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The weather outside is //
As I look outside my window // I see the hens are out looking for bugs. They are so fun to watch.
As I look around the house // I am happy to see a few small home projects completed. Last week, I turned one little corner into a computer desk area and I think it will be perfect for homeschooling as well.
In the garden // I’m feeling frustrated. This is the month where my garden should be full to bursting and it’s not. My squash and zucchini fell to disease right before they started producing and my tomatoes are taking forever to grow. My cherry tomatoes are more like marbles! I only have a handful of healthy looking corn. On the plus side: my watermelon and pumpkin plants are doing great! (Ironic since those are two of my family’s least favorite from the garden.)
On this week’s to-do list //
– surprise the kids with sundaes for National Ice Cream Day (today!)
– continue adding a few more small business favorites to my new Shop tab
– freeze corn donuts for the hens
– browse around for a desk lamp
– gather materials to sew a grocery bag holder
– decide on a high school Spanish curriculum
– complete this week’s challenge from A Working Pantry (I’m thinking beans?)
Currently reading //
- Fiction: Hinds’ Feet in High Places by Hannah Hurnard and a new book from Netgalley
- Religious: The Devotion to the Sacred Heart by Fr. John Croiset, SJ (almost done!) and The Catholic Guide to Miracles by Adam Blai
Thinking about // this post about recovering the lost art of analog living. Her entire “Recovering the Lost Art” series is great and I loved what she wrote about “old-fashioned” blogging too: “In the good ‘ole days of blogging, people read blogs the way they did a favourite print magazine. We savoured them–enjoyed them–rather than just skimming for a quick tip before bouncing off…Blogging back then was genuine, non-salesy, thought-provoking, down-to-earth, artful if sometimes unpolished.” This inspires me to create a cozy, homey reading experience here at the BWF. I also need to comment more on the blogs I read! I’ve become a lazy lurker and I need to change that.
On the menu this week //
Monday: Refrigerator Cleanout Night
Tuesday: chicken shawarma fries with Mediterranean salsa and garlic sauce
Wednesday: hot dogs and brats on the grill
Thursday: one skillet cheesy chili mac
Friday: bean and cheese burritos
So exciting about Spanish curriculum! I would suggest (as a Spanish teacher hah!) To look for a program that teaches through a natural acquisition method if possible. It’s how I teach and it works 1000% better than memorizing grammar or by social topic. It’s learning foreign language like we learned our first language: learning very common verbs/phrases in the most common tenses first and building out there. A lot of listening (natural convos, music, tv shows) and the reading stories/short novels written specifically for language learners using high frequency words. Martina Bex has a great website with tons of resources and ideas too! Good luck!!! Xxox
Thank you for the tips!
A lazy lurker..!! That’s funny!
I totally hear ya on garden frustration, my tomato patch has turned into a jungle with blossoms but not much fruit yet and here in the Pacific Northwest we have a shorter growing season thanks to the ocean. The chicken shawarma fries sounds interesting my hunny loves the shawarma at the local mediterranean restaurant.
I am so sorry about your garden. Our first year we put our tomatoes in pots. They didn’t like it. Then the second year, we put them in the ground, but forgot to put tomato cages around them, and they went wild and had no strength to stand. The third year, we had them in the ground, in our garden beds, WITH tomato cages… but we moved weeks before they started producing. Wahhh!
Haha!
All that to say, it can be hit and miss with the gardening for sure. But don’t give up. You’ll learn so much and each year can be so different!
I so agree about the blogging- I have been focused lately on stopping and enjoying what I am reading instead of consuming, consuming, consuming. Making your (and Tab’s) blog one of my bookmarks has helped me remember to stop & savor my sweet friends and their life insights.
Yours is definitely the most homey, encouraging blog I read. It always makes me want to be a better homemaker and human.
Mark and I were laughing because it seems that every vegetable we excelled in last year has been a bust in 2021 (tomatoes, squash, zucchini, etc). On the flip side, we had a pathetic potato, strawberry and carrot harvest last year and those did great this spring, ha! I guess you just never know.
Also: you have no idea how much your comment about the blog means to me. Thank you!!