Last evening ……

The men of the family manned the kettles, and cut and stuffed apricots into jars. Little Miss clipped the tops off the green onions and I .... did stuff. I was on-call.

The man-in-charge, the washer-cutter, and the splitter-stuffer.

The jar sealer-kettle stuffer

Just in time to meet the challenge of 'what to do with all those peppers', PW posted this How-to-roast-green-chilis tutorial

I am pretty pleased with the results. When letting the peppers steam. I used a bowl instead of baggies and it worked just fine.

J brought in a gallon sized baggie of basil ... and when life gives you basil, you make pesto.

These green jars are stored in the refrigerator for preservation. I filled up the jar with pesto to about 1/2 inch from the top, covered it the rest of the way with olive oil and then sealed it with a lid. It will hold this way for months.

I made my pesto with walnuts, instead of pine nuts. Shocking I know.  They've been in the refridge since last harvest so I roasted them first to draw out the oils. J especially loves walnuts after they have been roasted.

On the list today, is to dig up the green onions and freeze peaches. I made a huge mess of the kitchen yesterday and didn't get to those.

After a busy crazy good last week, we are back at home, with no where to go except out back. And oh it feels good. Good because it makes me crazy if we can't get out there for a few days to see how the fruit and vegetables are doing. Things grow over night. Mysterious little bugs move in when your not looking. Little underground creatures come up from the depths of the earth and eat the roots of your full grown plant. Even if these things are out of our control, it still helps to know that they are happening, rather than wandering out there asking yourself, "Now when did that happen?"

So we have our hands and mouths full and its time to roast, bag and freeze the peppers. Make up some pesto for winter. Shuck and freeze corn. Freeze the peaches for smoothies. And make salsa ..... for breakfast.

Can you see the mower just under the trees in the orchard? Do you notice the puffs of dust rising from the ground? What would summer be without dust covering my furniture?

The weather cooled to a low 90 degrees. The team cooled to a 3 - 7 loss.

The boys did really well, but the other team had two big hits with runners on that sent the score in their favor.

Like many things in life, it's bitter sweet.

It's a bummer to lose but it's good to be done.

Thanks to all who followed our season and cheered from a far. It's been fun!

I can't say I lost hope - but I really thought I was seeing the end of our season. The team just seemed tired. A bit complacent. Heading into the 4th inning we were down, 0-9.

J had pitched the first 2 innings with C catching but they liked him and we couldn't seem to stop them from getting runs. C started pitching in the third, and has a history of tiring out after a few innings. But not this time. He continued to pitch another 3 innings as our team woke up to gain 14 runs in the top of the fourth. Our All Stars, got noisy and started smacking the ball as the other team used up 8 of their pitchers. C had an incredible game. J as always kept his head, picking up balls at short to throw for the out.

Final score 18 - 9!

Next game: tonight 5:30

We got thumped. Humbled. 3 - 15.

It was sweatin' hot..... as described by the players here at home. I was drenched. While in the dugout, I passed out wet towels, water, Gatorade and granola bars.

The boys played hard but it wasn't enough. They could play better. They'll get another chance to show their stuff Thursday.

J & C are playing on our league All Star team. This is a 10 day tournament and we play this evening …. in 110 degree heat. Right now the boys and Little Miss are watching Heidi (Shirley Temple), lounging under the fan trying to stay cool. (They are suckers for their sister.)

Mike is coaching and I am scorekeeper extraordinaire. Truly you should see the books I keep. They are amazing. Just ask.  But this isn't about me.

Anyways, we are two games into the tournament …here’s the low down:

Game 1 our boys won 8-1 with a two run homer over the fence by C. Sweet! He earned a steak dinner…..

Game 2 we won 8-2 ….. with a one hop to the fence by J for a double ……and two, yes two double plays.

J also pitched a little over 4 innings.

