Hot, muggy, still summer

Everyone is complaining (including me) that summer is coming to an end, but today's weather in northern Illinois doesn't convince me! It is very humid and sticky.  There are signs that fall however, is right around the corner.

Too many zucchini's

We raise zucchini in our garden and we grow them so well that we run out of ways to cook them.  You can only eat so much of it before you get tired of it.  I put it in soups and salads, bake zucchini bread, fry it, saute it, and eat it raw.  I even "juiced" it once (minus the skin) and put it in a smoothy for my granddaughter.  She loved it!  I was encouraged. I even created a board on Pinterest to hold zucchini recipes. 

Mums

I find myself looking at the mums being sold everywhere now. I have needed to scale back on purchasing flowers because I am still unemployed on "Sabbatical" and trying to promote my new website to find clients. Yes, I guess this would be considered a shameless plug.

But back to mums - I have managed to keep 1/4 of my spring plants almost alive but the drought killed off most.  I salvaged 3/4 of the edible plants however, and nothing kills zucchini in my garden - so I guess I did OK with my first attempt at being in control of the household garden, after taking several years off. My husband and son planted, somewhat weeded, and grew lots of zucchini, tomatoes, spaghetti squash, beans, peas, kohlrabi's broccoli, peppers, radishes and onions for several years. This year, since I was home from the beginning of "gardening season" I started and followed through - including regular weeding - and have determined that they had a better crop, but my garden looked neater.

Hmmmmm........not sure that is such a good thing.  So again - back to mums.

I love the dark red mums so I think I will get 4 plants this year. To put in the front yard. And that ends the discussion on mums.

Christmas and Halloween and Thanksgiving pins

I mentioned in an earlier post that I am addicted to Pinterest.  Over the weekend I think I spent about 15-20 hours on that site. Really! One pin leads to another - on Sunday I found a Christmas pin that led me to a Christmas blog on tumblr.com Wonderful! I am linking you to it so you can find it easier.
Mistletoe and Glogg actually plays music! You can follow the little snowflake and click on the words Mistletoe and Glogg and it leads you to several pictures - you just need to check it out.  Of course it inspired me to start yet another blog so I can write stories. Mostly about Christmas but about other topics as well. It will be fun!

I also found many crafts, which I think I can actually make by myself!  I am not crafty enough to have a craft blog - thank goodness because I have started enough blogs for awhile - but I do enjoy making things for gifts or to keep for myself. I am in the process of taking an inventory of what I will need to purchase to stock my Santa's workshop for this year.  I am also searching for ways to incorporate Hanukkah into the holiday as my daughter-in-law and granddaughter are Jewish and we are celebrating both in our home now.

If you have ideas to share about how to blend both holidays - please share them with me!