So much has happened in a week...

It's true! We had a derecho blow through our area last Tuesday and it demolished both my vegetable and flower garden. Plus, it's rained every single day since, so I can't even get outside to clean any of the areas up.

Right after the storm, I did prop up my precious green pepper plants because those are what I really wanted to grow the most of this year to freeze. Green peppers are soooo expensive at the grocery store! Sometimes they are like $1 each and that's crazy, especially when you know just how cheap it is to grow them. My hubby built some wooden fences for me last year to try and keep the rabbits out of my side garden and although they failed to keep the rabbits out, they have come in handy for a variety of uses, including as temporary resting places for my poor pepper plants! Today the rain has been on and off, but the humidity is 81%, so there is no way I am going out there to roll around in the humid mud. Tomorrow it's supposed to be much nicer, but there's just so much to do that I am actually kind of dreading it. 

I also tried to harvest what I could right after the storm, so I had a big ol' pile of San Marzano tomatoes on the counter ripening all week and today I threw them all in a big pot to make some pasta/pizza sauce. It is sooooo good! Let me know if I should post the recipe here. 

It's super easy. My kids and I were just talking about how jarred pasta sauce is kind of tasteless these days, but this is definitely not! I try to make a big pot and freeze some for later. 

Since it's been raining so much and gardening has not been sucking up all of my time, I have been completely engrossed in Halloween papercrafting. 𖦹˖°.👻 ̟࿔*:⋆ I pulled out all of my Halloween supplies and am having a blast. I know it's only the middle of August, but this girl's got Halloween on the mind!

Finally, I started reading Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke and so far it's amazing. I've been in a self-proclaimed reading slump and devised all sorts of reasons why it might be happening:  My eyes are tired. I can't concentrate. Everything is boring. Nothing interests me. Maybe it's menopause. Maybe my reading days are over. .·°՞(˃ ᗝ ˂)՞°·.

But really, I discovered, what has been happening is that I've been trying to read books that just aren't very good. So far, this book is so well written and the aptitude to which this author knows the innermost workings of her characters is actually astounding. I am a stay-at-home mom so I'm like an enemy reader and I think it's absolutely fantastic thus far. I hope it stays that way!

Toodles!

Gina