Goodbye August

Garden status: I harvested sixteen more pumpkins!!! 

There are still green ones on the vine of various sizes so I will get another harvest in a few weeks. Tomatoes are on summer break but I might get a fall harvest? Squash and cucumbers are struggling. I planted more lettuce where the green beans were. And, look how the sunflowers are trying to take over the asparagus! 

They are growing up against the fence but have become so heavy that they are falling down over the asparagus. As you can imagine, the sparrows LOVE them!

Kindness Begins With Me is on a short two-week break so Monday mornings and Thursday evenings have been free. I helped fill food orders at the Bishop's Storehouse on Monday morning and Steve and I met Elise at the temple Thursday night. 

Steve saw a retina specialist Monday afternoon and he is scheduled for surgery on September 16th. I had a fasting lipid profile drawn on Thursday to give the doctor a baseline since I am starting a new medicine to help bring my LDL levels down. It is a statin - fifteen years ago I had a hard time tolerating the statin I was on - but this one has supposedly fewer side effects. I have been on it for three days and so far, so good. Anything has got to be better than that Ezetimibe I was on early in August!!!

St. Louis Civic Orchestra had their beginning-of-season picnic Tuesday evening. I was asked to bring dessert so I made three 9X13 sheet cakes (two gluten-full and one gluten-free). Not surprisingly, I brought home almost all of the gluten free cake (yay leftovers). It was nice to see orchestra members again. I have to say, though, that but I am only sort of looking forward to the new season. I'm just not as excited as in previous years, for some reason .....and, maybe because I am getting old? Hopefully, once I start playing and practicing, the enthusiasm will return. 

I spent Friday morning at the church doing assorted projects while Leslie, the Thursday night director of English classes worked in Kindness Begins With Me storage room. Friday afternoon, I drove a friend to her PT appointment. That evening, Steve and I watched his August movie Dave. Boy, I never get tired of that movie. Over Tuesday and Wednesday nights, Steve and I watched the movie A Series of Unfortunate Events loaned to us by Elise. I have not read the books nor seen the television series. The movie was charming, especially the little girl playing Sunny. We are also caught up on Strange New Worlds. This week's episode was hilarious.

Saturday was surprisingly event-free, which was a nice change, and we had friends over for dinner that night with a very easy menu - including leftover GF cake from Tuesday that had been frozen and thawed.