Twelve of 12 - September 2011

This year is just flying by, y'all. I can't believe I only have three more of these to do after today, and then we'll be done with 2011! Whoa. Here's some of what happened today:

This child has had the worst ornery streak the past few weeks. Before, you'd send him to time out, he'd sit there his two minutes, usually grinning like a fool and saying whatever rule it was he'd broken, then he'd get up and carry on like nothing ever happened. Lately, however, he literally runs to time out, crying. He sits there and works himself up worse and worse until he's blubbering and he's crying as loud as you think he can go. That's when the shrieking starts. Dear Lord, it's awful. I mean, think of Janet Leigh screaming in the shower in Psycho. It's like that, (maybe even worse!) only over and over and over again.

When he starts that business, I warn him that he needs to stop or he will be sent to bed. Well, that boy will look me square in the eye, pause in his meltdown for a moment, then defiantly shriek one more time. He then gets sent to his room where he freaks out for the next 5-20 minutes, depending on the day.

This happens at least once a day, and sometimes up to three times a day. I'm at my wit's end about it and don't know what to do. I've tried ignoring it, yelling at him, a swat on the butt, taking privileges... nothing gets through once it starts. It's awful and I'm so sick of it!

But enough about that unpleasantness.

My friend Sam called me this morning to interview me for an article she's writing about being a first time gardener in Arizona. Gardening here is a bit different than most of the country. What is prime growing time elsewhere is usually too hot for anything to happen here. Once everyone else is getting ready to pull in their fall harvest and let their beds rest for the winter, we're gearing up for our second planting season of the year! It's crazy.

We chatted about cost, materials, what I planted, what I learned and a few other things. I'll definitely be posting a link when the article is online!

This was breakfast. I had it kind of late, but it was good! I bought strawberries on sale a few weeks ago, cut off the tops, and froze them on my big baking sheets. After they were frozen I tossed them into a Ziploc bag. I like them better this way because the ones you buy already frozen have a tendency to be a bit slimy in the bag; at least the ones I've had are. Mine are nice and solid and I know they don't have anything weird on them.

I tossed ten of those frozen berries into the blender with a cup of milk, a half teaspoon of glucomannan powder, and a scoop of Teraswhey dark chocolate protein powder. It tasted like the best strawberry milkshake EVER, and I don't even like strawberry milkshakes!

I love catching the boy pretending. Kitty Cat was using the track pad to make his way around PBS Kids this afternoon. Too stinking cute!

PBS Kids was keeping him occupied while I sorted laundry. I made sure there were no underpants in this photo!

Today was so gorgeous! It was overcast, gray, and a cool 90 degrees outside. Seriously, only in Arizona will you find people talking about how cool it is when it's 90 degrees! There was a breeze all day that actually felt cool when it blew, unlike the usual "caught in a clothes dryer" feeling you get from a breeze this time of year. We opened the doors and turned on the ceiling fan in the living room so that the fresh air could circulate and blow some of the stale air out of here!

Of course, the overcast weather had me itching to pull out fall decor. I managed to resist... mostly. I bought a pick of fake mums at the Dollar Store last week. I cut them from the base and stuck them in a small pot of dirt from some herb that had died. I wrote Welcome Fall on the little chalkboard and stuck them on the table by the door. My fall wreath completed the decor... for now!

I bought this on Saturday at Goodwill. It was 50% off day so I paid a whopping $4 for it! It's brand new - the kick pleat still has the holding stitch in place. Luckily it is machine washable so I was able to just toss it into the machine and get that Goodwill smell out. Here it is air drying, which is why it looks funny. It's a lovely lightweight material that, when paired with an outfit containing a cardigan, will be just right through our mild fall and winter days.

Seriously, it's only cold enough for a coat a month out of the year here, and even then I'm only wearing a heavy blazer most days. I do have a wool coat for leaving the house when it's really cold at night, but since I don't do that often it rarely gets worn!

I haven't really spent much of the last two months outdoors. Once it became clear that we had reached the time of year where either everything died from the extreme heat or else it's growth was completely thwarted by it, I just stopped going out there. I saw no point in running up the water bill to try and save non-producing plants, you know?

Well, when I was on the phone with Sam talking about my garden, I happened to look outside. Imagine how astonished I was to notice that my basil plants had not only not died, but they were bigger than last time I saw them! They haven't been watered (besides 2 or 3 rainstorms) in weeks!!! I couldn't believe it, especially considering how many basil plants I'd killed when I bought them mature and tried to raise them inside.

This is my ghetto clothesline. I strung it up between two of the posts on my patio. My husband is working to build me a full sized one, because we're dumb and thought it would be cheaper than buying an already made aluminum one.

Lesson learned. Just because the blogger that posted the tutorial only paid $20 in materials in her neck of the woods, it doesn't mean that you'll be able to pull that off too. Also, you have to get around to actually building the stupid thing. We bought the wood at the beginning of summer because we were going to save so much money on our electric bill with it.

Yup. It's September and I'm still using my temporary ghetto line. Live and learn.

This was dinner. I had to take it outside to get a good photo because it was dark inside and that florescent fixture does nothing any favors. This was good, but a bit too spicy for my taste. I don't eat salsa though so take that critique with a grain of salt. My husband loved it, so guess who gets the leftovers for lunch this week?

My guys passed out on the couch, after the longest screaming/crying/shrieking tantrum yet that happened this evening after dinner. That would be two for today! I'm not at all surprised that business wore him out. Booger.

And that's pretty much it!