The second double play was picked up by the second baseman tossed to C who was covering second from short and thrown J at first who stretched to a long split for the second out. They sacrificed one run to make the double play, but we were in the top of the last inning and our second baseman picked up the last out again and tossed it to J at first.

I’m off to make smoothies and pack the ice chests. I’ll try and up date later tonight.

You must read the amazing news about Mighty Joe Fletcher!

Only a Mighty God can be responsible

Praise Him today!

And thank you to my friends and family who don't even know the Fletcher's but having been praying and praying for Mighty Joe. We love this family dearly and now you can rejoice with us!

Here is Mike's recipe for the much requested birthday morning, breakfast pull-apart. Pull-apart is small sweet dough balls rolled in butter, cinnamon and sugar and baked to a gorgeous, drippy sweetness. But take heed: if you dare to make this delicious recipe - wear your running shoes.

1/2 C warm water

2 1/2 tsp yeast

1/2 C sugar

2  tsp salt

2 eggs room temperature

1/2 C butter, softened

2 C warm milk

7 - 7 1/2 C flour

Sprinkle yeast over water and stir. Whisk together sugar, salt, eggs & butter and slowly add to water and yeast.  Add milk and then flour. Mix until dough becomes sticky. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Cover dough with a towel and let it rise until it doubles in size - about 45 minutes. Roll out and shape into sweet rolls, dinner rolls or coffee bread.

Bake rolls 10-12 min.

Coffee breads 25 -30 minutes

For pull-apart: Roll dough into golf ball sized balls, dip completely in butter, roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture. Stack dough balls in an angle food cake pan or bundt pan. Bake 30 minutes. You may have to play with the time a bit. The amount of time need to bake depends on the thickness of the pan.

Turn onto plate.

For croissants: roll dough into a circle and cut triangle wedges (a pizza cutter works fabulously). Starting at base of triangle, roll dough into a croissant shape. Butter top. For a sweet flavor brush cinnamon, sugar and butter into the center before rolling. Bake.

*This recipe is super versatile - the dough can be rolled into any shape and stuffed, spread, dipped and baked. Use your imagination.

Please pray for our friends sweet, baby Joseph who is in the hospital .... his mama is Kendra and his Dad is Fletch, who is also our shepherding elder at church. They are keeping us updated on prayer requests on their blogs.

Thanks for praying friends....

You can keep up on specific prayer requests here.

In the midst of baseball and more baseball .....

We celebrated the last of my 3 spring babies' birthdays.

My youngest boy turned 8. This one is a ham, full of silly, goofy faces and expressions and well, you may not know, but his nickname at the ballpark is ....Cadillac.

Yup. Everything he does is big and with style. It's been that way since the  t-ball days when he would slide into every.single.base. I was his coach, I remember well. Cadillac is a great nickname especially when your the youngest smallest guy on the team - but you got style and everyone is yellin' "Go Cadillac. Drive the ball!"

For his birthday, Cadillac chose Dad's pull-apart for his birthday breakfast and it seems that  word got around.

 Grandma and Grandpa popped over for some. The hired help for the fishing marina popped over. Mike's sister, husband and son popped over.

That should tell you how good Dad's pull apart is.

I showed up, with my running shoes on because once you start you just can't stop eating, you just have to run away from it and run it off. The worst is when it sits on the table all day for everyone to 'nibble' on, but you're the only one doing the nibbling and by the end of the day everyone else wants to know what happened to the pull apart. And again it helps if you have your running shoes on so you can just run away rather than admit you're the one who ate all the pull apart.

Anyways, Little Miss decided Z needed a humungo poster sized coloring book and some pens so they could color together.

One day J & C came to me with a list. A list of stuff they wanted to get Z for his birthday from lego dot com. They seem to think he needed guys. "More guys with swords and stuff. Oh and we need some more guys too." And I was handed some cash so I could order them guys too. So here is C just as excited as Z if not more than, that he got guys with swords and stuff.

 Mike and I added to the Chronicles of Narnia collection of 'guys',  Prince Caspian and Astrius and another King Peter the Magnificent, because, his other Peter broke.

