SOC: Driving (me crazy), Pokemon and gardening

I have so much in my head, and I feel like I’ve been a stranger to my own blog. I have almost 100 posts in draft – and some of them just need a few photos added so they can be published. You’d think that I wouldn’t be sitting here on a Sunday night just rambling. 

But that’s exactly where we are, friends.  

We’ve been home just over a week from our 9-day trip. The trip took us through 10 states and two countries. It was fun, exhausting, trying and at times tortuous. My kids did surprisingly well in the car, and now my daughter can’t sit in her seat to drive 2 miles without losing her ever-loving mind. 

It is F-I-N-A-L-L-Y summer! My garden appears to be thriving, and I was so hopeful for all of the vegetables, and then something started eating my cucumbers last night. That same something may have been snagging tomatoes and peppers this whole time. I spent some time out there fencing in one of the boxes, and I’m hoping I can salvage the vegetables because I can’t have a repeat of last year when we didn’t get anything from the garden. 

RIP cucumber. You will be missed. 

My son really wants a Pokemon party for his birthday this year, so I’m already shopping around. Stores have very little, so Amazon will be rescuing this party planner in the near future! Also, be looking for a Pokemon food roundup this week. If you’re a mom of a school-aged child that is getting into this phenomenon, I think this is going to be super helpful! 

And speaking of my son, I must confess that today I stayed home from church so I could tackle cleaning his room while he was away. The child CANNOT get rid of a toy to save his life, and he’s now into drawing and creating books. Which he of course can’t part with. So I organized, and purged what I knew he no longer could play with or needed. When he got home, we went through a pile of tiny toys (I curse kids meal creators and their blasted tiny toys) and again we got rid of about half. 

You guys. He kept a monkey that used to be a slingshot, makes horrific monkey squeals and doesn’t have hands. The hands broke off a few months ago. He got this from the prize box at school, and it was already in poor shape – and it is SO LOUD. But he insisted on keeping it. He did part with the St. Patrick’s Day hat he came home with on the final day of school. And after all of the gifts and gift cards I sent his teachers, why did they keep sending crap home?? This is what I kept thinking today as I was cleaning his room. I will definitely have a talk with his first grade teachers ahead of time before this happens again. 

Asheville has had a few amazing sunsets recently – this one was on Friday night. 

And before I sign off here, I just want to let you know that my friend Mendie is a consultant for Thirty-One, and is doing an online party for me right now. Thirty-One has a TON of outlet items heavily discounted – I highly recommend checking them out for teacher gifts, holiday gifts, or gifts for yourself. I bought a couple of smaller organizing bins for teacher gifts last spring and used them in May. (You know, before my kid brought home a St. Patrick’s Day hat.) So any of the links in this paragraph will take you to the party. And let me know if you want in on the Facebook group! There will be prizes.