July

The boys had some semi-private swim lessons with a couple other families at the beginning of July. It was great! Ben got more confidence to try diving and refining his strokes. Luke is swimming with more confidence and Levi actually let someone other than Daddy or me hold him in the water. Don't these water races look like fun?


We also went strawberry picking in July -- a few weeks later than usual because of all the rain we had this spring. But, the berries were wonderful and I tried my hand at making freezer preserves. As soon as our jar of store-bought preserves is gone, we'll defrost some and give it a try.

Our garden. We're all amazed that anything grows. Thank you God for the rain, because I often times forget to water (just went out a few minutes ago and gave everybody a drink). We have tasted summer -- sweet cherry tomatoes off the vine -- as well as zucchini (something only eaten in breads and when surrepticiously mixed into hamburger, chili and meat sauce.This specimen grew to about 16 inches long. I was actually going to let him keep growing, but learned that you are supposed to pick zucchini when they are about 4-6 inches long otherwise you risk having thick skinned zucchini, which is apparently not as tastly. This guy ended up in zucchini bread, and he has a couple more cousins that will be grated so they can be added into other meat meals.

Shh! don't tell the boys!