A summer of learning and fun

Well readers, I am going to be rather honest and tell you that my summer got really busy and, as you could see from my last column when there was no update about the book, I have not had a chance to finish it.

I feel bad for leaving it out in the open with me not finishing it. But I think we all know life happens.

With that being said, I am going to give y’all a little update of the summer time fun we have already begun since school got out. From trips to the river, riding four wheelers, pool days, garden picking and more.

Just in the last month we have spent many afternoons planting the garden, picking the garden and just doing your everyday maintenance to it with the children. Because what child doesn’t love dirt and mud?

Gavin has spent almost everyday in the pool since we got it up. There have not been many days that he has missed. However, mama and daddy have yet to join in on the fun due to work and life. But we will get there.

We have spent many afternoons and weekends riding four wheelers with them — around my in-laws farm, around hunting land and more.

We as a family have learned new things this summer. Nick and I both grew up with our grandmas having a garden. Well, I remember the days I would go over to her house and she would ask me to help her in it. Or help her shell butter beans or anything else for that matter.

I was just telling him this past weekend that I remember walking in her house countless times and she had the butter beans laid out in pans on the kitchen table with a fan going to cool them down where she had blanched them to put them in bags to go in the freezer.

Or the days I would walk in and she was sitting in her recliner in the living room watching the soaps on TV and shelling a five gallon bucket full of butter beans.

The weeks she spent making pickles; because that's about how long her process was to make a batch of pickles to can. Now I get to make all of these memories with my two. Gavin loves to help pick the vegetables out of the garden. And I hope that does not change.

Ellison likes to taste test the vegetables in the garden and leave it on the vine or pick it and hand it to her daddy. Yes, we have found several cucumbers with little bite marks taken out because she has bit it and even a zucchini.

This summer so far has been about learning new things and making memories. Nick and I have learned together how to make pickles. However, I do not follow my grandma's recipe because it is so long and strenuous. I follow another grandma's recipe that my mom gave me that takes about two days to make.

We have learned how to can squash and green beans, along with freezing squash.

I hope to one day pass this on to my children. Yes, a garden is hard work, as I have surely learned. But it is well worth it in the end.

I pray to be able to continue making memories for the rest of the summer and learning new things. That's what it is all about, right?