So a big Happy Birthday to our Cadillac. Baby, you do got style! 

Congratulations to the Bears!
2008 Minor Division TOC Champions!

Players win games, teams win championships. ~ Bill Taylor

The Bears won the Minor TOC tonight 7-1 over the M White Sox, witnessed by a standing room only crowd. The Bears came back from a defeat to the same M team a few days earlier to beat them on Sunday morning to force the "IF" game of the tournament tonight. 
Their 4th batter in the line up, hit a Grand Slam over the right center field fence in the bottom of the first inning to set the tone for the game. The two pitchers,one of which was the 8 year old, grand slam hitter  combined to limit the White Sox to one run. The Bears played terrific defense throughout the tournament, a couple of good plays cut off runs at the plate in the final two games.

Good coaches teach respect for the opposition, love of competition, the value of trying your best and how to win and lose graciously. ~ Brooks Clark

Ahh yes. A few jugs of cold ice water, to let him know how much he is appreciated .......Congratulations coach! 

Bears 7 - M team 2

Yes that's right! They won!

The Bears won 14 - 4.

They 10 runned the opposing team in the 5th inspite of the 106 degree heat at 10 AM in the morning.

 Tomorrow, we play at 10 AM again. Bummer it's a Sunday, but this only happens maybe twice a year. If we win, we'll see the same team again Monday because this is a double elimination tournament and the other team is undefeated so we have to beat them twice.

Sic Em' Bears!

Well.... 3 1/2 hours and 7 innings later .... in 95 degree heat ..... at 9:00 at night ...... the final score was

Bears 16  - White Sox 23.

It was a crazy, nail biter until the end. The score was tied in the bottom of the 6th, which pushed them into the extra inning. Top of the inning the Bears scored 5 but the White Sox overcame with a hard earned 12 runs.

The kids and coaches were exhausted, but still even that late at night, there was a need to debrief, so we swung by the Taco truck  and ate out in the warm night air on the patio with the assistant coach and his family.

The game after us didn't start until 9:30 (which had a scheduled start time of  7:30). They called the game in the 3rd because the city has a curfew, and the lights at the ballpark have to be out by 11pm.

So these teams will continue their game this evening, which bumps the Bears to 10 AM Saturday morning. If the Bears win, they play Sunday morning; if they lose they take 3rd place out of 11 teams. If they win Sunday then they play Monday for the Championship.

Phew. I think I got that right.

Today,

I found my 3 Bears relaxing and fueling up on fresh fruit.

An afternoon of Good Times with cousins!

They fought hard and won!

The Bears were down 8-3 in the top of the 5th (they only play a 6 inning game). They brought in 8 runs to win 8-11.

Next game: Thursday

If they win, they play for the championship on Saturday, if they lose they play Friday.

This picture was taken after closing ceremonies when the boys got their trophies. The Bears players are doing the (Baylor University) Sic Em' Bears sign over a player from the team they beat in the final game. They are all great friends.

J, C, Z are the 3 on the right

They won!

Bears 7 - L team 0

Highlights:

J - pitched out of 16 batters he struck out 10 and pitched a little over 5 innings (he is only allowed a max 75 pitches so this is a huge accomplishment to go 5 innings)

C - batting got a single and a double and caught the whole game (for the record: we all feel better when C catches)

Z - hit 2 singles

Game 2: Tuesday

My Mothers Day gift is still a work in progress. Here it is in the early stages. It may become our Fathers Day gift too, because I know the Dad around here would really like to call this one ..... done.

Mike's thrifted bike is still around and getting a work out. Who knew it would get as much use as it has? I just hope it can stand up to the abuse.

On this day, Little Miss and her friend rode around playing cowboys, shooting out the back at J & Z on their bikes. Oh my, it was crazy! C made me so nervous when he'd take corners on 2 wheels and the girls would scream wildly.

Good times!