pretty, funny, happy, real

{pretty}

Flowers for Mary, large and small

The late-summer perennials have come in to save my garden from looking entirely neglected. I ahve a bit of a love-hate relationship with both of these. The gladiolus are lovely, almost exotic-looking and will keep blooming through the season if you cut them. They do need a bit of maintenance to keep them looking nice in the vase, though. On the upside, they tend to droop in the garden once they're in full bloom and need to be cut, so I don't feel like I have to sacrifice beauty outside for beauty in the house. The Resurrection Lilies (aka Naked Ladies, due to the complete lack of leaves), are quite striking, but they due have a strong odor that gets them banished from the dining room table. The clovers are all over the yard, smell heavenly, and have me resolved to make the next house a place where we can just sow wildflowers and forget the grass entirely.

{happy}

My last batch of fermented pickles (a few years ago now) was an abject, slimy failure. Armed with a couple of new recipes, we tried again, and these are coming along quite nicely. The ones in jars are a salt brine, and were ready to be moved to the fridge today. The bigger container (actually a trifle dish with a heavy glass pickle plate for weight) are the "No-fail" half sours (there's some vinegar in the brine to keep the less-desirable molds away), and I think those will be better suited to those with less adventurous tastes around here. The one disappointment is that the skins are rather tough, but overall, I'm still quite pleased.

{funny}

Peanut's camera face:

Is this what we look like to him?

 Also, Bean's declaration this morning that "That tea has eyes!" (Actually, it was this iced coffee).

It looks far more awake than I was at this point.

{real}

You may recall my saying that we finally had enough shelves for our books? Guess what I found in the garage this week:

I had been presuming these bags were full of old notes and course packets and such, but no, they're almost entirely real books. I knew it was too good to last.

What I Wore Sunday: Bad Camera Edition

So, this is what happens when you fail to check your pictures on a real computer, even though you're about to send your camera back on a warranty claim.

Your normal-looking picture turns out to be out of focus, while the ones that did focus have bad lighting, an awkward angle, and look like you're wearing a very irreverent hat.

Aaaanyway:
Sweater: Sears, forever ago.
Dress: Evan Picone (a gift)
Shoes: Seychelles

This was our first Mass back at the home parish with just our family in quite a while, which might explain the D- behavior from Bean. He tried to redeem himself after the closing hymn ("Oh, thanks for going to church!" "Did you like praying?"), but it was too late: no orange juice was purchased during the quick grocery run afterwards (even though DH might have been sadder about it than The Bean).

The day ended on a nicer note, though, as we just so happened to have some rib-eyes in the freezer, purchased in an Aldi sale before vacation, and there was fresh corn on the cob from Saturday's farmers market. I even mixed up some lemon-dill butter to go with it.

We've been praying Compline as a family lately (by candlelight, which is key to keeping the three-year-old with us for the whole 10 minutes), and he finished the day by showing us that he now knows the whole, "Protect us, Lord..." antiphon.

I'll take it.

Find the other "What I Wore Sunday" posts at Fine Linen and Purple.