Suddenly it’s gotten quite hot and sticky these last couple of weeks and there’s no denying summer is here. Well I think it officially doesn’t begin for a few weeks, but close enough. So like many people we’ve been thinking about getting a pool for our yard for the kids to enjoy - and the adults too. While having a pool can be a bit of work and maintenance, you just can’t beat the hours of fun and relaxation it gives you. No lugging towels and toys off to a community pool, just step out back day or night for a nice cooling off in the privacy of your yard.
Of course, the trickiest part of setting up a pool is not the pool itself, but getting the ground level to support the pool properly. When they advertise those wonderful, affordable “easy set-up” pools in the store circulars, its probably the furthest thing from most minds that their yard might not be flat enough. Getting it level can be very tricky, but if you don’t take the time to do it right, you’ll surely shorten the lifetime of your pool.
While I really enjoy cooking during the cold winter months, I can’t wait to start using the BBQ more often now that the weather has gotten warm. Many of our winter meals are rich, warm, and filling - a lot of comfort foods. We try to avoid the oven when the weather gets hot, so many of our meals are based on using the stove top and the outdoor cooker, though I do use my electric slow cooker all year-round. I do find coming up with summer meal ideas to be more of a challenge for some reason, so I think I need to start scouting around the recipe sites for some fresh ideas for this year.
We recently ate dinner at a neighbor’s house and the meal was delicious and simple. Along with some tossed tomato pasta and some grilled chicken, they made some scrumptious grilled veggies that were absolutely wonderful. They simply sliced up the eggplant and zucchini lengthwise, coated them in some olive oil and grilled them outside on the BBQ. Simple, healthy, and delicious!
While I was channel surfing recently I got pulled into an infomercial for a leaf blower/mulcher combo tool that looked like something I suddenly had to have - I guess they know what they’re doing with those half hour advertisements. Up until that point I had no desire for a leaf blower preferring the healthy workout I get from raking. But watching it turn the leaves into mulch was quite appealing. Then again, the thought of traipsing from one side of the yard to the other trying not to get tangled up in a long electric extension cord is a little less appealing. I went on the web to check the reviews and discovered that a less expensive Toro model had much better reviews, so if we do decide to buy on it would likely be the Toro.
There are a lot of other great yard tools that would surely make yard work go much faster. We are in dire need of a new edger and there are some good ones to be found that don’t cost very much. While we’re at it we’ll probably splurge for a new lawn mower since we’re long overdue. I’d like to get a good mulching mower and one that offers he option of a rechargeable battery.
Okay, I feel like I’ve become obsessed by weather lately. I think the colder, grayer, and drearier the weather becomes the more it distracts me. It could be because the gloomier it gets the more I start wondering when we’ll have a nice sunny day to enjoy. I miss being about to go outside without having to bundle up in a warm coat or hiding under a hood or hat to keep the rain and sleet off of my head. And we live in the South, where the winters are supposed to be milder. Well, not this year it seems.
So I realize my obsession is not so much the current weather as to when will the weather turn nice again! We recently had a beautiful day only to slip right back to the winter weather the very next day. On a positive note the kids love being out of school and getting to play in the snow and build a snowman. So I guess not everyone is feeling gloomy about the forecast. Meanwhile, I’ll just keep longing for springtime!
Okay, I’m kidding, mostly. I don’t want to rush time and it is only January 6th, but I am already a bit tired of this cold weather. And we still have some of the coldest months to get through yet! I don’t know if you saw this news earlier today, but there is a town in upstate New York that has had snow on and off for the last nine days with a total accumulation of over four feet and still counting. Some snow can be a lot of fun for most of us, but I think most would also agree that 50+ inches of snow is too much. Imagine all of the shoveling. And trying to warm up your car, cleaning your windshield every morning before work. It makes me crave a tropical island.
There is a pretty cold snap across the US right now, and looks like they are having crop concerns as far south as Florida. It’s tough times when that happens. Part of the reason many people move down South is to escape the brutal winters of the North. But right now there’s not many places untouched by this frigid weather. So I guess I can’t help but think about spring!
