Here is a photo of today's haul. It is a nice size basket, so it was more than it probably seems. 4 cups of broccoli buds, 2 cups of butter crunch lettuce leaves, an enormous pile of basil leaves, the 1st jalapeno and banana peppers of the season, 4 nasturtium blossoms, 4 snap peas (poor plants are close to the end now), and the last 2 radishes which are buried under the basil.

Not glamorous, but I purchased 2 dozen half gallon wide mouth jars on sale from Menards this past winter, and have transferred all my dry foods to them. I purchased 3 of those glass sugar containers with the metal lids with spouts from an antique store for a very reasonable price and am keeping corn starch, baking powder, and salt in them. I bought some pretty labels off Amazon, and now my backsplash, and top of the cooking range are lined with these and all of these items are not being stored in the plastic bags or the boxes they came in. They are very pretty, especially the jars that have red lentils, split peas, or dry beans in them. And call me crazy, but I turned my compost pile today with a brand new pitch fork, one that is much higher quality than my last and with a better handle, and it made me very glad that Mark bought it for me. My other one had much narrower tines which made turning it difficult, and the wood handle was in bad shape.

Also, I never served soda (Pop, in Michigan, and this is the proper name for it 😁). I know it is cheap, but I wasn't something I served to our kids growing up, therefore, I wasn't willing to spend money on it. We had filtered water from the tap. Sometimes for fundies I might make lemonade. But, in the summers, I always had a nice gallon jug of iced tea ready.

😂😂😂😂😂 Yup!

Last day of June before our July thread. My Amish Paste tomatoes have finally decided to grow and be healthy. I have a few blooms, and the cherry tomatoes are blooming nicely. I harvested all of my broccoli crowns. 12 nice size ones, blanched and froze them. Now we are eating on the small little crowns they are producing as side shoots. I will probably pull them this week. 😥 I want to sow another round of carrots and radishes and could use the space. As it is, I have no where near enough carrots. We have earn all the radishes from that first sowing, and the pea plants are almost done, yet we can't complain because we have had pea pods and shelling peas nearly every day for a month. I have a pepper extravaganza going. Nine banana peppers who will soon be picked and pickled. Another week or two and a blitz of jalapenos will be ready. The early ones will also be pickled and cold bath processed for eating on tacos throughout the winter. The later ones will be made into salsa when I have ripe tomatoes. The chili peppers are crazy. If I wanted green chilis to can, I would have 55 right now and more blooms popping open all the time. Most of them though are going to be allowed to ripen. I don't have tomatillos this year for making green enchilada sauce (which I love), and they are hard to source in my area. Still, if I happen to hear of any, I might make myself a few pints of it. Last night I made a stir fry with scallions, peas, 1 jalapeno pepper, 1 bell pepper, butter crunch lettuce (would have preferred Bok Choy but can't buy that around here and didn't have the presence of mind to grow it myself), basil, and radishes all from my garden! I added bean sprouts from my kitchen window jar, and a can of water chestnuts from the store. We ate it with a little chicken breast on GF rice noodles (sesame oil, garlic garlic garlic, hint of dark brown sugar, hint of ginger). It was divine! Onwards and upwards. How are your gardens or harvests going? I know it is very late season for our southern gardeners.

I generally made a meatless spaghetti, and large bowl of salad with boiled egg and parmesan cheese on the side for the non vegans. It was the easiest thing to do. I had a peanut butter cookie recipe that required no eggs or dairy, and would make a batch of those for dessert or snacks. I did not buy vegan butter because it is so expensive, nor did I keep almond or coconut milk around since it wasn't in our budget. My chili is always vegan. Home canned tomatoes run through the blender, can of dark red kidney beans, can of pinto beans, diced onion caramelized (it goes in the blender with the tomatoes to infuse the flavor through the tomato base), garlic, curcumin (lots), a very small amount of molasses (just enough to take the edge off the tomato acid but not enough to make it sweet), all cook. Spoonbread and corn bread often call for honey or eggs so I instead would make savory polenta using veggie broth, and generous garlic and basil, skip the parmesan cheese and put that on the side for anyone who wanted it. Very filling. If I had a passel of teens in the house, I would do a triple batch.

