"Do a Ollie"

   I have recently started helping my mom home-school my little brother, Brandon. She will drop him off around 8:30 every morning, and he's here until about 2:30 or 3:00. It's been quite a challenge, as I've never been keen on teaching things to other people. It has already been such a good test for patience, but also very rewarding because I get to see certain subjects "click" with him.
   That's not the only benefit, though. According to Oklahoma state law, he must have 45 minutes of physical activity logged in each day. Since Kevin and I don't really have a lot of "play stuff" for Brandon, he brought his bike and skateboard over. We have started riding bikes around my neighborhood (it is so fun, and I am so out of shape!). And when Kevin is home from work, he will skateboard with B.
   Yesterday, Kev and I were sitting on the front porch talking while B was messing around on his skateboard when all of a sudden we heard, "I did it!!!" Brandon landed his first ollie. How awesome is that? I am so proud of him! Needless to say, the rest of that p.e. time was taken up with doing ollies and Kev taking pictures of the ollies.
   I love seeing my siblings get really excited about their accomplishments. Keep it up, Brandon! You're going to be the next Tony Hawk.

(For those who don't know what an ollie is, you can watch a video here.)

My Garden Loot: An Update

 My garden hasn't been faring very well. Want to know why? Because I got tired of being its keeper. Isn't that sad? Carelessness [laziness] aside, my okra plants are still doing phenomenal. I can't even keep up with them. Most of these okra pictured are probably too big to eat, but it's still rewarding to pick them.
This is probably one of the last cantaloupe I'll harvest for this year. I didn't plan very well this summer, so I had a bug invasion that took over my squash and a majority of melons. Oh well, trial and error.

Much to my surprise, my tomato plants are actually growing tomatoes now, and my jalapeno plant has a little guy on it, so we'll see if those turn in to anything good...or edible.

In other news, I'm so looking forward to busting out my slow cooker this week and making soup. Tis the season. Yum!

More later,
A

 (A very happy 50th birthday to my sweet momma today!)

Day Dreaming

Today, I am daydreaming about opening up my front door and finding this outside. Wouldn't that be just a magical thing to look at from your porch every morning? I picture myself wearing a huge cable knit sweater, slowly drinking a hot tea, and sitting in a cedar rocking chair on my front (or back) porch of my log cabin...Ah..
A girl can dream, right?

Punkin' Paintin'

 
What a beautiful fall day it was today! Kevin and I had my little brothers over after church this afternoon. I thought instead of video games or computers, a day outside would be refreshing. I had been wanting some pumpkins to decorate my porch with for fall/halloween, so I thought it'd be a fun activity for us all to customize our own with some craft paint. After a trip to Michaels and Reasors, we had all we needed for our pumping painting party to commence. Our roommate, Melissa, joined us, and the 5 of us had a great time just hanging on the front porch. Ahh...I love fall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterword, the guys decided it'd be a good idea to get on the roof. Why not?? They took their ice cream up there after dinner, too. Boys will be boys.