Finding the perfect gift, isn’t that the hardest thing to do sometimes? Shopping for some people can be easy because you know what they really like and so it’s fun to head out to the stores and find something you know they’ll love. Sometimes choosing just one thing for someone like that is impossible! Then there is the person that’s hard to buy for because either you don’t know them that well or perhaps they seem to have everything already.
Some of the toughest people to shop for can be teenagers, especially if you don’t have a clue as to what their tastes are. You can always go with the gift card to be safe, but if it’s someone in your family or extended family it can seem kind of thoughtless. But then again, it’s probably better than buying them something they can’t stand that ends up stuffed in the back of their drawer or closet. If you don’t know what to buy someone, it can’t hurt to ask them or someone close to them what they might have on their wish list. This way you’re sure to buy them something they’ll enjoy and you won’t be throwing your money away.
So who’s coming to your Thanksgiving feast? Or maybe you’re the one hitting the road and visiting friends and family at their place instead. That’s the easy part. But if you’re the one hosting the dinner at your home, it takes a bit of planning and shopping to make a nice holiday meal. The first thing to do is figure out what size bird you’re going to need, so you’ll need to get a solid idea on the number of people you’ll be feeding. Once you know that, you’ll want to pad the pounds a bit so you can enjoy some leftovers during the week. If you’re doing all of the cooking you certainly deserve to have some extra food to eat throughout the week
Now the tricky part is trying to please everyone. For instance, you might have a few vegetarians in the family, so you’ll want to make sure you have some dishes they’ll enjoy during the meal - you can ask them what they like or they might even prefer to make them at their homes and bring it over for the holiday. You probably also want to make sure you have a few favorites that everyone enjoys, so everyone get a taste of their favorite side dish or dessert.
I know I’m dating myself by saying this, but when I went trick or treating as a child we were given things like candy apples, homemade candy, and loose candy packaged in a small paper Halloween bag. Now of course it’s all pre-packaged candy for safety reasons. If you’re having a small get together at home for the kids or friends you can still have some fun making homemade goodies. The Food Network has some great ideas for treat recipes that would be a lot of fun to try, and they don’t look too difficult to try to make either.
I love their ghouly cupcakes, covered in a froth of icing with floating eyes on top - cute idea! Then there are other goodies like a witch’s hat cake and a delicious looking creamy pumpkin cake roll. You’ll find everything from cheese ball ideas and pumpkin seed roasting tricks that you might want to try. There’s something for everyone at every level of cooking. A little homemade fun can make any holiday special, especially for the kids. It makes for great memories too! So while they can’t get candy apples going door-to-door anymore, they can still enjoy them right at home. And they can even help make them.
It seems everywhere I look these days there are pumpkins for sale. I don’t recall seeing them everywhere when I was younger, and certainly not in September. It seemed they used to just be around closer to Halloween rather than over one month before the holiday. And they were only in a few places, like a garden center or a pick-your-own farm. Or maybe that’s just how I recall it. Now I see them outside every grocery store, gas station, home supply store - you name it. Beautiful mum plants too that are hard to resist. It makes me wonder where they are all being grown.
So now I have to fight the urge to buy them too soon, especially the mums since I like them to last until Thanksgiving and if I buy them too soon they look pretty sad by the time late November rolls around. In the meantime I think I’ll concentrate on cleaning up my messy yard and putting away some of the decorations before the cold weather arrives. Then I can go wild and buy some of the beautiful fall decorations I can’t seem to resist.
Recently my friend’s van has been giving her a lot of trouble. So since her husband needs the other car for work she’s spending many more days at home then she’s used to. Without a car during the day, there’s no running out to buy groceries or take care of errands. Now that the kids are home from school for the summer it’s a bit more challenging. Luckily they have a nice yard and a pool so they can get outside and have some fun. Plus they can have some friends over. But now that they’ve been home for a few weeks everyone is getting pretty restless. You don’t realize how much you need your car for so many little things until you actually have to go without it.
I phoned to speak with her the other day & she couldn’t talk at the time because they were all in the middle of a “Lord of the Rings” movie marathon. That’s over ten hours of movie time! But they sounded like they were having a blast and least they were all enjoying it together. The funny thing is I don’t know what she’s going to do when school returns and she’ll have to go back to work too. I suppose that is the key to having fun in the summer whether you’re young or old, just being able to just kick back & relax and not have to be anywhere at a certain time. Sure sounds good to me.
