Well here it is

For something to do, I decided to head to Lansdale for a week and send the kids to VBS at our church there. After a rough first hour, the kids immensly enjoyed themselves. As did I. On my five kid-less mornings, I got to spend time with my mom and mom-in-law and see old friends.

The week before, our car was done, but a snafu with the check from the innsurance agency had me driving the rental to my parents and leaving my beloved CRV in the Poconos. Once the rental was returned on Monday, I had no car but was able to use my parents' car.

Gary's birthday fell during the week we'd be in Lansdale, so I made him a shoo fly pie on Friday and the kids made him cards. Unfortunately for him, he felt awful when he got home from work and went to bed for a while. The rest did him good, and he was able to get a bite of dinner and have dessert with us. The kids are terrible birthday secret keepers. Actually Ellie's pretty good, Josh not so much.



Then on Saturday we went to my cousin's for a picnic. And I got creative with my camera.








And Sunday found us at Gary's dad's house. And Ellie received a doll house for her birthday.

Catch up

I'd like to fill you all in on the happenings of the Kulp family, but I haven't had the motivation necessary to sit, think, type and add photos.

Eventually I will write more about the car, Gary's birthday, being at my parents' this week, and other stuff I can't think of.

But for now, this is all I got.

Rainbow chard

What in the world do you do with rainbow chard? You saute it in olive oil, and garlic slices of coarse, seasoning with salt, pepper and butter.

I finally cooked our one set of greens (we still have collard greens, I think anyway, to do something with) from last Wednesday's CSA. Gary and I weren't very optimistic to it being very tasty. But we were wrong. It definitely tasted different than I thought it would.

I actually had a small second helping. And Josh liked it. Ellie, not so much.

And along with our chard was a lovely turkey dinner saved from Thanksgiving I found in the freezer while cleaning it out Friday.

Freezer - just a little bit emptier, now. That's my goal. To clean it out this week.

Author's note: The above photo is not our chard. Ours was much more limpy and not as fresh looking since it sat around a while.

Plans change

My plan this morning was to take the kids to pick blueberries, then let them play at the playground.

That all changed when I couldn't shut the freezer after getting out some mint for my sun tea. I had to pry it open in the first place. There was so much frost, that it wouldn't shut. Last night I had some ice cream and apparently the door didn't shut all the way.

I emptied the freezer and chipped away at the frost using a hammer and Wonder Bar (a very useful gift from Myrtle years ago. Really everyone should have one.)

The kids thought it was a great fun to see all this ice and "snow." They started playing with it using pots and cups.

I found some food I forgot we had. Some of it should be thrown out, probably.

But now it's been raining off and on all afternoon with thunder, so we aren't going picking today. Fresh blueberries will have to wait.

Of today

Some things we did today.

1. Picked up rental car. Why, you ask, did we need a rental car? Well let me tell you. After dropping the kids off at VBS yesterday, I drove home. As I approached a right curve in the road, I saw a van pulling a trailer coming at me, using part of my lane. I swerved to avoid the van and went onto the side of the road, blowing the right back tire. I stopped the car and gathered my wits. I wiped my tears away and started walking. We currently don't have a jack in the car, so I couldn't change it myself.

I walked to the church we attend. Although there was a car parked at church, no one answered. Next door is a lady's house from Bible study. Again no one answered. Then the lady's son-in-law happened by and offered to change the tire.

Once home I called Gary and he came home to tighten the lug nuts, since we also don't have a lug wrench in the car and son-in-law man didn't have one either. He used a ratchet set to change the tire and apparently they don't tighten as well as a lug wrench.

Then I called and made a claim to replace the slashed tire and ruined rim. And since we were making claims, we made one to replace the hood that was damaged when something fell on it while driving to my sister's graduation last year.

Our policy includes a rental, so we decided to get one. It is a Jeep Patriot, with a New York license plate. And lest anyone thinks we're Yankee fans, I put my Phillies P on the back.

Ironically, Thursday Gary finally gave the mechanic shop the final payment from having the transmission replaced.





2. Went to the farmer's market to buy raw milk and pork. We have been looking for non-grocery store who-knows-where-it-comes-from milk for almost a year now. Without driving an hour or paying at least $4.00/half gallon, we've been disappointed. But on Wednesday while picking up our CSA share, we found raw milk for $4.00/gallon. And they sell grass-fed pork, beef, and rabbit, but we can forget the rabbit.



3. Gary finished building the stone wall. He still needs to add some small stones and top soil, but the stone pile is gone from the driveway. But now the car we put in the driveway is in the shop.
















4. Made some really good homemade pizza, with fresh basil. And found a trick to get the crust crispy like we like it. Add some wheat gluten, or use bread flour. I know it's simple, but for some reason we hadn't thought of bread flour. I used to think bread flour was just a ploy, but I was wrong. It really does make a difference. (Sorry no photo, we ate up the evidence.)