Friends! It’s been much to long. We have some serious catching up to do. I really hate when we let too much time slip between our coffee talks. Life is like that, isn’t it? You have the best intentions to stay in touch with your nearest and dearest, and before you know it an entire season has passed. So grab your coffee, get comfy, and let’s chat.
Fall is in full swing here in Ohio. We don’t have the colors yet, but the fun fall activities are everywhere. We went to a farm last weekend and went apple picking, checked out the animals, and went on a hayride. Want to see pictures? 
This was our first time taking the kids apple picking. I have been hesitant since there are no organic apple orchards near us, but decided I would just peel the apples we picked.
Look at these cute llamas!
I made an apple crisp (based off of this Peach Berry Crisp recipe) and some simple baked apples. I still have more apples to use so I’d love some ideas!
What about you? Have you done any fall activities yet?
I need to update you on my garden! I discovered that gardens are a good amount of work for a small amount of reward. I loved having a small garden this summer, but it really didn’t produce a lot of food in relation to how much we eat. I can only imagine how much work it would be to grow all of our produce.
We got two peppers the whole summer.
I planted two pepper plants and each plant only yielded one pepper. Is that normal? There are actually 3 very small peppers on them now, but at this point in the season I doubt they will grow to full size.
We ended up with three cantaloupe. They were delicious!
After a few kale harvests, it got totally destroyed by bugs. I never got to harvest any brussels sprouts as some bugs destroyed them as well. The zucchini just didn’t grow and I’m not sure why. We got a decent amount of cucumbers. The star of the show, by far, was basil. We had fresh basil all summer long and it’s still going strong. I just picked a whole bunch to make a huge batch of Spinach-Basil pesto to freeze.
I hope to put a little more time into learning and planning my garden for next year. Did you grow any food this year? How did it go?
Isn’t it hard to navigate parenting when childhood looks so different for our kids than it did for us? Let’s start with homework. I am fairly certain I didn’t have homework consistently until 4th or 5th grade. (I hope my memory is serving me well here!) Meghan’s in second grade and has homework every night. This girl is a smart student. She rarely misses one question on tests no matter what the subject. So no, she doesn’t struggle in school. But she hates homework. It’s not that it’s hard for her, it’s that after a whole day doing work in school, she’s done by the time she gets home. She wants to play. And guess what? She’s 8 years old and I want her to play! *Sigh* I know there’s not much I can do about this. I’m stuck forcing a reluctant girl to get it done.
Let’s move on to activities. I feel this strange pressure that my kids have to choose what their focus is going to be at a much younger age than we did. I tried so many activities when I was growing up: soccer, basketball, volleyball, dance, gymnastics, cheerleading, running, and acting. It wasn’t until I was entering high school that I really had to narrow it down and choose what I would focus on. Now it seems if they aren’t uber-focused on their sport or activity at a young age, they won’t be good enough to do it in high school. How do you deal with this?
The time is getting away from us again. I hate to go, but the weekend is calling. I love catching up with you and promise to not let so much time stretch in between these talks. Have a great one, friend!
Just chiming in as a teacher…I know every school has different policies but, because I teach upper elementary, my students have time to finish everything in class if they use their time wisely 🙂 Many students actually do, so I’m always taken aback when I get complaints from my own class about “too much” homework. It’s classwork that becomes homework if you don’t do it.
It always depends on the particular school though. Most follow the 10 minutes-per-grade-level rule. 1st grade is 10, 2nd is 20, 3rd is 30, and so on.
I will have to ask her teacher if that’s a possibility. I know they have specific homework assignments that are not classwork (math and spelling) but I wonder if she could work on them at times when she completed her classwork early. Her teacher has said that it should take 20 minutes to complete the two assignments, and that’s usually accurate, but my daughter still despises it. They are also supposed to read for 20 minutes and practice math facts each night. We read, but don’t always get to the math facts.
Having a successful garden is definitely a challenge! We started three years ago and I guess we had beginner’s luck because that first year yielded the best harvest thus far. Zucchini has always been an issue…this year we thought we’d try one more time so we only went with ONE plant and it completely wilted and died after a strong summer thunderstorm came through. So, we are done with zucchini, just can’t figure it out. Also, every last ear of our corn got eaten by squirrels! We had sprayed the deer and rabbit stuff but I guess we need to find a squirrel deterrent next year? Finally, as for peppers, with the exception of banana peppers, we have found that most other varieties are “late bloomers.” We planted 9 plants and most of them are just now bearing fruit. We live in Maryland so we are also starting to battle the lower temps, but we still have hope given that the first year the tomatoes and peppers lasted until Nov. 15th! I definitely recommend finding a good deer and rabbit repellent (organic or as natural as possible of course!). We also spray a combo of baking soda, olive oil and natural dish soap and water on our tomato plants. Good luck next year and future years!
Thanks for your insight, Laura! Does the baking soda/olive oil/dish soap deter bugs? I need a bug spray of some kind!
Yes! I specifically looked for one for tomatoes so I’m not sure if it works for other types of plants but here is the recipe:
Mix up 1 tablespoon of baking soda, ½ teaspoon mild detergent and 2 ½ tablespoons of olive oil in a gallon of water to make a repellent for all kinds of bugs as well as a fungicide for blight and mildew on the tomato plant leaves. Shake it well before spraying and repeat every week for it to be effective.
Thank you!
When my child recieved homework in the primary grades (besides spelling words and take-home reading) I kindly emailed the teacher and told them my child wasn’t going to do it. They went to school for that sort of thing and their time at home was time to unwind and play. I refuse to put my kids under that sort of pressure at that age already.
Wow how did the teacher respond to that? Were grades lowered because of unfinished assignments?