Cutting down on clutter is always a battle. And unless you live alone, you’re not just dealing with your own clutter, but everyone the junk that everyone else brings into the house as well. So even if you have the very best intentions to stop collecting trinkets and other things that seems to multiply in a home, you have to contend with others that might not feel the same way. The trick of course is to attack a little at a time. The easiest things to try and get rid of is old magazines and papers. Unless it’s a collectible, there really isn’t any reason to hang onto old magazines since the truth is we rarely if ever open them up again. So out they go, whether it be donating them to a doctor’s office or another place people sit around for hours, or off to the recycling bin.
If you have children then you also have a lot of toys around and lots of little plastic things they’ve brought home from various birthday parties and outings. Now some kids like to hang onto every last bit. it’s best if you can first try to get your kids to help you sort through the stuff - maybe some is worth selling and the thought that they might make a few dollars could inspire them to action. If not, then you’ll have to tackle it discreetly when they’re at school or asleep. Be sure not to get rid of anything they really love though, because they’ll haunt you about it for years to come.
Wow, the heat of the summer is upon us. Somehow I always seem to forget how hot it can get in July until the month arrives again. While I do love the summer months and the time we can get out to the beach or the pool, autumn is by far my favorite season. There’s nothing quite like the cool, crisp air and the beautiful fall colors. Plus during the fall months you can enjoy going out and about wearing a light jacket instead of the breaking into a sweat just going to your mailbox in the summer’s sweltering heat.
So what’s the trick to staying cool this month? Well for one thing, it’s a good idea to get your outdoor chores done early in the morning or later in the evening. If you’re going out during the midday, it’s important to cover up well and slather on some good sun block too. Of course there’s nothing like cooling off in the water to take the edge off of any hot summer day. Even if you don’t have a swimming pool or beach nearby, you can just turn on the hose or the sprinkler for a little fun. You can even get a kiddie pool to soak your feet in or for you favorite furry friend to cool off in.
I love to garden when I have the time, though I’m not practiced enough to be a pro at it. I don’t know the names of all of the plants we have around the yard, but I do try to keep care of them and keep the weeds to a minimum. One of our favorite annual traditions is planting a small vegetable garden. We don’t have a very big yard, so the spot is located in one of the open corners next to the shed and one of our big evergreens. The spot seems to have a good mix of sunshine and shade, though we live pretty far South so the summertime sun can be pretty brutal at times. As a whole, we’ve been able to grow some pretty good veggies over the years, mostly tomatoes, eggplant, pepper, cucumbers.
This year our little garden is failing miserably for some reason. Before planting we had added a good dose of organic fertilizer into the soil to replenish it. When we removed the plants from their containers we loosened the dirt as we always do, everything seemed to get off to the right start. But that was about a month and a half ago, and the plants are quite stunted. Oddly some tomatoes are popping out on a couple of the plants yet they only stand a foot or so high, which we’ve never encountered before. So we’ve turned the surrounding soil again and added some fresh fertilizer. I don’t know how much that will help. Otherwise it might be time to check with one of the local garden centers to see if we can salvage anything or if we still have time to start over.
Backyard barbecues and patios have come a long way over the years. In the years past a nice backyard might have had a simple wooden picnic table set on a concrete or brick patio. Dad would cook dinner on a simple charcoal grill filled with a bag of coals and lit with some lighter fluid. Now, years later, the backyard has become a festive outdoor living space, often treated as another extended room in the house, an oasisi lavishly furnished and decorated with comfortable cushioned seating and full outdoor kitchens with huge grill tops and refrigerators too. When it comes to decorating, no one does it quite like Martha Stewart .
If you visit her site you’ll find she has some wonderful examples of great outdoor living spaces along with fabulous decorating ideas in the outdoor living section. Her section on creative outdoor spaces has some great tips, descriptions, and photos full of fun and colorful ways to add pizzaz to your backyard areas. From canopies and handmade lanterns, to unique lighting fixtures and lovely grapevine covered arbors. You’re sure to find a theme that you and your family will love.