When we were in this boat, I made large batches of no bake cookies, and kept a lot of popcorn around. Bags of apples, and bowls of pasta salad rounded out the offerings. I labeled cheeses as to the meals they were for, and other items as well so that they weren't eaten before I could cook. So those were the snack options. Then I often served a large bowl of mashed potatoes or a tray of baked potatoes at dinner time along with cheaper proteins like chicken thighs, and taco nights always were prey portioned chicken, pork, or ground beef with a crockpot of Spanish rice and beans. I did not provide a lot of bread for sandwiches because teens and young adults will make sandwiches with a ton of meats and cheeses in them, and that gets very expensive. When I made fish, it was one filet of perch or salmon per person, and then fill up on the steamed veggies, rice or polenta, and the bowl of cheap fruit like grapes and bananas. Polenta is very filling and cheap, high in B vitamins. I made mine savory with garlic and onion, mixed with some parmesan. I also made spoon bread to go with chili, and that was a big hit, again not expensive. Chili was a weekly thing from Sept-April, and then we did some grilling for fun to keep the heat outdoors. We would do veggie packets with small amounts of protein like ham chunks or chicken breast. So if our trio of male, eating machine teens had their rocket gem buddies over to hang out, it was an $8 pack of ham chunks, and then veggies veggies veggies. The kids might have been disappointed at the small amount of ham they would each get, but teens and young adult males can just about eat the hang out parents into bankruptcy! When eggs were cheap, I would also make quiche, and then browned, cube potatoes in the iron skillet or more importantly (make a hungry teen do that task 😁). Potatoes are high in vitamin A and C, have some potassium, and have a bunch of fiber is I figured use those things in any way that fills up empty legs! 😂

I am so sorry. Hugs! ❤

Sounds like fun!

No. I do not do well in high heat and humidity. I don't e joy making chit chat with large groups of strangers who act as if because we are related, we have known each other our whole lives and are best friends. Life is too short to be miserable. Now IF there was something else to do in the area that would be cool and pleasant, something we would really enjoy, I would be willing to drop in for one hour, one hour only, and then excuse us and take off or just slip out unnoticed.

That hurts!

This is my cat. That animal thinks it is a llama.

Same here. The vast majority of women in my area are induced. It is a one hour drive to the nearest hospital with a maternity ward. The local stitch and ditch hospitals will turn away women in active labor so if they can't make it to the hospital, they will deliver at home and hope for the best or in an ambulance that pulls over and the paramedic delivers. Frankly, in my area the docs have not seen a pregnant woman much less a laboring one in so darn long, mother and baby are FAR better off with our local paramedics. This might get better though in my state because we encoded reproductive rights into the constitution, and they are attempting to do some insurance reform. Since practitioners are leaving certain states and looking for places where they can practice without threat of prosecution, it is possible we will pick up OBgyns. The hope is that some rural counties will pick up some staff and then have one or two beds LDRP rooms and an operating theater at a local hospital. Ours was just partnered with a larger hospital network in the city and already new services are being added. That is very good. The hospital has been renovated to make it possible to take more patients. I would love to see a couple OBs and midwives hired in there. We've lost some preemies out here because the stitch and ditch couldn't handle them, and even with flight, it was still too far for the babes. Until just a couple of years ago, the "ER" didn't even have a pediatric crash cart! They would have to call ALS ambulance service to bring a pediatric intubation tube, and often the medics had to do it because the GPs running the ER hadn't done such a procedure since medical school and these were dudes in their 60s and 70s. When it comes to emergencies, we are bizarrely reliant on our medics who are well trained, and constantly being trained on new procedures and carrying more drugs and equipment. But it shouldn't be this way. They should not have this pressure on them. They are not paid enough for this stupid system!

Hugs Dawn! I am so sorry. That is very stressful. Hopefully you will be on one of the older models of 737. Those were safe and reliable. I wasn't up as early as you...5:20. I needed to catch the train, and it is a 50 minute drive.

This is what my daughter is seeing in Alabama which was already dramatically under-served for obstetrics. No one wants to continue to practice in a state where saving a pregnant woman's life might land you in prison. Obgyns are leaving for other states. We need a revamp of the system. In my area of Michigan, the average GP has a patient load of 3500 patients. So IF you can land an appointment, you are lucky if said doctor spends more than 2-3 minutes into the room, and they are under such stress, they are not listening, or at least it definitely appears that way. I haven't seen my GP in seven years. I keep getting shuttled to his very pompous and offensive NP. So I have stopped going. No one is accepting new patients which means my options are urgent care, ER, or walk in clinic in the city. If I ever really decide to try to get help for a medical issue, I will probably go to a walk in clinic at Beaumont/Corewell which is a tippy top medical center. However, I would have to suspect something fairly serious because it is 2.5 hrs one way for me.

