Hot DAWG!

According to the Old Farmers Almanac, July 3 marked the start of the 40 dog days of summer and if my math is correct, that means they end today.  (Somebody tell the weatherman, please?)

Until recently I didn't really know why we call these hot, steamy days "dog days" - I just know the dogs seem to spend most of their indoor time these days moving from one cool spot to another on our wood and tile floors.   (Little dog spends a couple days a week over here, where she can romp and stomp and aggravate big dog and the cat until she finally sprawls out and naps along with them.)

Little dog and big dog snoozed while I steamed up the kitchen making pepper relish

Turns out, the term goes back to ancient Romans and astronomy. Sirius (the star) rose around sunrise around this time of year. The Romans thought they could appease his rage with sacrifices and offerings. Bad dog.

Knowing why we call them the dog days won't make them any cooler, so I'll just keep watering the plants and fanning myself and hoping my water and electric bills aren't too outrageous this month.

Stay cool!

So how 'bout them recipes?

Last week, I test-drove several new recipes, most of which were from the Food Network.

And surprisingly, they were all pretty successful.  (My new recipe ventures are often trial-and-error.  Emphasis on error. But even with an error-strewn wake behind me, I still love plowing into new recipe terrain, especially when I'm tired of fixing the "same 'ol, same 'ol," as my nephews call their favorite foods.)

For starters last week, we had sweet and sour bean salad.  My only gripe about bean salads (not just this one) is that you wind up with a HUGE salad, especially when there are only a couple of us eating on it.  It keeps for several days, but who wants to eat the same salad for days on end?

When I make it again (and I will), I will use Catalina dressing and add a bit of cider vinegar to it in lieu of the dressing, which involved boiling apple cider vinegar, sugar, a can of tomato soup, salt and pepper, then mixing with oil.  The problem is, the recipe makes a LOT of dressing, even for four cans of beans.  Wayyyy too much dressing. And when I was mixing it up, I thought it smelled and tasted a lot like Catalina dressing. 

Sure enough, many homemade Catalina dressing recipes involve the same ingredients, with less vinegar.  Next time around, I'll use a cup (or so) of Catalina dressing with an added boost of vinegar and voila.  I'm also tempted to try this recipe with garbanzo beans instead of butter beans.  So yeah, it's a keeper, especially if I'm feeding a crowd.

The BLT pasta salad was splendiferous as-is. Wouldn't change a thing, except to cut it in half. That recipe makes 8 generous servings, not the 4 indicated.  Also, be sure you get the bacon really crisp.  I was in a hurry and my bacon was just this side of crispy.  It was good, but good crunchy bits would have held their own better.

The Stuffed Chicken Divan was good, but I read the reviews and modified it accordingly - Swiss cheese rather than Gruyere, double the cornstarch and I used half sherry and half white wine and tossed the remaining broccoli and cheese stuffing in the sauce.  My only recommendation is to ramp up the flavor of the stuffing. Not sure exactly what it needs, maybe onion or shallots as some reviews suggested, maybe something else.  A keeper.

Finally, I tried Paula Deen's Peach Cobbler.  It was good, but would have been better if I had paid more attention and remembered the cup of sugar in the dough batter.  And uhhhh....when she says put it in a 3-quart dish, she knows what she's talking about. (The oven needed cleaning anyway.)

I also revisited my own creamy dill cucumber salad from memory, adding some tomatoes for good measure.  Maybe it was the last-minute decision to add buttermilk, or the choice of Greek yogurt, but it was too tangy for my tastes.  We're going to have to take another stab at it, especially if oldest son keeps bringing me cucumbers that his neighbor gives to him.  And there's always fresh cucumber "bellyachers"  to use up the surplus.

I'm glad we took a detour last week through these new recipes, and I plan on taking several more scenic routes soon.    To paraphrase Paulo Coelho (don't feel bad - I didn't know who he was either):

"Life is too short, or too long to allow us the luxury of eating the same foods over and over again."

