August, Groceries, and Fall Begins

Groceries piled high before they get organized

When the barge reaches Galena its always an exciting time.  Chris and I are happy to be getting all our groceries and other purchases in, and the kids are looking forward to all their new stuff too.  We usually end up putting all the fun new things they got on vacation on the barge so we have more space available for frozen and fresh stuff on the flight home.  It makes getting their new things unloaded that much more anticipated when they know its somewhere on that crate and they've been waiting for it for a few weeks.

This year we had a team from Lake Jackson doing some serious work here in Galena when our crate arrived.  They all helped get it to the house and unload, cutting down our work time by a ton! 

more groceries piled high

the snack pantry

And once its all tucked away in the 2 pantries, it feels so good!  No major shopping for a year! IT doesn't look like quite as much when its all put away nicely.

left side of the general pantry

right side

And of course, the kids got to unpack all their new favorite things, although Cara's not that excited about the guns as the boys are, she was just playing along....in her new princess dress.

I decided we would start school early, like the-beginning-of-August early.  With Cara starting Kindergarten, I had some additional things to figure out how to manage with all 3 of them, and I wanted to get ahead for when the baby comes in February.  So, we eased into the full work load over a couple of weeks, and our school year has been going really well.  Cara is pretty driven and really likes school.  The boys are doing really well too.  Clint's reading is really taking off, and he absolutely loves math. Preston is still our biggest reader and Mr. Creative. The boys are on the swim team again this year, but we haven't been able to work out violin and piano lessons yet. 

The boys picked our green tomatoes, bell peppers, and giant zuchinni for me since the weather was cooling off bringing gardening to an end

They also picked a whole bowl of cranberries for me

Oh, you know, just enjoying some Fall down by the river

Fall was really lovely this year, and long!

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One night after dinner, Chris and the boys went to do some work on the house up at the church while Cara and I stayed home.  Cara had been asking to bake some peanut butter sandwich cookies, so we did.  The boys were not disappointed to come home to warm cookies!

They didn't let the rain keep them inside

Fall time also meant fishing.  Chris took the boys out one evening for salmon, and they caught some, but the highlight of the night was watching lots of guys work together to get a momma moose out of some really sticky mud.  She had twin calves hiding in the bushes, and a few men found her stuck, and waved down other boats passing by to come and help them get her out.