Zucchini

Zucchini! It's about the only thing besides the weeds that are growing in abundance in our garden anymore. The spinach did GREAT at the beginning of summer and the green tomatoes will eventually turn red, but that silly rabbit got most of the carrots, beets, peas, beans and even the raspberries. The cucumbers never showed their faces, but the canteloupe just may survive and provide us with about three melons. I had Timothy digging for "treasure" the other night when I needed a few potatoes for supper, but we'll see how well those did in a few weeks yet.

But back to the zucchini ... we've been blessed. We've had it on the grill. We've had it breaded and baked. We've had it raw on our sandwiches. We've had it cubed and sauted in scrambled eggs. We've had it added to soups, casseroles and spaghetti sauces. Beyond a doubt, though, our favorite this year has been Zucchini Bread! I shared some with a friend the other day and she called this morning asking me for the recipe and I stuttered a bit because I wasn't sure what to tell her. See, I'm one of those people who likes to substitute and change recipes when I'm in the kitchen. Not sure where that gene came from, but all of us Schley kids have it. I finally did give her what I THINK was the recipe that I used on that particular bread and I'm going to record it here so that I can come back here and try to duplicate it again some day. I was using four (yes, four) different recipes and tried to combine them to get the "perfect" zucchini bread and I did it!! I just wish I could remember exactly what I did. (NOTE: She called me this afternoon and said that the following recipe turned out fabulous, so this must have been the correct combinations of ingredients that I used before!)

ZUCCHINI BREAD

3 eggs

1 cup oil

1 3/4 c. sugar

1 tsp. Watkins Double Strength Vanilla (or 2 tsp. other vanilla)

2 c. zucchini, grated

2 c. flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp Watkins cinnamon

1 c. chopped walnuts

large dump of chocolate chips

Mix eggs, oil, sugar and zucchini together. Add rest of ingredients and pour into two loaf pans (I greased mine just in case.) Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes.

Stephen and the Tooth Fairy

Stephen lost his second tooth today. He was quite thrilled about this fact and even came in to wake me up bright and early this morning to show me that he pulled it out himself this morning in bed! He put it in a baggie and put it under his pillow for the Tooth Fairy tonight.

Now, Stephen knows quite well that there really is no Tooth Fairy, but we play along with the whole idea just for fun. This evening Fred and I were asking him what he thought the Tooth Fairy did with all the teeth it collects. He said that the Tooth Fairy puts them all in his (the TF is male in his eyes) mouth, of course!

I just got back from Stephen's room where I was going to trade his baggied little tooth for a coin, but found out that I don't need to leave him any money after all! You see, along with his tiny tooth, he had also placed his own golden coin under his pillow in case the Tooth Fairy forgot, I guess. He kindly left "him" 50 Guarani!

(Tonight's conversion shows that this is worth 0.0104US or 0.0111CAD.)

Ahhh... I Can Breathe Again

VBS is over. The final program was tonight and it was wonderful! The kids did a fantastic job singing their songs for us tonight and it was a great reminder of why we put so much work into a week like this past one.

Ok. MOST of the kids did a fantastic job. For some reason, MY kid (who shall remain nameless) decided to be a complete GOOF up there in front of everyone! I'm still not sure what he was doing, or what he was thinking, but there is no reason a six-year-old kid (see, I'm not saying names) should be sticking out his tongue and sitting down on the stairs and rolling his eyes and laughing at nothing in front of the congregation during a program. I'm into creative correction at the moment, so when he came and smashed in between Auntie Jo and myself after his choir was done, I told him that since he acted like a two-year-old in front of everyone, I'd have to treat him like a two-year-old when it came time for our snacks in the back room. Daddy made him sit at a table while DADDY chose the snacks for Ste ... I mean, our son, to eat. He wasn't happy about that, but hey. He doesn't need to make a fool out of himself for nothing up there! I am hoping he got the point.

Yesterday was our VBS picnic. Blech!!! The activities and the fellowship were great, but the temperatures were sheer torture! Nancy and I were kidding that we felt like we were back in Paraguay! I was dripping from every pore in my body! Stephen, poor kid, was sweating soooo badly that his hair was just plastered to his head. I'm thankful that he at least had his cast off now (yeah!!!) and he wouldn't be sweating in that thing. It smelled bad enough all ready and it sure didn't need more stench because of a sweaty arm. Those kids had the time of their lives playing games, climbing on the playground, kicking the soccer ball and swinging at the pinata, but wow! Was it ever HOT and muggy!

