This is my season!

Rob has hunting season & various sports seasons; I have gardening & cooking seasons. I love this season! Here's a little bit of what's being eaten around here from the garden goodies:

These are the much anticipated Indiana tomatoes. Thank you, Jones family!

We've had the best BLT sandwiches ever, and salsa is in the plans for many of these, but here's my other favorite way to eat fresh tomatoes:


with mozzarella, fresh basil, & a drizzle of olive oil

Cooper & I picked this container of blackberries in about 10 minutes time or less! The bushes are absolutely LOADED with berries.

This batch of berries turned into Blackberry Lemon Crisp.

I roughly followed this recipe from a neat cooking blog (Pinch my Salt), and she adapted her recipe from "Taste of Home." It is basically sugar, lemon zest, and a little flour mixed in with the berries, topped with a traditional crisp of oatmeal, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, & butter.
Delicious with vanilla ice cream, of course!

It did NOT last long around here. Notice my special blackberry pie plate - painted by Rob's mom specifically for us and our blackberries.

Some yellow squash & zucchini found a great home in this sausage casserole.

Brown the sausage first (I had some random sausage in the freezer so some of this was spicy). Chop an onion, and a few small squash & or zucchini. Cook all together, covering to help steam the vegetables until they are tender.

Add a can of cream of mushroom soup (depending on how much squash/sausage I have, I don't always use the whole can -- I don't want the creamy soup to overpower the squash). Optional ingredients: sour cream (about 1/3 cup), or shredded cheese (depends on my mood & what I have on hand). Pour into a baking dish & cover with crushed crackers & pepper. For a heartier, alternate topping, I've used prepared Stove Top stuffing. This is very good a variety of ways!

Around the yard

Flowery spots & pickles

Brady & I walked around the yard today to check out the flowers and the garden. He got upset with me because I "didn't plant any pickles." If you know Brady, you know I got an earful about this for quite awhile!

These are our favorite flowery spots at the moment.

Mother's Day Facts

I have a truly wonderful mother. She has always been wonderful, and as far as I can tell, everyone who knows her agrees. She is one of the greatest blessings in my life.
My mother-in-law has brought great joy to my life. She raised a beautiful, giving, and unique family. She is strong, inspiring, and funny; I love being a part of her family.

I love being a mom.

Easy dip recipe

Sun-dried Tomato & Chive Dip

Mix together:

• 1 bar of Cream Cheese (softened)
• a handful of fresh chopped chives
• approx. 1/4 cup of chopped Sun Dried Tomatoes (I like the kind in a jar with olive oil & herbs)
• 1 clove of garlic, very finely chopped or put through a garlic press
  
  Use more or less of any ingredients to suite your taste. Make it at least a few hours before serving (it gets more flavorful the longer the ingredients hang out together). This is great on crackers, vegetables, crusty bread, or bagels! Bon Appetit!

Creativity Flows

I know I've mentioned our little "artwork factory" before.... I try to keep up with scanning Cooper's really cool or special drawings. He loves his art class in school, and we've heard from his art teacher how creative he is. We agree (& credit his Mimaw Jones & Great, Great Grandma Gilmore - the artists in our families)!

Here are a few, of the many, recent creations:

A dinosaur book in the making

A sweet lion in the midst of many dinosaurs

He was working on the dragon below when I went to pick him up from his after school program; an older boy (a 2nd grader) was watching him draw and turned to me to say, "Cooper is a really good drawer.... for a kindergartner."

I like the way he has the sun coming up behind the layers of hills.

He also writes lots & lots of sweet notes with his artwork.

Here's one he gave me to take to work with me (he's started signing his name in cursive).

I hadn't realized until now that it was possible to LOVE someone's handwriting this much.

3 inches and a 3 year old mind

Brady, my you-never-know-what-he'll-say child, cracked me up on the drive home today. We were driving on the interstate heading to pick Cooper up from the after school program, when Brady urgently announced that he had to go pee.

Here's how the conversation went from there:
Me: "You're going to have to hold it, we're on the interstate and I can't stop"
Brady: "Ok, I'm holding it" (literally holding himself)
Me: "Good. How long can you hold it?"
Brady: "Oh, about 3 inches"

I couldn't resist laughing out loud at his random but hilarious response. His timing, pauses & sheer determination about what he is saying are really part of what makes him so funny. Some of his antics do require a lot of will power to resist laughing, like this moment with Rob last week.... Brady had gotten into some trouble in daycare for hitting a friend. Rob was having a serious talk with him, but Brady had lots of reasons why he thought it was ok to hit this daycare friend. Rob finally said, "Brady, the bottom line is YOU CAN'T HIT YOUR FRIENDS." To this Brady responded, "The TOP LINE is that I can hit whoever I want!" Never a dull moment with this one!!