The struggle is real

First and second day of school

It's that time of year again. The time when teenagers everywhere protest that their bodies do better staying up late and sleeping in than getting up at the buttcrack of dawn to then sleep through their first several sessions of class. They're not wrong, but I don't rule the world, so go get on that bus and rock your day. This is actually day two for the boys. They weren't thrilled that their sister did not have to go the first day, but the administration decided to let the freshman tackle their first day in relative peace without upperclassmen breathing down their throats. We'll see if the policy sticks, but she wasn't complaining. 

So I took her to the vet to get her shots.

Just kidding. She DID accompany me to the vet, but it was for Bosley's check up and shots, not hers. Our vet, whom we adore, confirmed what we already knew: he's adorable. We joke regularly that he will be remembered in our list of dogs as "the cute, stupid one."

And they're off. It's Nic's junior year, Liam is in 8th grade, and Damon came home to report that his fourth grade team covered him in awesomeness. This year he'll start switching classes, and he is SO excited.

As I edited this, "fourth grade pass" came up in my labels, so consider this your PSA: sign your fourth grader up (google Every Kid in a Park) for their free pass so you can explore for free this year! You're welcome!

Happy back to school, everyone!

No longer bionic!

In addition to being a quarter of my way done with the Nerlynx med I'm on, yesterday I had another milestone. My port is out! I no longer have anything other than Just Me in me, yippie!

Sorry, no peeking. I'm to leave that on until after I shower, 24ish hours after the procedure. Then I'll have a new scar to show off, woohoo!

Woohoo!

Zucchini, anyone?

We've already established that I'm not the most OCD of gardeners, so this post will surprise exactly nobody. Some of what WILL drive anyone with OCD a little crazy, though, is the warning understatement my phone displays about "this platform is not supported and could possibly therefore result in unpredictable behavior"... y'think? Like, adding all the pictures I uploaded is too much to ask? Or posting them in the order that I click them? Hmph.

My apologies. Technology strikes again.

And they're, big surprise, out of order! *sigh* Here we go.

This is white mullein, even though it's yellow. I didn't plant it. I didn't even know about it. I found it and then used an app called Picture This to identify it, because one was growing in the garden and I thought it was pretty so I left it alone to see what it would grow into. I know, you're all dying of not surprise. 

I may have already mentioned that I planted corn this year. My incredulous husband reminded me, "you know that it takes like four rows of it to be able to even pollinate, right?" Nooooo problem. Four rows of five seeds each, voila. 

Something tells me that's not quite what he meant.

But lookie! I have corn! Granted, the bunnies ate most of them, but I have 5 or 6 that are struggling along and some even have tassels. Woohoo!

Somewhere along our 20 years of marriage we got a morning glory plant. I left them with Grandma Barb while we did one of our moves, and they took over most of her front yard along her porch, much to her delight. Purple was her favorite color, so she encouraged it, trellised it, potted it, and it just went wild. I have some wild ones growing both out front and out back, and they always make me smile. 

This guy below is Borage. He's supposed to be excellent for your pollinators, so I planted some both last year and this year. Apparently it is not safe from baby bunnies, as I had at least five good-sized seedlings ready to transplant one day and the very next when I went to put them in, they were gone. Completely disappeared. The plants in the same tray with them were untouched. Hmm.

So I started over again with seeds and was excited to see that I'm growing a clump of them in the back corner of the garden and a smaller group in the front. They get pretty tall, so I popped one group into a tomato cage and that seemed to help them stand up a little better. The ones in the back of the garden are mid-thigh or taller on me. 

Yes, I'm growing broom handles. Haha. That's how brooms are cultivated, didn't you know? Home Depot has huge plots out back and...

Anyway, on the left are my handful of zinnias, and the broom handles my Dad gave me all mark where I planted tomatoes. There is a tomato plant in a cage, too, and the cucumbers were behind those. The cucumbers been really wimpy this year and don't taste very good, perhaps because the water situation has been so weird? We have an incredibly wet spring and then it's been dry and cracked all summer. I confess to not watering perhaps nearly as much as I should have.

I LOVE these little blue flowers. They grow along the sides of the roads wild and I asked my dear, sweet husband what they were. He said, "weeds." I've argued that they're not weeds. I looked them up, too, and the name?

Blue Weed.

Ugh.

Also Chickory!

HaHA!!

Above, tomatoes and basil. I've been finding those bright green "very hungry caterpillars" munching happily along, much to my consternation, as they grab onto ME when I pull them off the plants. I've been flinging them onto the roof of the shed where some sharp-eyed birds have been swooping down to carry some of them off. 

Along what's left of the creek out back is regular mullein and some truly white white mullein. I was hoping to catch the bee who was nuzzling the yellow ones, too, but I guess she was camera shy. 

I only planted two acorn squash seeds this year, so to stumble across zucchini and spaghetti squash vines this year is making me laugh while my husband facepalms. Hey, free zucchini? I'm okay with that. Anyone want some?

No sign of the acorn squash, by the way. Maybe they'll show up next year. Teehee.

A close up of the mulleins. I can not get enough of wildflowers.

There's the spaghetti squash on the top and middle, and a baby zucchini coming along on the bottom.

And the white mullein that I found in the garden that started the investigation. Beside the broom handle. No, on the right. The one on the left is basil.

So how does YOUR garden grow?