Friday bullets, Aug. 17, 18

This probably won't be long, as we are getting reading to head out of town to go to Michigan. (Only some of us are going, others are staying home, working, and taking care of the animals.) I'll begin since time is short.

• The garden is still doing well, though the cucumbers and zucchini are nearing their ends. I have mixed feelings about that. I could certainly can more pickles, as my children would eat their weight in them if I let them, but I'm okay with not canning too many more pickles. Zucchini on the other hand, never did produce as much as I had hoped. On top of having them to eat fresh, I had wanted to shred and freeze a bunch of zucchini as well. I'm not sure that will happen. Plus, yesterday, we discovered a new treat: dehydrated zucchini chips made in the dehydrator. These are amazing! I will probably blog about them next week, but it does confirm that we could have used a lot more zucchini.
• But maybe these will make up for it. My odd, giant squash are supposed to be able to be used as you would zucchini. Look at this:

It's a long squash.

It's so long, it's as long as M.'s arm, which is really saying something.

• I've actually started the school planning for the next school year. One would hate to start too far ahead, huh? I think I actually have a pretty good handle on things, and the whole process shouldn't take me too long. D. has already done all his own planning, I just need to buy him more graph paper. So that's easy. I've also started to figure out what to do with R. this year. That thinking is what precipitated this:

Most of this is the result of a dollar store trip. This will all become activity (though more therapy than anything) boxes for R. I have a lot of ideas in my head, I just need to sort it all our and put it together. Plus, there will be a lot of laminating involved, which makes me happy. I will write about the results once I'm done.

• J. has spent two mornings this week at his new job at various orientations and such. It seems as though it is going to be a very good fit for him.
• My laundry is currently under control, which it hadn't been for a couple of weeks. The trouble with packing is that people need clean clothes. So I get the laundry caught up, we go away for a few days, and when we come back, I have out of control laundry again. 
• Eggs. We have a lot of eggs. Dozens of eggs. And as many as we eat, we cannot keep up. Please, come buy my eggs! $3/dozen. I also have some extra duck eggs which are $4/dozen. Please!

Don't worry, we wash them before we sell them to you.

• K. is doing his part to keep the egg amounts under control. He ate five eggs for breakfast yesterday, thus causing many of us to break into song. "When I was a lad, I ate four dozen eggs every morning to help me grow large... " (It's the Gaston song from Beauty and the Beast in case you don't recognize it. For everyone else, I'm sorry that you will now be humming that song all day.) I've noticed that K., at 12, is starting to enter his prime eating and sleeping years, so the five eggs ]seems like just the beginning.
• I finished reading Crazy Rich Asian, and actually ended up enjoying it far more than I expected. I plan on going to see the movie in an actual movie theater, which is kind of unheard of for me. My children tell me that while they would like to see it, they are kind of tired of seeing all the advertisements. I have not seen a single advertisement for the movie. That alone gives you some sense of my uncanny ability to tune out popular culture.
• Our library does the coolest thing... it allows you to check out games. There are all sorts of games, for all sorts of ages and abilities. Some of the games are titles that I've looked at in game stores and wondered if they are fun. This is an excellent way to try one out before shelling out the big bucks. I was just a little paranoid about making sure we kept all the games pieces... and instructions... together in the box. Are anyone else's children incapable of putting game instructions away in the game box?
• I had a new article publish last week, and had no idea it did so. This means that it didn't get my little social media boost, and is now wallowing in the bottom of the ratings. And since I'm paid based on how well my articles perform, I find this concerning. So, here's the link to my newest articles. Sharing and clicking on it would be greatly appreciated, by both myself and my checkbook.  4 Pieces of Helpful Advice to Hopeful Adoptive Parents

As I mentioned, we'll be in Michigan for a long weekend. I have no idea if I'll have a chance to blog or not. So, to those who are concerned when they don't hear from me, everything is fine. I'll see you all next week!