Back to School – Ready Confetti!

Back to school time! Are you ready? It was our first full week of school! Our little one was so excited for meet the teacher and her first day of school that she woke up before 7 am on each of those mornings! At meet the teacher she received a balloon with this cute little “ready confetti” attached to it.

I read the sweet poem when we got home and thought what a cute idea! I thought it was less cute when we misplaced it over the weekend and were frantically looking for it before bed the night before. Big sister came to the rescue and found it under the couch, so she brought it up to our restless little girl about 10pm.  When she saw it she said, “Now I’m ready!” Then she went promptly to bed. Crisis adverted.

Just to keep me on my toes our first day of school was scattered this year with preschool, middle school and high school all starting on different days and having different attendance models.

This school year looks very different with masks during in person school attendance and being glued to a device for the at home school portion. I don’t really love either of those scenarios, but they are glad to be back in school. They are likely rejoicing their summer garden days are over for the year! I have to say it’s nice to have the garden mostly behind us, with only the tomatoes and peppers still producing, we are nearly done.

This summer started slowly for us in the garden with some unexpected spring weather, but ended up just as productive as other years. Despite their worst start, it was the best year for the green beans. I attribute that to all the attention they got with us following 2020’s stay at home orders.

We were able to fill the freezer with blanched green beans, chicken, chicken broth, zucchini bread, and shredded zucchini. The cold room has white potatoes, butternut squash and last year’s sweet potatoes, and we canned peach/strawberry/blueberry jams, tomato sauce, and salsa. We used the dill that made it (and begged a friend for some more) to make refrigerator pickles, but mostly enjoyed fresh cucumbers in my 24 hr cucumber salad.

And finally for the summer garden failures: the volunteer pumpkins did not make it, the bell peppers failed all summer only to start producing now, and the carrots were tiny and woody. I’ll have to do a bit more research if we plan on trying carrots again next year to figure out if it’s our soil or maybe just a bad batch of seeds. I mention these because I want you to know gardens aren’t fool proof and sometimes they are frustrating! The chickens didn’t seem to mind the pumpkin & carrots; they don’t discriminate.

With summer coming to close we have started thinking whether or not we want to start a fall garden. Usually I lose my farm hands to school hallways, but this year they have a bit more time around the house to lend a hand. Lucky them. Checking out my handy dandy planting chart, I see that if I hustle I can still plant a number of things including beets, brussel sprouts, cabbage, collard greens, lettuce, and onions. I see we that we can still plant rutabaga too. I don’t think I have ever eaten rutabaga, but since it’s a typical ingredient in pasties I guess I have. Being from Michigan, I have had a pasty or two. We introduced the kids to the portable meat pies while on vacation in the Upper Peninsula a few years back. They sound interesting anyway. I’ll update if we decide to plant a fall garden and what we hope to grow.

Now that the kids, particularly the little one, are back in school, I will have more time on my hands. I’m hoping to update the website, particularly the craft page, and start my in person teaching back up at the local Hobby Lobby. Let me know if there is something you are interested in learning about that I can include on the site.

I hope those of you that have school aged kids in your life have a safe and healthy start to the school year, and all of you enjoy the rest of your summer!