Happy culinary adventures!

Slow down: new recipes ahead

No mosquitoes, I'm sure.

Summer is supposed to be synonymous with lazy days stretching into long evenings.   Some of my best childhood memories are of sitting on my grandma's glider with my cousins, shelling peas and snapping beans.  It was hot, we inevitably got sweaty and sticky during those days that seemed to go on forever.  An early evening bath and cool, clean PJs, and we were set to do something exciting, like have a rootbeer float and watch the fireflies for a few minutes before bedtime.

I guess we didn't get the lazy-days-of-summer edict this year.  (Come to think of it, I don't think we've gotten one for several years.)  This summer - even more than most - has been lived and measured with the fast-moving second hand on the clock, not the hour hand. Every day since we moved in early May has felt like a race against time, from the moment our feet swing out of bed until we collapse exhausted sometime after the late news has ended without us watching.  Our days are packed full of activity; and as the saying goes, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

However, this week we're going to savor the flavor of summer with some new recipes, including a BLT pasta salad (what can possibly go wrong when you combine bacon, tomatoes and pasta?), a new version of Chicken Divan and a sweet-and-sour bean salad (TYVM Paula Deen), and my own tomato-ey take on a traditional yogurt/cucumber salad. And someone recently mentioned that Papa Murphy's pizza are really good when grilled, so that seems like a good choice for our usual Friday night fare.

New recipes force me to slow down: I have to actually measure ingredients and follow directions instead of zipping my way through a tried-and-true favorite, with only a few prompts and hints along the way. And we tend to slow down when we come face to face with a new food on our plates. Instead of scarfing it down like we're in an eating contest, we take time to contemplate the  presentation, the aroma, the flavors and texture and decide: is the recipe a keeper or does it need some tweaking to suit our tastes?

We can't slow down the clock.  But most of the time, we can choose to slow down our pace and enjoy the season we're in.  It's definitely worth a try before summer completely slips away (the UT football reminders and bulb catalogs arriving in the mail herald the approaching fall.  It's just around the corner.)

Happy slower eating,

Loose ends: Inch by Inch, Yard by Yard

This week, time ran through my fingers like sand - the tighter I tried to hold onto it, the faster it went.  The remainder of our summer vacation is now measured in days, not weeks.

Swimmer Girl was home for a week between church camp and a mission campaign trip.  She heads out tomorrow with steel-toed work shoes, bug spray and sun screen, Ibuprofen and lots of scrunchies (because it's going to be hot and messy and showers will be few and far between), and a confirmation that her tetanus booster is up-to-date.

We celebrated middle child's birthday a day late on Thursday night and we'll celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday and oldest child's birthday with a combined cookout meal tonight.  (Two more cakes, coming up!)

Not many (okay, none, nada, not any) loose ends were actually tied off this week. But look what came in the mail on Thursday.

The fabric for the chair cushions!  Fabric.com is awesome - they were less than half the price of everybody else for this fabric, and I got free shipping. 

No more excuses - I have the new foam cushions and the fabric and I'm pretty sure the staple gun works just like it always has.  Now to find an hour or two to rip off the old fabric and padding, and re-do them. 

Happy Saturday!

8 weekends + 2 hands = 6 projects

Granted, the math doesn't work, but let's hope my plans do.

As of today, there are eight precious weekends before Labor Day weekend. (And I am determined that Labor Day weekend is not going to be a weekend of labor for us this year.)

So what loose ends do I really really want to wrap up by the time the Vols kick off their opening game in 50 days?

• Finish refinishing a bedroom dresser. After languishing for a year, this has drifted to the top of my priority list only because I am tired of feeling guilty every time I pass it in the garage.

• Put the finishing touches on our new master bathroom: paint walls, hang a shelf, re-do the cabinet storage and hang a chandelier. Easy peasy, right?  Don't answer that.

• Recover the dining room seat cushions. By hook or by crook, they're gonna get done this summer. I have the new foam cushions, I just need fabric and some quality time with the staple gun.

