Trunk-or-Treat

by Robin

Sorry I've been missing from blogland. Lots of interesting things going on in the household. We adopted a young rescue dog, but it isn't transitioning so smoothly with the chihuahua boys.





Lack of sleep and a major attack on my allergies have rendered me ill for a few days.

This is Troy.



Anyhow, while all this is going on and I'm preparing for the Christmas Musical, life continues to fly by. Tonight is Trunk-or-Treat at our church. We're providing one of the trunks.

So get this......... we've been praying the Prayer of Jabez for the past 30 days. We've had some really cool things happen during that time. God has blessed us indeed!! He's made Himself very real to us and He's done things that can't be explained any other way.

Last night was no different. We went to the local *Mart to get bags of candy for the trunk and the prices seemed unusually high. We've put ourselves on a very strict budget in order to pay off debt and I had a hard time justifying $8.50 bags of candy that were going to be $4 tomorrow. I bought 2 bags and told myself that would have to be enough. I ran into two other church members who all felt the same way.

By the time I got home, there was a voice mail waiting for me from a dear couple at my church. The didn't have the energy to put together a trunk but wanted to serve in some capacity by donating candy. God had laid our family on their hearts. Today, she brought me 9 bags of candy (& she got quite the bargain at another store)!!!! It was a big blessing. More than that, it gave God plenty of room to work and show Himself.

Ok, I'd better get running. But I just had to testify how great my God is.

Have a wonderful & safe night.

Phil 4:6

Be anxious for nothing,

but in everything by prayer and supplication,

with thanksgiving,

let your requests be made known to God.

This is a big weekend for change. Let's see what God does.

SERRANOS!!!

by Robin

Here is my 2 yr old Serrano plant. She too has survived some brokenness and cold snaps to live another year. She has been supplying our church family with "heat" all year. I can't possibly eat all the peppers she produced in a year. I love her orange variety. It gives the garden some nice color.

DOING LAUNDRY

by Robin

I sure wish I could do laundry this way. This is what happens when we don't fold the towels right away.



I'm sure missing my little Tiki while I'm away. I'm getting my doggie fix while I'm traveling. Ozzy the sheltie is keeping me busy.

LETTUCE

by Robin

They broke ground 3 days after I planted them. I'll be so interested in seeing what the garden holds when we get back in town.

Below is mixed lettuce, including Mesclun.

PETS LEFT BEHIND

by Robin

While we are gone, our pets are staying at home. I have a dear neighbor who loves animals and we trade dogsitting all the time. I have 10 little surprises for her this vacation. Our tadpoles turned into frogs and we were smart enough to get them into the habitat before they could escape our buckets.

I think 7 of the 10 are in this photo below.




Aren't they cute? They came right from eggs floating in our pool. Jack thinks they are tree frogs.

FLYING AWAY!

Today, we're on our way back to family and.... home. We're seeing "new" homes & a new niece, but mostly, we want to see familiar faces and home-cooking that only our Mamas can make. Jack, the kids and I are really looking forward to our last vacation of the year being a trip back "home".



I will have a few blogs set up for the week, but just know that we're enjoying loved ones, cool weather, orange foliage draping mountainsides and hopefully, a bonfire with roasted marshmallows.

DO YOU REMEMBER....

.... that injured squirrel from last month? His left shoulder looked like raw meat?

I saw him again on Thursday. Of course, by the time I grabbed the camera, he was onto me and started high-tailing it to the trees. You'll have to take my word for it that he is alive & well. His patch looks more like white scarring with some white hair growing back.

ANOTHER FRIEND QUOTE

by Robin

I couldn't resist another quote with my orange tree picture.

Remember, the greatest gift is not found in a store nor under a tree, but in the hearts of true friends. -- Cindy Lew



I am so very thankful for my many friends from all walks of life. You bless me so!

A FAITHFUL FRIEND

He who finds a faithful friend, finds a treasure
-- Jewish saying




While I like the quote for people too, I found it fitting for my 3 yr old Sweet Bell Pepper plant who currently still produces the best of all my plants. "She" currently has 9 peppers on her. Her stem looks more like a trunk on a small tree. She's been broken and cold, and yet, she survives, bearing fruit well into her golden years. I have no idea how many years she'll still be with me, but she sure is a treasure.

FISHERMEN GAMES

by Robin

I love living in a coastal Florida town. It is so different than my Northern roots of growing up in snowdrifts and hot chocolate.

Today, as I was making lunch, my 10 yr old was sitting on the counter next to me. We have some great conversations while cooking together. It is there where I learn so much about what interests him. It is his one-on-one time with me.

