that I had lovingly prepared for months.

The first few flowers start to bloom on the tomato plants in about June, and I know there are still many weeks until the tomatoes will be ready for picking. Every day when I water them, it's a constant reminder of all that I've put in, and all that I will surely enjoy.

When those tomatoes start to turn yellow, then orange, and finally red I grab the closest basket, bucket, apron (or dress), and gently twist the tomatoes off of the vine and gather all of the ripe ones. Most recently, 18 ripe ones. My first batch of summer sauce, of the year.

Preparing, planting, watering, picking, chopping, cooking. The brief time line of the journey... all the while dreaming of this very moment. The first bite, of summer.

While all of my other tomatoes hang out in the garden and ripen, I can only imagine how they'll end up.... salsa, sandwiches, bruchetta .... and my mouth waters with anticipation.

<- what was left over after dinner! Head over to my cooking blog to get the recipe.

New look

It's hard to believe that it will be August in a few days! Where did the summer go? It's almost time for Owen to go back to school, and the days to get shorter. Before we know it, we will be picking apples and pumpkins, and going for hayrides. Sometimes when life gets crazy, we have to tell ourselves to slow down and enjoy the ride.



I have just begun a new ride, that at the moment, I wish wouldn't be going so slow. I finally took the plunge and got braces! It is something I had wanted to do for more than five years, so it's hard to believe it's actually my current self. There is the whole surprise factor when I look into the mirror. If I'm just sitting still for a little while, I almost forget that the braces are even there. That is, until I open my mouth and feel the brackets inch painfully past my cheeks. It is without a doubt the most painful decision I have made, but what will most certainly be one of the most rewarding in the end, as well.



One thing that I have found very therapeutic through these rough couple of days has been my gardening. I can get lost in something so natural and organic, while I have all of these metal and ceramic contraptions in my head. It's comforting to me. Our garden has been rapidly producing what is sure to be an abundant supply of tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, carrots and peppers. There is even a huge toad (which, unfortunately I haven't been able to snap a picture of yet) that Owen refers to as Beans (ironically, because he hangs out by the beans AND beans is a lizard character in the movie Rango). I consider beans to be the guardian of our veggies because he is always there, eating potentially harmful bugs from within the wooden walls of the garden.



I am planning on starting a blog of just recipes, and post one recipe a month. I also intend to post at least one "family" update on this blog per week. Especially when I get back into my routine this fall when Owen goes back to school. My most recent blog exclusively follows my journey through braces, and you can find that here which I plan on updating at least once a week as well.



Now, I'm going to spend time with my family and enjoy the rest of the weekend before we get packed up and head to New York on another kind of a journey. The one that ends with the last of my siblings getting married. Cheers!

the Spring projects have BEGUN!

It can't be spring without the Spring projects and, well.... lets just say our projects are a definite sign of Spring. We have already laid out a bunch that we will be starting soon.

I wanted a pond when we lived in Virginia but everytime we anticipated buying the supplies, there would be something to tell us it wasn't a good idea. The main reason we never were able to put in my pond was that our yard flooded several times a year. We would end up with blue crabs walking across our yard sideways haha... but anyway, it would have been impossible to keep everything IN that we wanted in, and everything OUT that we wanted out. Our poor fish would have washed away and into the salty bay, which they wouldn't have enjoyed I'm sure. Plus, I don't think the crabs would enjoy being in a pond. So, with that said, it was on top of my list of things I wanted to do with the next house we bought. I have a place picked out in the yard and have started digging so that we can do the project in time for Mother's Day.

The only problem with the pond situation now is that the dog/the kid are going to be fascinated with it. The only solution for that would be to have water that they COULD go in. We've wanted a pool since our last house (and the flooding situation made that dream impossible too) so again, we decided we would do that with our next house. I just can't see myself having time to maintain a huge pool right now, plus, we're going to be at the lake a lot this summer so that makes it even more impossible to maintain it when we're 45 minutes away. Since it's so important to us that Owen keeps up with his swimming, while enjoying the summer, we've decided to get one of these until we have the time to build and maintain an in-ground pool (when our kids are older and less crazy as the toddler stages most likely!)
We had a pool just like this in Virginia because with Brian going out to sea so much, and me going to NY ocassionally while he was gone, it made sense to have something carefree. I used it throughout my pregnancy and even our dog enjoyed it! It was pretty durable too, we never had any problems with it. We actually ended up putting it out by the curb before we moved because we couldn't take it with us. Someone picked it up like 10 minutes after we put it out there haha.
So now I just have to dig out the ground and level it up a little bit so that the pool will be on completely flat ground without any sharp roots or stumps sticking up.

Last but not least, the playground for Owen. Many of you moms have probably noticed that you don't get much for the money when it comes to playgrounds/swing sets. A lot that I've seen are just so flimsy looking that I can't imagine having it hold up to a boy. Plus, do I want my son on something that doesn't seem safe? Luckily, my husband is really handy. He built such an elaborate deck at our old house. The building inspector said that the house would be gone, but the deck would still be there. After looking at some playgrounds, Brian decided he was just going to build one himself. He is SO excited to get started on this project. My dad is probably going to come help him with it, so it will be nice for them. This is what it's going to look like:


Brian just picked up Owen to go put him to bed and Owen said "Mommy, I can't wait for my playground! Playgrounds are so fun!". I'm sure the rest of the neighborhood kids would agree....