HaleyHere’s a look at some of the scenes from the week here at The Hobson Homestead, where summer still reigns but we are dreaming of fall and football. Or maybe that’s just me.
Getting Outside
Today is the tenth day of school for the year and I think we are finally getting back into the swing of things. My kids have come home tired and fussy most days, but I think we’re on the cusp of adaptation. Fingers crossed, at least. We’ve had a couple of pop-up rainstorms in the afternoons, but we still do what we can to get the kids outside each day for their sanity and ours. This lakeside hike happened right after said rainstorm and the three big kids and I all sported our rain boots for the hike. Hiking is one of our favorite family activities and I can’t wait for fall weather to try some new hiking places.
Gardening Woes
We grow tomatoes and all sorts of salad greens and herbs hydroponically in our basement. On our back deck, we have some hydroponic buckets as well as soil-based buckets for tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers. This week, we found an infestation of horn worms on the bushes outside. The silver lining is my Rowdy boys had the best time hunting for these horn worms with grill skewers. I’m just glad they skewered the horn worms instead of each other!
The Salad Kick Continues
I’ve been on a salad kick for what feels like years! I think it’s because we grow our own greens hydroponically so I’m not dependent on seasonal produce as much. Making a mega salad is my go-to for lunch when we don’t have any leftovers. Now that Grady self-weaned, I recently added back in a little dairy. It’s amazing to be able to have cheese on my salad again. My long-time favorite on salad is feta, but I love stinky cheese like blue cheese and gorgonzola too. Even shaved Manchego is great.
Instant Pot Dinners
It was instant pot for the win when it came to dinners this week. I made Creole Chicken and Sausage, Summer Soup and White Chicken Chili. {Here’s a great stovetop recipe that my kids eat despite all the veggies in it: Philly Cheese Steak Sloppy Joes. To make dairy free, use Manchego cheese, which comes from sheep’s milk.}
Lake Days
Now that school has started, lake days are few and far between. It’s funny, because now that time is more limited and schedules are stricter, I value the little time we get on the lake even more.
Recent Reads
I recently joined a book club and we discussed The River this month. See my take of it on my Instagram update. Our book for September is How to Walk Away, which I just finished this week. It would have been a great beach read recommendation or summer read—not too heavy, but entertaining with a love story woven through. I thought the main character was very refreshing despite her circumstances. The gist of it is about personal growth despite life’s setbacks and choosing contentedness instead of complacency.
I am still an avid Kindle paperwhite fan, so I’m learning to jot down notes and highlight passages in my Kindle. Here are a few of my favorite passages that are all toward the end of the book:
“The greater our capacity for sorrow becomes, the greater our capacity for joy.”
“I would never tell you that the life you wanted couldn’t have been exactly as great as you planned. But you have to live the life you have. You have to find inspiration in the struggle, and pull joy out of the hardship.”
“You can’t fix everything. Not even close. But you can look for reasons to be grateful. More than that, you can work to create them.”
“Because that’s all we can do: carry the sorrow when we have to, and absolutely savor the joy when we can. Life is always, always both.”
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