This Summer

Right now half of my kitchen table is covered with vegetables from our garden. I went to the grocery store last night to get the ingredients needed to start canning. First, I am going to can banana peppers. I found a new recipe on line to try. It is Emeril's so you know it will be good! Then I need to start canning tomatoes. We have been eating them with almost every meal. Stephen has never been a tomato person but when he started eating better at the beginning of the year he decided he would start eating them. He likes them brushed with olive oil, and salt and peppered, and then grilled on the Egg. I don't care much for them that way, but just about any other way I can eat them. I like the cucumber and tomato salad that I eat at Nothing But Noodles and I found a recipe the other day that sounded pretty close. I tried it two weeks ago and it was close, but needs to be tweaked a little. It was too sweet and needs a little heat to it. Next time I make it I am going to try to make it taste like the restaurant. If I succeed I will post it here.

I think I might make salsa, too. I don't have quite enough tomatoes that are ripe enough for that yet. But it won't be long! And then it will be time for the 14 day pickles that my kids would seriously eat with their breakfast if I would let them! We have to ration those out to make it through the year! I am hoping to make an extra batch this summer but it always gets right into the start of school and I have to do something to them every day so it can be hard after school and ball practices start.

I think I have read more books this summer than any other time in my life. My MIL brought me a handful of books that she was finished with. I have always said I really don't like to read, but if I can find a book that catches me right from the beginning then I like to read. It's those books that people say that you have to get to about the 6th chapter before it gets good that make me think I hate reading. There was only one that I almost put down thinking that it was going nowhere and then all of a sudden I liked it and finished it the next day. And just in case you all are wondering what I have read, I guess I can post them here.

The first series that I read was from Beverly Lewis and it was called Annie's People. There are three books in this set. I really liked this one. These books are about the Amish and it amazes me how they live like they do with people like me just around the corner. When reading this it was hard to remember what time period it was set in. Until they mentioned a Starbucks and you know it is recent.

The second series has been my favorite of all of the Amish books. Beverly Lewis wrote these also. The series is called Abram's daughters and there were five in this series. Very good! This one was set back in and after WWII.

The third series was Seasons of Grace with three books in this one. This one was very good, too. It was set in modern times also.

I took a break from the Amish and read a Nicholas Sparks book. This is the one I had a hard time getting into. Mainly because I was reading and I kept feeling like I had read it, but when I racked my brain to try to remember what was going to happen, I couldn't remember. So that made me want to read more to find out what I couldn't remember! And what is striking me funny now after typing all those remembers, it was called "A Walk to Remember". And like all Nicholas Sparks books that I have read, the end made me cry.

And then back to the Amish! And Beverly Lewis! The next two were The Postcard and The Crossroad. These were set in modern times also. I know I keep saying they are really good, but I am afraid that if I tell anything else I will give part of the story away. I don't want to ruin it for anyone that might want to read it, so, I guess that is all I can say about them.

I have fourteen more books sitting there waiting on me. I know I won't get them finished before the summer break is over with the garden getting like it is now. So maybe I will still have some left to read over fall break! Have you read any of these? I would love to hear what you thought.

And last but not least, I am working on a quilt. I know that really surprised you. Actually, I haven't quilted for quite some time. Or it seems that way to me. And guess who this one is for?!? ME!!! I am making one with all solid colors using the circle pattern that I used for Roman and JaneClaire's quilts. But it is weird how all three of these look so different because the fabric selection is so different. I will post some pictures of the blocks soon. It is all hand applique so it travels around with me. I like the fact that I don't have to have my sewing machine out on the table all the time with this one. If I did we really wouldn't have anywhere to eat with all the garden produce on the table too!

I hope you all are having a great summer! I can't believe the kids will be back in school in less than a month. The summers get shorter and shorter.

Sara