• Power wash and paint the porch rails and front door. This is one of those jobs I really have to psych myself up for. But the good thing is, the porch stays shady all day long.

• Find the perfect couch for Mr. Official's man cave.  It will make it the bees' knees up there.  And once it's installed upstairs, the final loose end for the summer is....

• Paint the stairwell areas and hang pictures. I promised myself these areas should wait until we were moved in. Well, we're moved in and the days are slipping past.

So there you have it:  my top weekend projects to finish before September 2, not counting the garage cleanout at the old place.  Most of these will take about a weekend to do, if I use my time wisely (and maybe get a little help. Hint, hint.)

I just noticed that everything except #3 and #5 involves paint or stain. Guess I better stock up on brushes and rollers and paint thinner.  Joy.

But I'm not going to think about any of these until we wrap up the next housewarming party, which happens tomorrow night.  It's gonna be great to see some old friends of ours and get acquainted with some other Friday night football widows as the men in striped shirts swap gridiron war stories.

Happy project-ing!

Recipe of the Week: Grilled Tomato Towers

I honestly don't remember what these are really called or which magazine inspired me to make them years ago, so we'll go with "tomato towers." They are a wonderful summer accompaniment to almost any meal, especially grilled meats.  Close your eyes and imagine slices of juicy ripe tomatoes and Vidalia onions, melded together with some soft fresh Mozzarella cheese. Throw in some basil leaves and balsamic vinegar for flavor and you've got a warm, gooey tower of goodness.  In fact, we had one last night...

Tomato Towers

Ingredients:
1 large beefsteak tomato, cored and sliced into 4, 1/4-inch slices
1 small Vidalia onion, sliced into 4, 1/4-inch slices
Soft fresh Mozarella cheese, sliced into thin layers
4 basil leaves, washed and patted dry
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Place onion slices in balsamic vinegar to marinade for a few minutes; be sure to turn to coat. When ready to assemble, layer as follows:

1 slice of onion
1 basil leaf
1 or two slices of cheese (if they are small use two)
1 slice of tomato
1-2 slices of cheese
1 basil leaf
1 slice tomato
1-2 slice of cheese
1 slice onion

Homely but handy!

Place on hot grill (I like to use this perforated grilling tray so nothing falls through the grates), and grill covered until the onion caramelizes a bit and the cheese softens; carefully flip over and repeat; Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately. This recipe make 2 large side portions, or split them apart to serve four.

Note: It is a given these will not stay neatly stacked once you start slicing into them, so don't worry if they look a mess. Messy is good, especially when it's yummy and messy.

Happy eating!

Recipe of the Week: Frozen Citrus Pie

Looking through my virtual "recipe box" I realized I'm a little shy on cake and pie recipes.  And...lemon and lime (and even grapefruit) are among my favorite flavors to meld into sweet treats especially in the summer, so this one is right up my alley.  It's a tangy and cold ending to dinner.  It's equally yummy with lemonade or limemade mix.  Even better, it's incredibly easy to throw together - no one has to know how little time or effort it took.

Frozen Citrus Pie

Ingredients:
1 graham cracker crust (make your own or store-bought; deep dish is best)
1 can frozen limemade or lemonade concentrate
1 small tub frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 quart vanilla ice cream


Directions:
Mix together the concentrate and ice cream. Fold in the whipped topping and mound in graham cracker crust. Cover and freeze until frozen firm. Before serving, let stand a few minutes to slightly soften (it will make cutting easier.) Makes 8 servings.  Eat slow to avoid brain freeze :-)

Happy eating!

Ready or not, here we go!

Last year, our church did a first-ever all summer VBS, which we call SBV (Summer Bible Vacation.) Twelve weeks, six grades (K-5th grades) and four big lessons taught in six different ways: art, history, games, story, music, and skits/movie clips. It was a hit with the kids, their parents and the volunteer teachers and guides who escorted them each Sunday and Wednesday.

