Away From Home

So Hubby and I are having a long distance romance again for a little while.  I think he will appreciate me more when I get home...Maybe?  Hopefully he and the kitties are not having too much fun without me and the dancing girls were just a threat!  :)  In all seriousness I really appreciate a hubby who says "go take care of your grandma, we will be fine!" 

Here is Mom, her sister who was widowed in February and Grandma (before we took her to the beauty shop.  We are eating fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and homemade bread, we may not have had meat in a meal all week.  There is nothing wrong with grandmas appetite, she eats like she always has!

We took Grandma to the beauty shop

Is it a compliment to say you look 10 years younger when you are 101?

Before I got here there was not enough 'Muscle' to get her out of the house, I told her I'd take her for a drive if I had to carry her all the way to the car!  We ended up finding a workable solution, and we have gone on 4 outings in the last 10 days.

We got 5 inches of rain yesterday, this is the driveway and the neighbors yard from the upstairs window (sorry for the screen)

Same shot today!  This is such a different climate from what I am used to in the semi arid western states.  Here in Missouri it is humid in the summer and they do not irrigate crops in general, they are more often worried about flooding than drought, although both can happen.  I spent a week or more here every summer that I can remember as a child and then I brought my kids back here about every 2 years when they were kids.  There is a nostalgia here for me as well as a grandma!



Since we are supposed to have a chance of rain for the next few days we will keep this weeks outings to the paved roads or as we say here 'on the black top'. 

We are all having fun Grandma and Mom and I and that is what is important.  Don't know how long grandma can last but want it to be as fun and comfortable as possible.

Slow Living Monthly 9 Link Up

I am so pleased and grateful that the monthly 9 link up will continue even though Christine is in need of a break. I have enjoyed reading Linda at Greenhaven's blog and am looking forward to her hosting our little party!  Thank you to Linda for stepping up!

At the risk of sounding like an old folk song - My bags are packed and I'm ready to go....  :)  I leave in the am to go to my grandmothers house, my mom and I will take care of her together for a month and then we will see what happens.  The goal is that she gets to stay in her own home till the end. I have my laptop and hope that I will be able to keep up here but if not - you'll know why. 

This month has just seemed crazy busy!  Sorry for the 'no photos stripped down model' (!) I'm running out of time but didn't want to miss out on the first month at the new home!

Nourish - It is summer, we are eating out of the garden!  Neither of us is very hungry in the evenings so we just have a salad, lots of meatless days as well.  When it is hot we just eat light!

Prepare - We finally got a freezer so we will start filling it with corn, Hubby has taken a crash course in canning and freezing, he is a little nervous but will do fine I think.  I have done as many pickles as I think we can eat and now we are freezing tomatoes and corn, I have two more sets of corn planted that are not tasseled yet so hope to still have fresh corn when I get back.

Reduce - Ha! I have reduced the amount of stuff I packed to a reasonable amount!  :)

Green - Can't think of anything green but my feet and the knees of my pants! 

Grow - Garden has been in charge of my days this month, between weeding and picking and preserving it really is a full time job!  Tried broccoli for the first time this year and it will be back, very yummy, would like to try cauliflower as well.  the beets and turnips were awesome this month no matter that I am the only one who cares!

Create - I worked on a different branch of the family tree (genealogy) this month and was able to follow it a very satisfying distance into the past.  Knowing that I might be going to Missouri in August I wanted to have it done to take along to share.

Enhance - I have started helping and older woman friend to get herself organized.  Her husband has Alzheimer's and she is still learning to deal with that and still get the bills paid.  It is a very rewarding partnership so far.

Discover - I have written a couple of posts about our trips around our area to discover the history and cemeteries; these have really been fun and our little impromptu group is just about ready for another, they may even wait til I get home!

Enjoy -I have enjoyed seeing the pictures of our Miss Lily this month, she is growing so fast and has discovered her hands!  This is a huge deal my friends, there are so many avenues open to a person when they discover they have hands

My Aunt and her husband took care of grandma for two months so my mom could have some time at home.  So Great Grandma got to get to know Lily as well!  I will leave you with a photo of Great Grandma and Lily practicing another new skill - the smile!

I can see already that standing up is in our future!

Be sure to check out the others who link up each month!

What a week!

Sooo... it all started 10 days ago when my gum started hurting near a back tooth and I figured I had hit a corn chip the wrong way or poked my gum with something, but it kept getting worse, and worse and then I'm nearly crying in pain and I look like Marlon Brando in the Godfather, my jaw was so swollen!  Hubby got up early on Monday morning and got me into the dentist and they took an x-ray and said "abscess" and pulled the tooth!  You night think it was instant relief but noooo.  The tooth is gone but I had to wait for the antibiotics to work before the swelling and pain in the gum was gone!  Yuck, this was not fun!  Yesterday was my first completely pain free day and I am so grateful!!!

The two pints are my Armenian Cucumbers sliced

Of course things do not just stop and let you recover when you have this sort of goings on.  :)  Hubby really picked up the slack with dishes and meals (only soft food please!) and I used the little energy I had each day to work up the garden produce.  We are full bore into cucumber season now and I am ready, I think to do some pickles that I have not done before, this week I am going to try bread and butter pickles.  I have done a total of 8 quarts of dills, and Hubby has given me 6 pints of salsas (all different) to "finish off" for him, that translates to water bath for him, but he does clean up his messes so....:)

Thought I'd take you on a tour of the garden now that things are really popping, I want to start with the 'thing'. When the 'thing' first appeared it looked like a cucumber or squash and I just left it to grow in the wrong spot, but now it has these round green fruits and I was stumped.  So I typed into Google "it looked like a cuke and now has round fuzzy fruit"  - frustration will make you do strange things, but it worked, I got several hits and the "thing" turns out to be a cantaloupe!  I'm thinking the seeds may have been in the compost?  Oh well, I like cantaloupe!

The Sunflowers are just ready to bud and they are almost as tall as me!

Corn is making ears, look at all that pollen!

Black beans have purple flowers, I love this!

We will pull most of these onions this week and plant another crop, we're hoping for purples

Crookneck summer squash

Watermelons

and pumpkins!

The tomatoes are loaded

Just a couple of Hubby's many peppers - mostly hot!

The full view minus tomatoes and peppers in another area, the broccoli are giving us a second head and we have a second and third planting of corn coming up now, hoping for fresh corn into September!  Most of the herbs have now gone to seed so I'm going to cut them back and see if I have long enough to grow another crop, this one to preserve.  I wanted to try and fill in the herb part and see if it will be self perpetuating mostly.  Think this catches me up and ready for another week!