So Andrew asks me, "Mom, you know that game 'Sharks and Minnows'?"

"No dear." I answered. "Is it like tag?"

"Not really Mom. It's more like 'Octopus tag'. Do you know that game Mom?"

"No, I don't think so." I replied again. "Are you the shark honey?"

"No. (long pause) Well......... the tadpoles are on one side of the gym and the shark is in the middle of the gym. He yells 'GO!' and all the tapoles run to the otherside of the gym. He tries to catch as many tadpoles as he can. Then it starts again from the other end of the gym."

I looked at him with a smile on my face and said, "I guess we didn't have anything like that in New York." He gave me a quick kiss on my arm as if to comfort me. I'm so glad he embraces our differences. Or is it that he just feels sorry for me, a Northerner, who never got to play such aquatic games. The only aquatic game I played was "Leap Frog". Not very aquatic at that. I think we were more toadish. LOL.

Burning the Midnight Oil

by Robin




There is something about Tuesday school that makes this boy study much harder & much later than when I teach him at home. It also doesn't hurt that he absolutely loves his Physical Science class.

GARDEN REPORT - October

Yes..... we garden in October. Infact, I put out a bunch of seeds today. I've swapped around many things with Fall and eventually, frost in mind.

In short, here's what I did....

Thyme got put in a pot. I no longer worked where it was. I have rows of Okra, hot peppers and sweet bell peppers. I have 2 huge cherry tomato plants in the cage. I had a lot of "something" seed itself in the garden when we had the wind. I did a lot of careful small raking. I made some discoveries. Notice the fencing surrounding the whole garden. I was forced to do that to keep some diggers out of my garden!!


I have my first cherry tomato coming. Yeah! This is not only excitement for the fall, but if these bushes survive frost (which they probably will), I will have a HUGE output in the spring as the days lengthen again.


Many of the Roma tomato seeds I squeezed out in a line have finally broken ground. They are dead center of the picture. The other little green things are whatever weed that seeded itself with last month's wind. It's everywhere in my main garden.


I found some baby basil, which is awesome. I lost all my big basil with the heat in August.


Garden #2 has been planted today. Because this garden is unable to be covered for frost times, I chose my veggies carefully. They were either picked because they grew quickly or because they wouldn't be affected by the cold. I planted carrots, bunching onions, lots of lettuce varieties (spikey, purple, greens), and lots of spinach.

Garden #3 will sit empty 'til January. I'm not happy with that area right now. Soil, sunlight, etc.

Have a blessed weekend.

BRAWL in the LUNCHROOM

by Robin

I had planned on blogging about this mother & son riding their bikes to school -- illegally, but then distraction after distraction, I never got around to it. Read it for yourself if you want. Your freedoms are being taken away from you every day.

But, then it was lunch time and our priorities changed. We had some black sea bass from Monday's fishing trip that needed cooking. So, I pan-fried that for us. The french fries are always Andrew's suggestion for a vegetable. I didn't have the energy to fight him on that today.



I'm cooking fish when the kids went to let out the dogs & check on their pet frogs. A snake happened to be crossing in front of the outer porch door when he was walked on by Captain, the bigger chihuahua. The snake made a near-miss strike and ran into our porch to escape the dogs who are now outside. WELL, I couldn't have this!! The porch is the next step to having a snake in the house. So, with guarded steps, we reopened the porch door & let the dogs back in to sniff out the snake. I ran back inside the safety of our house and locked the sliding glass door. I took these pics from behind the glass.



Maybe the locks were a little unnecessary, but.........not entirely if you knew Andrew. He would be totally humored by letting a snake into the house for the day. (Ignore my ironing board out there. LOL Find the snake tail instead. It's between the dogs' heads.)



So our little chihuahua, Tiki, is the better hunter and he found the snake first behind the skimboards. He actually bit the snake on the tail once. Now, if they could only learn to chase it out, not run in front of the snake as it is moving to keep it cornered.



The good news is that the snake knew where all the holes were in the screen and he escaped w/o harm. The dogs are fine. And the homeschool cafeteria returned onced again to a place of conversation & eating.



The hole is just to the right of that umber-colored post. See it? It looks more white than the other areas.

Have a blessed weekend. We're heading out tonight to Titus Nights which is when historic Titusville ropes off a couple city blocks and invite families to have fun in a wholesome way. Our church's Youth Praise Band is playing at 6:30 & 8:30. At 9:30, a mass choir of combined churches will be singing. How cool is that??