It takes a tremendous amount of creative juice and elbow grease to pull it together and pull it off, but we have a highly dedicated core group of volunteers that I am blessed to work with. Today is the eve of our kickoff weekend. Every spare minute of the past few weeks have been spent running here and there, wrapping up last-minute errands and to-do's for this, along with getting the house ready to paint and of course, making sure I get my real job done.

Ready or not, tomorrow's "sneak preview" day heralds the beginning of an exciting summer for the kids, and the end of the frantic pre-work for those of us that have been working feverishly behind the scenes.

Which is good because every non-essential part of my usual life has been on hold during this time: my hair desperately needs a cut and color, my toenails are chipped beyond belief, my car needs an oil change (and a massive cleaning); the dog looks like a yeti and my muscles are atrophying from lack of exercise.

So after tomorrow's kickoff, my plan is to repeat last year's post-kickoff afternoon with swimmer girl: happy hour at Sonic, then to a pedicure salon, then home - maybe for a nap this time. Then I can let my life start rolling at its normal breakneck pace once again.

Happy Friday!

Tying up loose ends

I have issues with ends and endings.  Run-on sentences that don't end?  Guilty.  Crying at happy endings? Again, affirmative.  Split ends? I don't want to talk about it, but thanks for noticing.

But mainly, loose ends.  You know, those projects that get *almost* done?  Everything except one, (usually tiny), final step.  I tell myself I'll get around to that last bit...tomorrow.  Or eventually.  But I don't. Which is how we wound up living with unfinished trim in our bonus room for two (or was it three?) years.  It's why I am hauling several tubs of half-finished (or never-even-started!) craft projects out of the attic of the old house, and trying to decide what to take and what to leave.  (Well, donate or throw away.  I wouldn't actually LEAVE them in the old house.)  It's why I'm STILL hauling stuff out of the old house, even though we officially moved three weeks ago.

New house, fresh start, new resolve.  It's time to start finishing things before I start something else.  To that end, I am dedicating this summer to tying up all the loose ends of moving and settling in.  By the time Labor Day (and football season) rolls around, I hope I can pronounce them all finished, as far as the eye can see.  So every week this summer, I'll update you with my efforts...successful or not.

I figure it's good to start with baby steps - something fast, easy, and almost fun.  Like hanging a wood blind.

When we were preparing to move into this house, all window blinds were hung, except one.  (Apparently the former owners were had "loose end" issues, too.)  "How hard can this be?" I thought as I snagged some brackets on a trip to Lowe's.  Harder than I thought - the blind is bigger than the brackets I bought.

Undaunted, I went online and discovered the world of "high profile" vs. "low profile" blinds.  I got sidetracked and it wasn't until a few weeks had past that I remembered to order the brackets (sidenote:  if you need blind parts, check eBay; wayyyy cheaper than the blind replacement specialty e-tailers.)  And a few days later, they showed up.   Thank goodness eBay sellers and mail carriers follow through, even when I forget what I ordered.

Before: window clear, floor covered

Before I made this resolution, those brackets would have sat around for several days, eventually shuffled into a junk drawer or tucked away in some obscure location, never to be seen or thought of  again.  Not this time.  As of yesterday, the blind is hung (thanks to middle son for his help.)  Yes, that's the valance leaning up against the bookcase.  No, it's not hung. (The clips I ordered were for the wrong size - gahhh!  But  I have contacted the seller to arrange for a return and exchange.)  And in the interest of full disclosure, after I took these before-and-after shots, I had to locate a tilt wand. They're not as easy to find as you might imagine. Fortunately an extra old blind at the old house had one that was the right size.  But I did, and I got it installed - another loose end tied tight.

While we were in the bonus room/man cave with ladder and screwdrivers handy, I also re-attached the fan canopies and air duct vents that we loosened so we could paint this room before we moved in.

(The more I think about it, the more I am convinced this "loose end syndrome"  is a debilitating affliction, perhaps a disability.  It's definitely a congenital defect, as our children suffer from it, too.)