Our busy VBS week is over, but now we move on to the next busyness. BEANS! I'm picking beans tomorrow morning and am hoping to get quite a bit done for the winter. Once the beans are done, I'm hoping to be able to pick our peas that ended up coming up despite being nibbled down to the stem by a hefty rabbit when they first came up.

And of course, since school is only a few weeks away, we have to get LOTS of play time in, so we've got a lot planned for the next few weeks as well. Life is always full, isn't it? Thank you, God, for giving us full lives that remind us of YOU!

This Week

We have VBS this week. Can you say, "Busy, busy, busy!"? You are right! We're out the door early and cramming our mornings FULL. Since Fred and I are sharing our one vehicle this week, I have to try to do everything I can on the way to or from VBS so that I can get my errands done before I have to rush home so that he can leave. From here on out, we've still got packed days ... including FRIDAY when Stephen finally gets his cast off!! He's thrilled because that means at Saturday's VBS picnic, he'll be able to swing at the pinata with both arms.

Since I don't have lots of time here today, how about just one funny leftover from Camp? Our boys have been enjoying some StoryKeepers DVDs lately. These are stories of a baker who lives during the time of Nero and is The StoryKeeper who tells people the stories of Jesus. They are always trying to keep the Christians away from Nero's soldiers who want to throw them to the lions. The boys have been watching these same DVDs over and over so much, that they are now role playing and quoting the stories verbatim.

So, one evening at Camp just after supper when there is a bit of free time for everyone on their way to the sanctuary, Timothy, in his own little world, decided to do a little StoryKeepers role playing. For those of you familiar with Eastern Camp, he climbed the amphitheater stairs in front of Campus Center and stood there with his arms wide open, and shouted at the top of his lungs. This would have been fine, except that this time he was playing Nero and I heard him shouting to all the passersby, "WHERE ARE THE CHRISTIANS?! BRING OUT THE CHRISTIANS AND THROW THEM TO THE LIONS!" He repeated this over and over again as loudly as he could. I tried to get his attention, but he was too far up on the stairs and, like I said, he was in his own little world so he didn't realize that I was trying to get him to stop shouting such a violent command! I'm not sure if anyone paid any attention to him or not, but Fred and I stood there just laughing hysterically at our little actor. I mean, of all places to be asking where all the Christians were! Hopefully our church camp was FULL of Christians ... and there was no threat of any lions anywhere.

Niagara Falls

Here are some of our pictures of our side trip to Niagara Falls after Camp in July. It was a beautiful day while we were there and about 15 minutes after we left, it poured and poured! Thankfully, we had a wonderful time there.

This area is so commercialized and pales so much compared to the pictures that Laurel took when she was in Paraguay. They are posted on Karen's blog (at the left). We love Niagara Falls despite it's high population of tourists and get the same thrill every time we stop and soak in God's wonderful creation!

It's rare that you would go to Niagara Falls and NOT see a rainbow ... excpet on a rainy day. I'm thankful ours was perfectly sunny!

The Maid of the Mist! Have you ever taken that tour? It's an amazing experience. We didn't do it this time, but some day when the boys are older, I am sure we'd all enjoy it again!

If you ever want to see Niagara Falls in person, please let me know! We'd be happy to have you come visit US and then we'll take you on a personal tour around The Falls! Seriously! Take me up on this, ok?

A Few Miscellaneous Funnies

Christopher at Camp on our way to the Tiny Tot Choir practice: I am NOT going to choir! Little boys don't go to choir! (This little boy went to choir after all.)

Stephen when he heard that he had four weeks of cast-wearing ahead of him: The good thing is that we'll be at Camp the first week! That will make my time a lot shorter!

Timothy getting ready for his yard sale in the kitchen today: Mommy, I'm going to put $100 on my hearts that I'm cutting out. (Honey, I don't know that anyone will buy those hearts for $100.) Why won't people buy my hearts? (Because they are cut out of a piece of scrap paper, maybe? --- I did NOT say that to him! I just told him that today wasn't a good day for a yard sale because it's a Tuesday and most yard sales are on Saturdays. He and Stephen got to work cutting out more shapes for a Saturday yard sale now! Anyone want to buy a little 3 inch paper heart for $100??)

Mommy to Daddy when he got home this evening: Seriously! The boys were GREAT all day long, until you walked in the door! What did you do to make them so goofy tonight?! They're all yours now!