Sad day today

Well, our son's fish Lazarus (long story about that name) died last night.Joseph is sad as are we all. That fish lived a rather long time! And he was so much fun to watch.

So we are going to (per request of Joseph) bury it today. He did not want to flush it down the toilet but instead bury it. Wondering if I can convince him to bury it in the garden... probably not.We let him go pick out a movie last night so he would have something to do and he picked out a care bear DVD that has about 8 episodes on it about honesty. It was pretty good! HE curled up beside me and we watched it together. I think that was the perfect movie because he had gotten in trouble the other day for lying to us about something.

Bear (our Lab/New Foundland) is around six or so months old now and can easily put his head on the table. His back reached my knees now and I don't really have to reach down to pet his head. Liam (our German Shepherd) is going to be 10 months in July and so is almost full grown. He has gotten bigger too! It is so awesome to see the two of them laying on the living room floor sprawled out or stretched out. I have ALWAYS wanted a GS and a NF! And the Lord sent them to us! :) Now if we could just get the training and all down pat and get that privacy fence up! The other day Joseph had sat down on the floor in front of the couch and next thing we knew both Liam and Bear had their heads in his lap and were snoozing. It was so cute! Joseph had a big smile on his face and was just petting on them.

I have to get some salt dough ornaments done, to fill an order. I also need to get some more crocheted coasters done for us and for us to sell. Bear got one of the two I had managed to do for us and chewed it to bits. He is a high maintenance dog always trying to see if something is edible or not. But it is so much fun watching both of them grow and learn and become more a part of our family as the days progress. My finger is doing better slowly, though DH has said I am not giving it a good chance to heal as I should. But it is no longer taped and it only starts hurting and aching and swelling when I have done too much. So, craft projects here I come! Need to pull out material and start refinishing a chair of ours. The stuffing is starting to show! And also need to start cutting out squares and working with oldest DD (17) to get the quilt done that she wants. Have the material, just need to cut it and start! And not look at it and say oh it's so pretty! and go find more material! ROFL.....

It has been extremely hot here. We have had a heat advisory for the past few days. Our tomatos that are planted are ok, so long as we water daily. Our jalapenos that are potted and the three tomatos that are potted are surviving, the jalapenos are thriving. Lavender and rosemary and green grape,blackberry, roses... those are ok if not thriving with the daily watering. The flame red grape is limping alone. But it got hurt in the frost that we had unexpectedly. We actually have around 8 tomatos on the planted tomatos! Green right now and small.I have stevia and peppermint in the windowsill - put 2 Jiffy pots filled with Jiffy pellets into a gallon zip lock and have stevia in that, did the same with 2 more jiffy pots and stuck peppermint in them. Gotta keep an eye on them and see about watering when needed. Neat little seed starting idea! Someone emailed me with that idea and I thought I would try it!

Ok, off to try and get some stuff done for a change! This heat has made me SO tired and feeling more like sitting and reading and not doing much! Think I might bring out that blue material for Arica's quilt and we'll get started on that. :) I feel like sewing! (uhmmm... hand sewing anyhow! Sewing machines still hate me)

Hot and getting hotter

Well, it's getting warmer here. Bear and Liam really do NOT like how hot it's getting. This will be their first summer, as they were fall/winter puppies. But we know what's coming and I think all of us are dreading it.
I got all my jalapenos and three more heirloom tomatoes into pots yesterday. Planted one jalapeno underneath our fruitless mulberry, hoping it does ok there. The potted strawberry looks like it might be thriving. And the six tomatoes that ARE in the garden look like they are doing good. I want to work some more on softening the hard Texas clay we have in the garden area so I can get the top soil my mom got me mixed in, and plant the squash my MIL gave me. I also want to start the stevia and some other stuff - the stevia and heirloom corn seeds are a gift from a wonderful person that is in one of the homesteading/surival groups I'm in! Such a pleasant and wonderful surprise blessing! I'm wondering if I can get some more pots somewhere (maybe check the dollar tree or dollar general within walking distance of me) and see if I can't get some pots there cheap, and get some potting soil. Stevia can be grown in pots, as can lots of other herbs and such.
We have been leaving the house open for as long as possible with the A/C off. Managed to do that ALL DAY yesterday, until later in the evening, and then we turned the A/C on and closed the house up for just a bit to cool the house down a tad. Opened it up again (partially) overnight. Trying to stave off using the A/C 24/7 for as long as possible. But it's a level orange watch today for air quality and we are already feeling so horrid from allergies. So, I closed the house up earlier today and waited unil it was 79 in here before turning the A/C on for the day. Hoping it does not kick in for a long time yet, with the fans we have going right now. I pulled the drapes so it's kinda dark in here, but... we don't have the no - see - um UV protection window screens in our windows yet. If we did, I'd let the drapes stay open. Use natural lighting.
For our preps and simplifying, we went ahead and bought a camping dish set from Walmart that is the enamel ware style. Four plates, four BIG bowls, and four mugs. It also came with utensils but I think we like ours that we already have better than these. These have plastic handles, and the ones we have already are solid stainless steel and good quality. I want to slowly try to make things as simplistic as possible and as easy to take care of and quick to pack as possible in case of an emergency of any kind. DH and I also went through the HS stuff and are working on a list of stuff that we have, a list of stuff that we need, and a list of stuff that we will DEFINITELY use. Simplifying everything is our goal. Slowly, we''ll go through toys, clothes, material I've stashed, books, kitchen....
Already simpler as of a couple nights ago. our microwave bit the dust. Took it to the curb and yesterday I cleared off and re-arranged the counters. Need to redo the cabinets and counters and clean them out of all the stuff we will not ever, EVER use. I want to do a yard sale as soon as we can, health and weather permitting.