Anticipation

Still here, still pregnant.  My mom arrived Monday and it's all feeling rather real now, like we're really having a baby soon. 

Favorite new thing

We've been getting so many beautiful heirloom tomatoes this year, I had to learn how to save seeds.  After watching a couple of YouTube videos on different methods, I opted for the simple route of using paper towels instead of letting the seeds ferment for weeks in jars.  

 After removing the seeds we threw the meat in our pot of salsa that we canned.  I spread the seeds out on dry papertowels sitting on plates.  Let them sit there and dry for one week.

 Once super duper dry, I folded the papertowels into fourths, put them in zip-lock baggies (making sure to get all the air out) and threw them in the bottom of my fridge.  We've saved cucumber, red raspberry, sweet pepper and ground cherry seeds as well.  So, our cheese drawer in the fridge is pretty full of seeds right now. I still want to save some pumpkin seeds from a special pumpkin we just got in our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) basket that is supposed to be awesome for pies.

The beautiful thing is that all we'll do next year when we do our starters is pinch off a piece of the paper towel with a seed on it and the towel draws moisture to the seed in the cup.  We save any styrofoam cups we come across all year long just for starting plants in the Spring.  With a hole in the bottom they make great plant starter containers.  

September Birthdays!

This week we had two birthdays that are close to my heart...Ben and Juju!  We had a party Saturday night in Mansfield with Ben's family at a Greek Restaurant.

 We had another party the next night with Grandma and Grandpa Claypoole (Ben's mom and step-dad) - she brought all the food (and I let her!)

And went out to eat Monday night with Ben's Dad!  Yup!  I got out of making dinner THREE nights in a row!    It was a full weekend of festivities for sure.  It was so nice to see so much family.  Happy Birthday guys!  It was fun!