Do not waste your money on the sea weed snacks.

The kids start back to school next Wednesday and Thursday and once again I am shaking my head in disbelief at how quickly summer vacation has passed.

I just signed Sarah up for her fall swim classes.  The instructor who has taught her before has teamed up with the YMCA (actually he is now the director for all their competitive year round swimmers through a program called Tyde) and his seasonal program (preparing kids for high school swim in the fall and summer league in the spring) is now part of the YMCA and the Tyde program and it's being offered at several different Y locations with different instructions. 

Sarah's summer swim coach (who we all adore) is teaching the class at the Y that is much more convenient to us than the one the other instructor is at and the time is much better so, we are switching things up this fall.  Sarah's excited to be gearing up for high school swimming and she is super excited by the fact that Rachel will be coaching her at the Y.

Speaking of high school swim, the Bishop swim team is holding a meet and greet at a local restaurant on Sunday evening so the new swimmers and parents can meet the existing members and coaches.  She is very excited about this so I hope that goes well.

Sarah finished her summer reading book the other day and is now working on the paper.  Peter is still reading his but is not concerned that school starts in a little over a week.  He is also not concerned that he still has a lot of summer math assignments to work through for his math class before school starts. 

While we were on vacation, I was harassing him gently reminding him about getting his work done and he basically said, "Mom, you constantly bugging me about this stuff isn't going to make me want to get it done any sooner.  I've got it under control."

So, I guess he's got it under control and at the very last minute he will get it done .  I just have to find a way to be okay with that.  I should be used to it by now because that's the way he operates.  I just don't want any last minute fires that I'm going to be responsible for putting out.  But he says he's got it under control so I guess I have to trust him.  He is going to be in TENTH grade after all.  Y'all, I can't even...

Our poor little garden is a hot mess.  We came back from vacation and thanks to all the rain the garden has been stunted.  There are a ton of tiny little tomatoes but  nothing big and beautiful like we were getting before all the rain.  And now all the vines are dying.  There have been some years we have gotten tomatoes well into October.  That's not happening this year.

Also our jalapenos are very tiny.  We are getting plenty of them but they aren't getting to the size they normally do.   I have canned what I've been able to get and we've made a couple of batches of jalapeno poppers. 

We planted a couple of Thai chili plants on a whim and they seem to be producing just fine although without having grown them before, it's hard to know..  Yesterday I made a batch of pepper jelly and I think it is going to be a good consistency.  When I've tried pepper jelly in the past it has either been too runny or too gummy (this was after I doubled the pectin in frustration.)  This batch might be just about right BUT when I tasted a little that was left over in the pot it was so HOT.  I'm hoping that once it's cooled and I try some it will be hot and sweet.  Here's a few pictures from my jelly making yesterday:

The Thai chili peppers.

Trimmed up with garlic in the food processor.

Chopped and ready!

Cooking away with six cups of sugar and 2 cups of vinegar!

Processing the jars!

Taaaa - Daaaaa!!!!  And look at all those seeds.  I really think I should have used more sugar!

Dan wants to dry out the next big batch and make chili pepper flakes.  So hopefully the two plants in the garden will continue putting out so we can give that a whirl!

While I was grocery shopping yesterday I saw some seaweed snacks.  Sarah is always looking for healthy snacks so I picked up a little pack to try. 

And they were about as disgusting as you think they would be. It was like biting into baked sea water - salty, fishy, gross.   Luckily this was a tiny pack so only fifty cents wasted.

Sarah made this delicious Ding Dong Bundt Cake for Sunday dessert and I wanted to share the recipe.  It was a lot of steps but it was so very good.  This one will be made again.  Next time though I think we will do it in a spring form pan and not a bundt pan.

On Saturday morning Dan and I finally painted another wall in the garage.  It's been our first free Saturday since we painted that first wall way back in June I think.  It was good to get one more wall done and I think the next Saturday we have free we will be able to knock out the other two at once.  

After the wall painting, we got cleaned up and met Dan's sister Cathy and her boy friend Eric at the farmer's market.  They had been in Charlotte/Lake Norman competing in a big sail boat race and were on their way back to D.C. So we spent some time shopping at the market and eating shave ice (and yes, that's what the sign said shave ice instead of shaved ice).  And of course, I got a $10 bouquet of flowers while I was there:

 

This bouquet is loaded with so many gorgeous dahlias!

That's what we've been up to and now  I am off to do a load of laundry and try to wake up the kids to see if they want to go with me to the gym!