Thursday, August 20, 2009

Another Day

This is our last day of togetherness before the fall semester starts. I'm already missing Friend Husband. I'm thankful that he has a good job (and one he enjoys to boot) but I miss him when he's gone all day.

We were supposed to have a humdinger of a storm come in today and I didn't finish picking tomatoes yesterday, so I asked him if he wanted to go out and pick with me. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I'm all about getting the job done but it was nice to be able to chat and not be stressed about it. We picked 10 pounds this morning, to add to the 7 or 8 I picked yesterday. Yow...anyone want a bunch of grape tomatoes? Next year I'm not planting as many!

Because of the timely rains this July, the tomatoes are huge and beautiful. My romas are usually the size of the romas you can get in the grocery store. This year, they're half again as large! I've never seen anything like it. And being in the middle of all the plants is a little like being in a jungle. I just know that I'll be straddling two rows one of these days and a snake will appear and slither right by my legs....eek!

My favorite garden snack used to be fresh tomatoes. I do like fresh tomatoes but my favorite snack this year is raw okra. Man, is that good! When we were in Texas a couple of years ago, we stopped by to see Friend Tony (Melton) and his wife, Friend Norma. Friend Tony had himself a big old okra patch (which I am still amazed at, to this day) and he asked us if we'd ever tried raw okra. I thought I'd had okra every which way you could have it (and love it in all its permutations), but I hadn't had it raw. It was a revelation.

Ok, it's not a chocolate sundae, but if you like okra, I think you'll like it raw. It is, of course, crunchy, with that nice okra flavor, but not slimy at all. And not prickly either, as one of my Facebook commentators asked. Just plain yummy goodness. Unfortunately, most of my okra seeds did not sprout this year so I only have 2 or 3 plants to produce okra. Not enough to make the hot okra pickles I'd hoped to make (my second favorite way to eat okra) but enough for me to have an absolutely fresh okra pod every time I go out to pick. Yum!

So, I'm trying to get myself geared up for another school year. No, I'm not terribly excited about it. I remember with great fondness the days when I skipped downstairs in the morning to get things ready and skipped downstairs in the evening to grade papers. I wish I still skipped (mentally, at least) when thinking about homeschooling. Mostly it's the attitude issue. I don't mind grading so much (despite the stack of papers on my desk at all times) but I do get very tired of fighting two of my students to get their work done. They have no idea how good they have it and they have no idea how much they wear me down each and every day. Unfortunately, one of them is the one I think would be seriously negatively affected by going into the government schools, or I'd chuck them in and enjoy my days with Sarah and the twins.

Ah well, there it is. My constant battle with my reality. Any constructive ideas would be welcomed. I just get so tired of battling with them and dealing with the attitude.

What else? Can't end this on a sour note. Hmmm...I'm about to clean off a desk for myself downstairs and move my papers & scrapbooking stuff there. This is the desk that I had when I was living in my mother's house and it used to belong to my grandfather's family. It may even be homemade, for all I know. I treasure it and it will be wonderful to be using it again.

There now...y'all have a good evening, Friday, & weekend!

3 comments:

Gina said...

Dave picked tomatoes for me on Sunday. I've been busy so I didn't get out there until today. Oh. My. Word. I sent six to the neighbors and made BLT sandwiches for dinner.

The senior citizens at church have a monthly dinner. This menu this month features fresh tomatoes in some form or another. They asked if anyone had extra garden bounty to please bring it in this weekend. If others are getting the same bumper crop we are, I think there will be plenty!

msta62 said...

I just love okra! Had it in Tx, fried (of course) with loads of ketchup on it... How do you all eat it? We don't grow it "up here", unfortunately! Too cold, too much rain & snow I suppose! But hey?? You grow it where you live... Might be poss??

Have a happy Friday & weekend over there CL!

Mercy said...

I am very excited about starting school on Monday. Unfortunately the boys are not. They have mostly been hanging out with the neighbor kids and are begging to go to public school/ I am getting some attitude from them as well.