Yes, it is. Ds had never needed one prior to that though his sister had because she began EMT school before turning 18. We did not make that mistake with the younger two. We got them state ids right away.

Also, it isn't about education in Michigan. But they make it VERY difficult to prove state residency for an 18 year old that did not get a state ID or passport before the age of 16 when all it takes is a copy of a birth certificate and parent signature stating "ya. The kid lives here." There a numerous pieces of "proof" required. One of the best ones is a diploma from a school in the state. Of course homeschooling means we didn't have a "school" that would be recognized. But, since I created a diploma that looked official, and the secretary to state office does not consult a database to search for the school, it was easy to slip it past them. Our younger sons Gor passports before turning 18, and that solved the issue because it gave them a photo ID with residency already assumed and citizenship "proved". Dd didn't get her license until she turned 18, but she was already taking college classes on campus and had a student id from the university. The SoS accepted that without blinking. The boys had taken numerous classes but all of them online with no student ID. The diploma was not the only thing he had to take to them. He took a bank State met by and the envelope it came in to show he had a Michigan residence, and if memory serves there were 2 other pieces of documentation in addition the birth certificate and the diploma and bank statement. It was rather absurd.

Yes. But we had ours professionally printed and in a presentation folder. We had a name for our homeschool for the purpose of privacy, not having our last name involved and mail sent to a PO Box under the Academy name, and I signed the diploma with my maiden name which I was using professionally at the time. So I think it looked very much like a private school diploma. I don't know if it had said homeschool and then signed with our family last name that it would have been accepted.

Also, just another reminder. Sleeping Bear Dunes is a HUGE attraction in Michigan (with good reason). Please though only try to climb the dune at the visitor center which is one they constantly rebuild. Most of the others are absolute off limits. But there is one that is accessible off the beach on Lake Michigan that is basically for Olympians, or Greek gods, or ghosts or something. It is insane. But way too many people each year think they can make it to the top, and go for it. Every year the local fire department and EMS have to rescue a ridiculous number of people off it. They now charge $3000 for the rescue plus any additional charges to your insurance if they have to medically treat you. A lot of folks think they are having a heart attack about 1/3-1/2 the way up. It is just that difficult, and while one might be tempted to just roll back down to the beach, the dune is so steep that you will roll into the water which has a drop off from "oh look my ankles are wet" to "over my head about 20 ft deep and I am so fatigued and out of breath that I am not long for this world". Just go take the ring road drive and stop off at at the overlook for that dune. It is many hundreds of feet tall And is a 44.9% grade. Let that sink in. It is nearly a 90 degree angle. It takes a 10 member team to get a single person off it if they collapse. But she sure is one beautiful sight from that boardwalk at the top!

You are spot on. On another note, these photos are absolutely gorgeous!

😂😂😂😂😂 This feels like the time I tried to explain 8 track tapes to my youngest!

Oh my, that is so sad. The one that really got me last year on my side of the state was a family visiting from out of state. They were at Tawas Point State Park which has gorgeous beach but the currents are strong. They lost their 8 year old but managed to save their 7 year old. Tough stuff. Respect Mother Nature. She is not a merciful entity!

Shopping is, I am convinced, a source of evil in my life! I hate it. I hope you find something you love. I just ordered the same sun dress in 3 colors from Old Navy because they went on sale and I already owned one and liked it. I guess I am hot big on variety as much as functionality and comfort. I will wear them until they area threadbare.

😂😂😂 Will do!

This is so sad. 6 orphaned children. https://abcnews.go.com/US/couple-drowns-rip-current-vacation-kids-florida/story?id=111306733 This is a reminder for anyone traveling to the Great Lakes Michigan that though the Great Lakes are "lakes", they function as inland seas AND they have a lot of rip currents. You can check NWS for rip current predictions for each of the lakes at any time you might be wandering around these gorgeous beaches and frolicking in the water. Drownings are sadly, a regular occurrence here, and they most often happen to people who are not Great Lakes born and raised residents. Folks from other states here the word " lake" and think no big deal. But they are deadly lakes. Please also do not stand out on piers during storms to get photos. 5ft waves on a not stormy day is normal. 10 ft or more during storms are super common, and during bad storms 17-30 ft is possible. People surf on Lake Michigan and Lake Superior and even some near Lexington, MI on Lake Huron which has been known to have some good surfing too. Treat these lakes with great respect, and keep your kids close to the shore. Sandbars here are NOT your friend. Just stay close to shore. Also please, when the signs say "Do not paddle or swim shipwreck point", just play by the rules. Coast Guard and sheriff water patrol are tired of rescuing tourists.