After:  window covered, floor clear

Since we were on a roll, I also put away the boxes we used to hold files during the move (yeah, I know how many days ago that was) and tidied and vacuumed.  The man cave is not finished yet, but it definitely looks better than it did before we hung that blind!  What a difference tying up just one little loose end can make.

I'm not sure what my next loose end(s) to tie up will be...probably whatever has me at my wit's end and fit to be tied.  Stay tuned!





Here's to a summer of happy tying,

Surprise!

Surprise lilies are not so surprising around here, but it's always fun to see them pop up in the middle of summer.  The pink ones are botanically known as Lycoris squamigera and are hardy to zone 5.  We also call them naked (or in these parts, nekkid) ladies because they have no foliage to go with their blooms - the strappy leaves springs up earlier in the season, then dies back before the bloom stalks appear.

Their red-blooming cousins, Lycoris radiata, should put in their annual appear soon - they're barely hardy in this area, but I think I saw their foliage this spring, so I'm hopeful they'll be along shortly.

I've had these bulbs in place for several years, but it's only been in the last few summers that they've bloomed.  I paid penance for transplanting them at the wrong time (they can sulk for a long time if you move them too much or at the wrong time.)

The bulbs are planted beneath a [expletives deleted] silver maple, amid a swath of hardy plumbago (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, which is a mouthful!)  Unfortunately, the hardy plumbago usually waits until after the ladies have come and gone before it puts on its full flush of electric-blue blooms.  So much for my attempts to orchestrate mother nature.

The fish are growing - I think they've at least doubled their size since we brought them home.  Of course, they should be growing, as much food as they devour each day!  I could be wrong, but I think one of the shubunkins is preggers.  Guess we'll know soon enough.  There's also a tiny frog that lives somewhere close to the pond.  I hope he finds himself a good place to hang out for the season - we could use his help controlling the mosquito population.  The toad hut went unrented this season...maybe next year we'll have tenants.

While watering...

I had a deep thought today: 'If some of my roses were puny because they were waterlogged, how come they're not growing like gangbusters when they're dry as a bone?'  Sigh...

I also ruminated on why perennials should be planted in the spring or fall, but not summer.  At least I did get my cheap plants planted, but now they are pitiful, needy little things...always looking parched and whimpering for a drink of water.  Unlike their established counterparts who might flag a little in the heat of midday, but perk right up once evening comes.

So, my second gardening resolution for 2011:  just like mulching, I should only buy and plant perennials in months beginning with Ma and Ap.  Or Se and Oc.  But never in months beginning in Ju or Au.  (Except for the box of daylilies that arrived today from Gemini Garden.  Hmmm.  Guess those might go in after tomorrow's rain, when I can dig and lift the clumps that I want to remove and pass along.)

Our water bill was atrocious this month (but honestly not as bad as I feared it might be.  Then again, it was June and we were still getting rain - there's no telling what July and August might bring.) The weather forecast says there's a 60% to 80% chance of thunderstorms tomorrow, so I'll water today just to be sure.  (If I don't, it won't. Murphy's Law and all that.)

The pond plants got treated to some fertilizer today - a little overdue, but better late than never, right?  I was a little smarter this year...I only bought a small container of fertilizer tablets.  In the past, I've bought bigger bottles because they're cheaper, ounce for ounce. But I finally got it through my frugal head that their shelf life is limited, and buying a two-year's supply is not a money saver if I have to buy replacements the next year anyway.  I have just enough tablets to treat the waterlily to a second round of fertilizer late next month, and that should be all these plants need to get them through until fall.  So far, two of the new goldfish have decided to do the eternal backstroke, but the shubunkins and remaining goldfish seem content and happy to hang out in their new home, and are starting to associate my appearance with food.

