Once again, I have to give a shout out for my library.  I have a great system for getting good books to read.  I read a review online or in a magazine or newspaper, then get online with the library and reserve the book.  When it comes in (24 hours to 9 months), I get an email letting me know I have 7 days to come in and get my book.  It's already been pulled for me and is waiting on a shelf near the self-check out.

[Local readers might recognize the name of one of the other users.]

I took my two books, checked them out, returned the girls' books . . .

. . . and was back in the car in 90 seconds. 

This is a wonderful way to conveniently and cheaply read the books others are talking about.

I never thought I'd be buying anything in a store with this kind of display on the counter . . . .

The tiny girls needed some food so I stopped in and got a 50 pound bag of feed for them.  Really, I never thought I'd shop in this sort of place.

(I have no idea what the burlap secret is for the stock tank.)

Figs

My neighbor brought me the last of the figs from her fig bush this morning.  She'd brought some over a couple of days before and they were divinely delicious.

I didn't know if  I could eat all the ones she brought so I decided to make jam out of them.  I had three envelopes of Ball Pectin for low- or no-sugar jam in my pantry and wanted to try them out.  Everything went well, but I don't love the jam.  It turned out to have a consistency more like applesauce than jam and I think that was because I used about 1/4 the amount of sugar I would have typically used.  It's not bad, but I'll make full-sugar jam next time. 

I got 6 half-pints in my new canning jars.  Aren't they a great size?  They have a wide mouth so they are super convenient for spooning jam out.  I didn't really need any more jars, but I saw them in the store . . . .

The pool is looking great!

I'm so glad Bill decided to fire the chemical company and deal with the pool himself!  Here is what it looks like today:

Doesn't that look nice?  It is still a little cloudy, so we are filtering it and backwashing the filter like crazy, but I think it will be ready for swimming tomorrow.  A week ago I never would have believed it.

Bill's busy day

Bill has been working on our pool water these past few days.  We hired a pool chemical company to take care of our water about a month ago.  Within days it was turquoise, then green, then yellow-green with the appearance of pea soup.  Not quite as thick as that, but very cloudy and the same color.  The company said the chlorine was fine and we needed to run the filter more.  After running it non-stop for a week and the water's looking the same, dh came to the conclusion that it wasn't going to get better with the chemical company and he'd better fire them. 

To do a chlorine shock to a pool our size, you put in about 5 pounds of powdered chlorine.  In two administrations yesterday, Bill put a total of 15 pounds into our pool.  It's amazing the difference a LOT of chlorine makes!

It's still not the clear light blue it should be, but it is an 85 on a scale of where it was (0) to where it should be (100).  It's so much better that I'm pretty sure we'll be swimming in it again by Monday.

Another project he did was one Elizabeth had been asking him to do--build a bird house.  I couldn't get a very good picture because of the lighting, but here is the bird house, about 20 feet in the air.  Just let me catch a neighborhood cat trying to climb that pole!

 

Our favorite lunch lady

This summer the park near our home hosted breakfasts and lunches for children.  Just show up and take one.  My children enjoyed them and made good friends with the very friendly supervisor, Miss Maria.

Now I have to get back to thinking up new and exciting meals after a good rest this summer.

A knitted sweater for me??

My friend in Australia is going to knit me a sweater!!  She does gorgeous work and I've admired it and her for years.  She made me a scarf several years ago that I love:

This is the sweater I'm thinking about.  I really like the idea of one that is mostly open in the front, although I know the fit would be different because I'm a different shape than this woman.

What do you think?

Curio is back (for a visit)

Carolyn took pity on Curio and had him shaved for the summer.  We live in the desert and she doesn't have air conditioning, only a swamp cooler.  Poor kitty.  This is what he used to look like:

And here he is tonight:

Like brother, like sister?

Years ago Kevin was kind of obsessed with "altering" things.  One of my favorites was finding a Barbie out on the balcony hanging from a length of blue yarn by her ankles. 

Look what I found hanging from Sophia's bedroom door frame:

We have a new favorite kids' movie

About five years ago we happened to record A Cinderella Story and it struck a chord.  Bill was working out of town, so it was just the girls and me.  We snuggled together in my bed and watched that movie at least twenty-five times over the months he was gone.  I hated to move and lose my DVR movies, but we did and haven't found the movie again since.

But!

We may have found another movie to take its place.

Teen Beach Movie was on TV last weekend and wisely, we recorded it.  It's a fluffy, fun movie and the girls have been enjoying it immensely.  Me too.  It has lots of singing and dancing on the beach, along with a Sharks and Jets/Grease kind of story.  Just the kind of movie we need on long, hot summer afternoons.