July's "Chicken Soup with Rice".

Another month, another verse and another bowl of soup!  We're making a "Maine" version of "Chicken Soup with Rice", inspired by the "Chicken Soup with Rice" by by Maurice Sendak (1962).  Kids are really enjoying memorizing the poem of the month and I'm taking their picture with their soup in the same spot. 

It's neat to see how the seasons change month to month on this old Maine farm. 

November here.  
December here.
January here.
February here.

March here.

April here. 

May here.

June here.

I cannot commit to making the same soup 12 times this year, so I vary it. This month's soup was Italian tomato veggie soup.

July
In July I'll take a peep
Into the cool and fishy deep
Where chicken soup is selling cheap
Selling once, selling twice
Selling chicken soup with rice

 

Keeping on.

I could use a do-over from this week. I was hoping my coffee cup would help me for today.  I could use a little extra cooperation and a little extra patience. Each day I have been saying "Today will be better" and then something happens. Today I will ignore the summer sickness we all seemed to have caught, I will ignore the extended time I needed to fix some annoying paperwork and I'll ignore the other half dozen random things that have bothered me today. I'll think of the pearls of the day, including: 

-We start and end our day with family readings (which is my most fave part of the day).  Viking Tales (copyright 1902!) have my littles hollering "A viking we will go!"

- I made a really good lunch that included my own broccoli and my own greens. 

- Aside from two couples who walked by, we had the beach to ourselves this afternoon.

- I caught my big two trying to shield the eggs from rain with an umbrella.

- I haven't had to water my garden, mother nature has been taking care of that. 

- I love watching my baby girl with her daddy, I love watching her sleep, watching her talk. I love her so. 

- I have 6 loaves of fresh bread sitting on my counter that we will definitely be diving into tomorrow.

The first week of July is going to be great, I just know it! 

The Curran Homestead Village

This diamond isn't far from us and I cannot believe we had never been.  We got to attend school in the school house, print in the print shop, do old fashioned laundry, some old fashioned cooking, grind some grain, power the horse treadmill, watch a blacksmith do awesome things, ride the 2nd oldest working wooden carousel in the world and learn about simple machines. It was truly an awesome day. We could have been there double the time! 

Not winning.

It's after midnight and all three in this pic have been a big part of my last hour.
The long and short of it?

Skunk strikes again.  Skunk 3.  Jackie 0.  Not winning. Not in the least.  Especially since the last time I set the havaheart trap I caught each of our cats on different days.  Definitely not winning.

This little girl is wide awake to talk about it, at least she keeps me company.

Tomorrow will be better. It has to be.

Potato Bugs

Somehow it happened that those potato bugs just crept up, out of nowhere, seemingly.  I swear I was *just* out there and things looked mostly good.  Sure, I picked a couple of potato bugs off, but not enough to think twice about.  Today I went out and the couple of bugs turned into oodles. Virtually no problem turned into a big problem.

I admit I felt defeat. I thought I had put in the time and the work, I thought I was diligently watching out and then I was thrown for a loop.  How did I miss so many!?  Can't go back, can only go forward, hoping for the best.  Might as well get a bucket, get a little help, make some fun out of a disappointing situation (by assigning points based on size!) and do something good with the pieces. The chickens loved the treat.

This potato bug journey doubles as my parenting journey these last few days.   Can't look back, can only look ahead.  I'm just going to keep on keeping on and hope that there will be potato harvest eventually.

Pic from 2015

Beach Bound

Beach bound with this beauty is the plan for the day!  With friends this time.  Happy Maine summers....

PBJ

Not only am I playing the grocery game and trying to stretch my trips as far as possible, but I also make PBJ a big process.  Finally made some berry rhubarb jam and some bread. Sure, it took me 3 days to make a PBJ, but you can't beat a PBJ with fresh jam and homemade bread. Plus I just made it another day without going to the grocery store. Win!  Grocery game over tomorrow as I have to go to the store to get supplies for the first of our many ice cream socials of the summer.  We still have PBJ, which I have a feeling we'll want to eat tomorrow anyway, even after a trip to the grocery store.  Yum.