Speaking of which, tonight's dinner is definitely going to avoid using the stove as much as possible...grill, here we come!  The only good thing about traipsing outside periodically to move the sprinkler is that a 78 degree house feels really cool when you've been out in upper 90 degree temperatures  (Yes, it's a heat alert day.)  Hope everyone stays cool as a cucumber.  Hey look - are those storm clouds on the horizon?

P.S. The watering ritual worked - it's thundering and sprinkling.
P.P.S. Yes, I'm playing with my blog's background and header.  Let me know what you think!

You can't always get what you want...

The 'Stones were in my head this morning for some reason.  I guess the unusually cool morning temperatures brought crisp fall weather to mind.  And the other day, I was sweltering away watering plants and daydreaming about sunny October afternoons in Knoxville, watching the Vols play football.  Something about that time of year, when the sun warms your face, but there's a hint of coolness that whispers of the season to come...it's fleeting but special.  If I close my eyes, I can almost feel it.

In winter, I dream of spring days when we can open the windows.  When spring days bounce from cold to warm and back, I yearn for the unrelenting heat of summer.  And in summer, I wish for cool, crisp fall days.

And...that's as far as my wish list goes.  I never hope, long, dream or wish for winter.  Okay, maybe I occasionally cross my fingers and wish for one "good" snow fall to blanket everything. But that's all.  In my dream world, Christmas is sunny and 60 degrees; January and February fly past in the blink of an eye.  Once the tree is down and the ornaments are up in storage, I'm thumbing through seed and plant catalogs and counting down the days until spring.  (I may be considered a "winter" person because of my hair and skin tone, but that's the ONLY part of me that embraces winter.)

Today is another round in the age-old contest of woman vs. weeds.  I can win the occasional battle, but the weeds will win the war. Nature bats last.  I know these are immutable truths, but I gird up and go forth nonetheless.

This week's menu got flipped and flopped around due to the everlasting swim meet on Tuesday.  (We eeked out a win, though - go Comets!!!!)

We're finally having the manicotti tonight.  Last night was pecan-crusted salmon with fried green tomatoes, fresh melon and ranch noodles.  The salmon recipe definitely has potential.  I followed someone's advice and reduced the honey, so the butter-dijon-honey ratio was about 1:1:1.  And I reduced the breadcrumbs to 1/4 cup.  Now if I can just remember to not overcook the salmon next time...) 

I'm also going to try making my friend Jennifer's scrumptious honeybun cake recipe this weekend.  If mine tastes half as good as hers, I'll be running nonstop next week to burn off the calories from my gluttony.   If we're up and around early tomorrow morning, I'm hoping to hit the new 'boro farmers market on the square, and then maybe venture down to the Readyville Mill to pick up some grits.

Smells of summer

This morning saw the husband and daughter head off to go white water rafting.  (My hernia problems have kept me from joining them for several years now.  Bummer, but it beats having a second hernia surgery, which the surgeon warned would not be as quick or easy to recover from as the first.)

As soon as I got them out the door and finished a cup of coffee, I poured a second mug to go and headed to town in search of anaheim pepper plants.  Three nurseries later, no anaheims, but amazingly, my car was full of plants, wheat straw...and a cantaloupe.  The aroma of wheat brought back memories of riding in an un-airconditioned pickup as we bounced along rutted dirt roads and fields, to check on the guys in the field, harvesting the wheat or baling hay.  I remember those trips as hot, dry, dusty and I was probably cranky and whiny.  But the smell of wheat brings back a flood of good memories.  Long days, when the sun didn't set until after my bedtime, and when I was the one asking "what's for dinner?" instead of the one answering.

The cantaloupe smells luscious...we'll see if its taste lives up to its smell when I slice it for breakfast tomorrow.

The additional tomatoes (2 Health Kick and a Black Prince), a hot chili pepper, plus zucchinis, cucumbers and pole beans are in the ground, and everything is mulched with straw.  It was tremendously hot and muggy work, but middle child helped, so the job went much faster than it would have otherwise.  Thunder grumbled a few times while we worked, but it held off while we broke for lunch.  As soon as I began setting out the bedding plants and perennials, the rain began in earnest, so I took it as a sign to break for a while.  Hopefully it will clear off and I can go back out and finish up everything today.  But in the meantime, my desk is going to get a deep cleaning and the card table that has been set up for VBS activities will be tucked away in its rightful home.  Order WILL be restored to my workspace today.

