Labor Day, Etc.

Ah, the last holiday weekend of the summer season. Hopefully it'll be a good one for everyone. We plan on “taking the day off” Monday.....we may not notice any difference from every other day! Most likely we'll make a trip to Marshall Monday morning – we need to return something to Walmart, and that will give me a chance to check out Dollar Tree and Aldi's. I've been needing to shop there for awhile.

Older daughter had a good birthday yesterday, even if the day was crazy for her. She taught school as usual. One of her students brought her a huge “birthday cookie” to share with everyone in the class – a doubledecker with frosting in between. When she got home from school, her 14-year-old had cupcakes made, frosted, and decorated for her. They had to take the 4-year-old to soccer, then ordered pizza for a late supper. Her hubby got her a new tablet with all kinds of wonderful apps.

It doesn't seem possible that it can be Labor Day weekend. I'm dating myself – but where in the world has the summer gone?? We have now been out of work nearly seven months. And other than the first initial shock, it's been a wonderful seven months!! We're so enjoying having time at home together. But the time, it's just flying by! We've finished up winter, gone through spring and now summer. Yikes. The next thing you know, it'll be 2014.

I've been mulling over the possibility of having someone till up part of our back yard next year so I can plant a garden. I did a bit of container gardening this year, with mixed results. It hasn't been a great garden year overall, from what I can tell. We one one nice mess of fresh peas from one of my containers. We've had a few handfuls of cherry tomatoes; the roma tomatoes haven't ripened well and haven't had much flavor. One small mess of beets tasted really good, but the spinach didn't happen at all. There's a second pepper on that plant, and hopefully it'll be better than the first one. The zucchini – now that was a surprise. The first plant that came up blossomed, but no fruit set on. But suddenly, after the first of August, a second plant came forward that has produced a few zucchini. We've really enjoyed them.

Our town has started up a Farmers' Market this year, after several years without one. We've enjoyed going up there and buying local muskmelon to eat. Yummy! Mom has found some good tomatoes there; last week they didn't look great, so I passed them by. I wouldn't want to plant everything, but it would be nice to have some green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, peas, beets, and so on to eat fresh out of the garden. You forget how flavorful garden-fresh produce can be until you have some!

I've spent countless adult years canning and freezing. I always enjoyed it – but, I'm not sure I want to get back into that. For one thing, I've long since parted ways with my canner and jars. So getting back into preserving would be a financial commitment that I'm not sure I want to make. On the other hand, I was explaining the ins and outs of pickle making to hubby yesterday. As much work as it was, I kind of miss it!

I have the winter to think about this, to weigh the pros and cons. But as it stands now, don't be surprised if I post next spring that I'm looking for someone to till up my back yard. Right now, gardening and having fresh veggies sound like a wonderful idea!! You can remind me of that next summer when I complain about having to hoe the garden.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful summer and that we're all ready to start a new season. Have a great holiday weekend!