Whew! We Made It to Friday!

Hallelujah it's Friday. What. A. Week. Loooong work hours, and I mean LOOOOONG. If we can just get through today, then the weekend lays bare in front of us (well, not really bare, there's always too much to do on weekends, as well, but at least it's the weekend!).

Pictures below are from a couple days ago except for the babies in jail, which was taken today. Aren't the grapes gorgeous? Very sweet this year. The yard does smell like a distillery though, as the apples, pears and grapes get over-ripe and fall to the ground. 

Next pictures are my Christina gardens. They're full of buds. I cannot wait to get a picture in full sun in about two weeks. It'll be a stunner. These will provide joy and the smell of Autumn for many weeks to come. With just one week left in August, Autumn is coming up! I think it's the best fun to step into the month of September knowing that Autumn is almost right there. 

See my Lacey? Isn't she yummy? I get this look every morning when she knows I'm getting ready to head into the office. I do get to spend more time with her these days since I'm doing a hybrid of work-from-home/work-in-office, so it's not like I'm leaving her for hours on end! But still, even being apart for a few minutes is too much for this girl, lol. She loves her mama.

Finally, Bunny and babies are in jail. Got thrown in there for breakin' the law by being way too adorable. It happens, folks. Seriously, though. It's 76 degrees, cloudy and a very nice breeze. They'll nap out there for a couple hours. They are so sweet and cuddly and they still smell new. Nothing like baby breath.

We have been so blessed with our summer weather this year. It's been unusually pleasant temperature-wise. Today is only 76 for our high, and the only really warm day on the horizon is next Wednesday. The rest of the forecast appears to be low 80s for the high. We still have those nasty summer mosquitoes, though. Cannot tell you how much I hate them, but you probably feel the same way. A major deluge came down yesterday, and there's still water everywhere this morning. I like a summer rain, but that was a bit much yesterday evening. The silver lining was that when we were outside with Bunny and her babies, it was only 71 degrees. Again, no complaint here, but I do hope the standing water goes away. It just draws more mosquitoes.

In the last three weeks, I've had zero time to breathe. It's always busy this time of year job-wise, but I forget just how busy until we're in the throes of it! It's rewarding, don't get me wrong, but, boy, howdy, the busyness starts and then when you finally get a chance to look up, weeks have passed! Emerging back into my normal routine and life in general will be so nice! Hopefully, that will be sooner than later, although we still have a busy couple of weeks in front of us.

I have decided that my first Crocktober recipe will be a vegetable goulash! I haven't made goulash in ages, and the vegetarian version is good. You can use tempeh if you want for the meat substitute, but in the past, I've used fresh baby portabello mushrooms, and they cook down very nicely. Since they are a mushroom, you don't want them to get rubbery/soggy, so I add them closer to the end of the normal cooking time of my dish rather than at the beginning. In this case, if the goulash is in the crockpot for four hours (or whatever the recipe says), then I won't add the mushrooms til around the last hour or slightly before. Goulash is good over rice or noodles, but I prefer elbow noodles. I'm tempted to try a recipe that calls for the goulash to be cooked with the noodles in the crockpot. After all, I've made mac-n-cheese in a slow cooker, and it turned out great.

Today's weather has had me in the mood for butterscotch-marshmallow cereal bars, so I made some of those with strong coffee as my choice of drink. Sometimes, I just want the heavy-duty sugar and caffeine. Today was one of those days. The initial rain, followed by clouds and breeze has been very melancholy. I feel melancholy. I think that some days, we just do. It just so happens that there are days where the weather mirrors how we feel, and that's okay. I've learned to go with it, lean into the melancholy, so to speak. It passes, eventually. Brightness follows, and frankly, melancholy days are great for winding down the overkill of energy that maybe we've had to put into the previous few days. I know that part of it is that my body senses the coming seasonal changes, and for me, the winding down of summer has it's own type of ongoing melancholy that leads into those colder, crisp Autumn days. I think that transition is important because it helps me appreciate both seasons.

Tomorrow is the weekend, and I couldn't be more grateful. I'm looking forward to another peek at the pumpkin patch and crossing my fingers for lots of good growth from these last few heavy rain systems. We'll see!