Daylilies: here today, gone tomorrow

We created the bed alongside the driveway 8 years ago by my guess-timation.  The guys laid the landscape timbers to my specifications, we added leaves and compost that fall, and I covered the mess with plastic for a little natural radiation treatment on the bermudagrass.

The following spring, we removed the plastic, and I introduced about 150 daffodils bulbs.    I then drove to a private residence  on the north side of Knoxville and helped myself to daylilies from the friend who lived there.  I distinctly remember planting them because that was the year I broke my great toe on my left foot.  I sat on the ground, squatted on an upturned bucket and contorted my body to baby that toe as I dug hole after hole for the clumps to fit in.  The friend has since relocated to the Houston area, but her daylily divisions remain part of my landscaping - the daffodil/daylily combinaton is something I saw touted in Southern Living many years ago.  Over the years, I've divided and shuffled my own daylily clumps, trying to get a better blend of colors and blooming times down through this very long bed (the driveway stretches about 70 feet through here before widening in the turnaround area adjacent to the garage bays.)  I've also added a few dozen varieties, thanks to plant sales and eBay.

The introduction of a sprinkler system last year has helped the plants in this bed tremendously.  The bed is located under a couple (beautiful) sugar maples that suck the nutrients and moisture from the soil every chance they get.  My efforts at keeping the bed watered with a hose have always been hit-or-miss, so now they're responding well to the more regular waterings thanks to a timer and pop-up head sprayers.  The daffodils are probably saying a silent prayer as they recover from their late winter/early spring display.  That's okay - they can thank me by showing off next spring.

For the next few weeks, the daylilies will be on parade, with one after another blooming until they're all spent.  The purple ruellia I dug up out of the cow pasture behind us has finally settled in and filled in some of the blank spots, so it will provide some color after the daylilies are gone.  If I had room, I'd introduce some crocosmia to the bed, just to keep the color going into early fall but I think this bed is near capacity.  And in case you think I can't mix colors, check this out.

Put on your sunglasses for indeed, it is a combination of bright yellow (I love the spider-y dayliliies) a vivid cherry pink, right in the middle of pale pink, lavender with a splash of red and orange thrown in for good measure.  Subtle and demure are not my strong suit - at least when it comes to flower colors.  What can I say? I live in a state that thinks orange looks good on all skin tones!

A bowl of cherries

Life may not be the proverbial bowl of cherries, but June does bring the opportunity to enjoy a bowl of them.  Savor the fruit, spit out the pits.  Kind of sums up a lot of things in life, doesn't it?

Today was the second hurdle for our new Summer Bible Vacation program - a "sneak preview" day, where we invited friends and neighbors from the community to join us and see what we're up to this summer.  A guarded success:  we had just over 100 in attendance, we stayed pretty close to the set schedule, and the "Harvest Hut" had a big crowd for its grand-opening.  Lots of wide-eyed children, clutching their first few blue Bible Bucks in their hands, eager to buy something.  Anything.  When the last child finally scampered out, proudly holding a handful of cherry Twizzlers, the remaining crowd quickly dwindled down until it was just a few of us finishing up and comparing notes on how things went.  All in all, the day was very smooth, thanks in large part to the number of adults in attendance.

As pleased as I am about how well today went, it confirmed why I'm not a big fan of one-day VBS. For starters, it's totally hit-or-miss on everyone's schedules.  Today there were many rain-out ballgames competing for space on everyone's refrigerator calendar.  As it is nearing the end of the season for most youth teams, games won out for many families and I hope they all did great!  But had this been our only opportunity to reach out to the children of our community this year, our efforts would not yield much fruit, mainly due to simple mathematics:  it amounts to only a tiny fraction (1/365ths, to be precise) of the year.  I don't know if we'll reach more families as the summer progresses, but I pray we do.  At least we stand a better chance of reaching them if we offer them 25 more opportunities to see our sign out front or spot our listing in the Rutherford Parents magazine, or get a postcard from a friend or neighbor and decide to come check us out.

