Fresh

The boys had an impromptu sleepover last night - two friends of theirs who joined us for dinner stayed the night. We surprised them with a big breakfast which included blueberry pancakes - with fresh blueberries. I sent J. to the grocery this morning for milk (which we were out of) and asked him to pick up a basket of fresh blueberries so I could add them to the pancakes. The only 'basket' available was a gigantic tub full of the biggest blueberries I've EVER seen. These are HUGE. So we added them to pancakes, and now I'm adding them to a coffee cake for morning. Just to use them up. Not that we have coffee cake every morning but it will be a nice Sunday treat before J. and B. AND H. head off to church - I will meet them there but they all have to be there early. UPDATE: looks like I'll be there early, too, since the coffee cart needs help tomorrow.

We got our first crate of fresh produce today....such a terrific variety. Tomatoes, lettuces, sweet corn, a couple varieties of squash, purple sage, carrots, red onions, green onions, yellow onions, and a fresh watermelon! All fresh picked this morning and they are delicious! We had carrots and watermelon and tomatoes for lunch - just GREAT! Nothing like the taste of a just picked watermelon - and it was perfectly sweet. I ate it over the sink with juice dripping everywhere! Great lunch! and can't wait for next week! More melons! Yummy! We'll have the corn and squash tomorrow with a turkey breast roast we got at Costco. Nice Sunday dinner - and a very fresh salad. The greens are delicious! Of course, things have to be washed and rinsed - you sort of forget that these foods grow in dirt - and since they really were picked this morning, they are dirty. The crate left a lot of debris and dirt on the kitchen table - but it also made me wish we had a compost bin 'cuz there were some trimmings, etc. that would have been great for compost. We cleaned everything off and prepped the fixins' for salads over the next couple days. It is a LOT of produce and it's likely that should I decide to continue the weekly fresh veggies, we might switch to a '1/2' order - since the kids don't think a lunch of fresh produce is a good thing. Go figure.

Running errands and picking up the veggies took up the morning. And I took a nap...haven't had a good nap in a LONG time and really took very few over vacation - so this one was GOOD and long. Woke up in time for dinner - fish tacos and broccoli salad. J. and I had planned to go see Mama Mia but I wasn't ready to go in time for the next show. So we'll try to do that tomorrow, we hope. I've been looking forward to that movie since I heard it was being made. We kept thinking we would go to the stage show - but it's so expensive and so far away - either San Francisco, San Jose or Sacramento - and the effort for that, combined with the expense made us keep putting it off. So the movie looks fun and we're looking forward to seeing it if we can wedge it in tomorrow.

B. is adjusting to being a member of the 'working class'. He is scheduled to work 3-7 the next few days - and he comes home exhausted. And seems 'sad' or 'resigned' - guess adjusting to having responsibilities besides golf or scheduling a band rehearsal is a huge adjustment for a teen boy? Hopefully, his first paycheck will help - so next Friday, he'll probably be happier, relatively speaking. Though he'll have another shock when he realizes that his estimate of his take home pay compared with his actual take home pay is off. It's not [number of hours x hourly pay rate] as he thinks. Still, he'll have more 3-4 times his weekly allowance to call his own and to a teen, that's a lot of money. We're going to get him a checking account so he can get used to that concept as well...since this time next year, he'll be heading off to college away from home, most likely. So many adjustments coming up. So little time.

H. has been a bit 'off' today - he spent night before last at a friends house and then spent the entire next day helping his friend and his friend's mom move into their new house. They worked HARD all day - and H. was absolutely exhausted when he got home. And then he had friends stay over and we're not sure when they went to sleep - we issued a lights out 'order' of midnight, but that does not mean they went to sleep. H. slept a bit today and has a bad headache and a 'queasy' stomach. So he's been lounging most of the day and I'm letting him be 'cuz when he stops moving, it's usually for a reason. He just needs to rest a bit.

Both boys have summer projects for school due the first day - and the days are inching closer to the 'due date'. In between the first day of school and NOW, they also have plans for camping in Yosemite for a few days and another Wakeboard Wednesday with church - and they can't do those things if they aren't making progress on the projects. It's crazy making time trying to get them to DO what needs to MUST be done.

It's always crazy around here...nothing new about that!