It's the most wonderful time of the year.

I *LOVE* August! I'm tellin' ya, that first bite of ripe tomato straight from the garden...UGH! So good!

Another of my favorite things about August is....it's Blackberry season!

My boys went Blackberry picking today.

HeHeHe {skipping around the house with joy}

So what did I do? I baked a pie, of course!

It was delicious. With ice cream.

Then I put the rest in the freezer on a cookie sheet.

Hello, my pretties. I love you. All of you. I show no favoritism.

Once they were frozen, I measured them and bagged them to be put in the freezer--to be made into pie another day.

I usually mix the pie filling and freeze that, but I decided not to do that this year. I'm flexible that way.

Shhh...don't tell anyone...but those two bags aren't the first ones to be put in the freezer this year. I have more. HeHeHe {skipping around the house} {again}

I am SOOOOO having Blackberry pie in the dead of winter when it looks like THIS outside. That's a link to my very first blog post, BTW.

{sigh} All is well in my world. Well, it will be as soon as I buy three bushels of tomatoes from the Amish farmer down the road and can 30 quarts of chopped tomatoes and 50 or 60 pints of salsa. I predict more skipping around the house to come.

Finally made it to the Teacher's Store

It might be my last trip for a few years. Maybe forever.
Why?
Because the local Teacher's Store caters mainly to the Elementary sect now.
We searched for an hour to find enough stuff for my 11th-grader. We ended up finding a few things in the clearance sections (spread throughout the store--including upstairs where there is NO air conditioning). We worked for that discount, I'm tellin' ya.
It's a sad, sad thought that I won't be going back and fingering through all that neat, schooly stuff.
My 6th-grader will be working on the same stuff he did last year. Sadly, he decided he didn't need to do school last year...and didn't. So I'm ordering replacements for the few workbooks that he wrote in and he's doing it all again--and then some. Yeah, you guessed it. Welcome to puberty, child.
OH! This year's fun item from the Teacher's Store was.....drum roll please...PENCILS. Pencils of all things! But, that's all they wanted. The 11th grader got one that says, "My Teacher thinks I'm SPECIAL!" ....which cracks me up--and did him, too. The 6th grader got one with his favorite critter...frogs. And for my graduate I got a West Virginia pencil . We live in Ohio.
So...what's new with you? I want to visit my folks this weekend...but it's filling up fast, so that might not happen.

My life is uber exciting.

Or not.

I have a list as long as my arm of things I SHOULD be doing....but I'm not.

Why do I put things off?

I have to send a letter to the school Superintendent about how last year went (good for one child, not so well for the other) and pick up the application to homeschool for this coming year. Public school starts next Wednesday in our town. I really, really need to get these things done.

I had a birthday last week AND I remembered to get the license renewed on the vehicles. {using finger in the air to strike one up for me for getting something right}
So there's that.

I NEED to get over to the teacher's store to pick up school books for the high-schooler. Then I need to place the order for the 6th-grader online. The little darling needs a few replacement workbooks in the same curriculum he used last year....sixth grade...again. What IS IT with boys at this age? They suddenly have no ambition to do anything but play. Oh wait...little boys have never had ambition to do schoolwork...just play. Sorry...was freaking out about normal everyday stuff.

But then...lately I have only wanted to play, too. So, I guess I shouldn't feel so bad about the boy doing it. Only I'm an adult and I have to snap out of it. I have responsibilities. I have duties. I have....oh nevermind. I think I'll go bake some zucchini cookies. A lady at the library gave me a new recipe.

More critters.

The other day I posted about some of the critters the boys catch and release. I've been wanting to post about the ones that they've kept...but my middle son hasn't taken the pictures for me yet. I'd do it myself, but I like to encourage him in things that he's interested...and this year it's photography.
Anyway, today while I was at work I saw this butterfly. It landed on the landscaping rocks in front of me and waited for me to get a camera, all the while slowly opening and closing it's beautiful wings in the sunlight....then it danced and flittered around me for a minute or two before it landed again.

Does anyone know what kind of blue and black butterfly this is?