After I left the building mid-afternoon, I hit Sonic for a celebratory diet cherry coke, and ducked into my favorite little place for a quick cure (a pedicure, that is), then came home and cleaned off my desk.  (Hey, there's my desk calendar again..guess I should change it to June, huh?) and snacked on that bowl of cherries as I cleaned and tidied all the way down to the desk's surface.

Before dark, I grabbed the leash and took the pooch for a walk, which she loved.  On our way back, we stopped and chatted with the neighbors sitting on their front porch, then ambled home and snacked on some pizza for dinner.  Bedtime will come early tonight, I predict.

Tomorrow is the third hurdle - the first actual class for the SBV program.  After Wednesday night, we'll know if everything is indeed working as planned.  If so, then we can shift into maintenance mode:  making sure vacationing teachers and guides have a substitute, getting attendance and visitor information to send out postcards every few weeks, and making sure the classrooms are stocked up on everything they need for all four lessons.  That also means it's time to gear up for our 2nd annual school supply drive.  And get a jumpstart on some curriculum design work, so our fall-spring classes are every bit as up-to-date and cohesive as the summer "vacation" classes.

Now that the biggest push is over, it's back to other domestic dalliances...I might even try my hand at making a cherry pie, or at least a cheesecake with a fresh cherry glaze.  Might as well enjoy them while they last!

Shades of summer

How can you tell when summer is approaching?  Well, the days get longer and hotter.  The A/C unit on something is going to stop working just when you have your first upper 80s day, ummm....like today on our way home from worship services. (So much for fine Bavarian motor engineering. How DID our forebears forbear without air conditioning?)

Rising temperatures aside, there's just something about knowing you don't have carpool duty in the a.m. that makes Sunday evening stretch out in a leisurely fashion. Other signs of summer?  First swim practice (dryland but still...) and fireflies.  Girls giggling in the hot tub at 10 pm, with their pop music at a decibel level that's just loud enough to cause a mild irritation for neighbors who turn in early, but not so loud so as to result in a patrol car pulling up outside.  Sunday night sleepovers are a SURE sign of summer.

Other signs?  Crisp linen trousers with sandals, with toes peeking out that are tapping out a Morse code SOS for an emergency visit to the pedicure salon. A Sunday afternoon trip to the car wash/vacuum, followed by a driveby at Sonic for a happy hour diet cherry limeade.  Ahhhh, the taste of summer pops and fizzes and bubbles.

The countdown to the start of our all-summer Bible Vacation now stands at just under 2 weeks.  The new songs are recorded and being edited to a CD for copying.  The skits are in the hands of the teacher/actors.  Videotaping of our story lady ("Professor Peabody," with her sidekick "Sherman") has begun..

My office looks like Oriental Trading and Hobby Lobby are having a gangster-style turfwar, with props, posters, craft supplies and lists of to-do's stacked everywhere, I'm not sure who will win that one, but I know the ending won't be pretty.

It's a given the next few days will fly by in a dervish of frantic last-minute scheduling changes, the insane scramble to get everything moved in and set up, and making the rounds so everyone knows where they need to be, what they're supposed to be doing, and when they need to be in place. Flyers to the Christian school elementary kids before the last day of class?  Check.  Postcards to last year's attendees in the mail and a registration table up and running?  Check and check.

Hearing stories from teachers whose students can barely contain their excitement at the upcoming kickoff? Priceless.

The real question is, will this domestic dilettante be able to squeeze in much quality time in the kitchen between now and then?  What about time for Scadie-sitting?    Pedicure, even?  That remains to be seen.