#tbt Children of the Okra

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My week has been crazy hectic!! As I was sitting here this morning drinking my coffee, I was thinking I really needed a good laugh today. I decided to go back to an oldie but a goodie y’all! #tbt from my former blog.

I really hope you all get a laugh or two out of this post, and make sure to catch tomorrow’s “4th of July Celebration” post with DIY Crafts and Good Eats!

My poor sweet daddy….Almost 73 years old, has worked so hard all his life and helps us girls thru thick and thin. So when my daddy asks me if my hubsy and I could come up and help him cut okra, of course I said yes.

See my daddy raises a fairly good size garden. And since its just him, we girls reap the harvest. My daddy also cans a lot of what he grows, which again, us girls reap the harvest. I seriously don’t have to buy so many canned items because of my daddy. Normally this time of year we are not having to have conversations about the garden because it is normally dead as a doornail but this summer as been odd. Lots of rain has caused our crops to have a second growth. Now I’m not complaining at all, but its just strange that we are still picking veggies in September, but who don’t like fresh tomatoes right?

My daddy don’t ask for a lot of help, he’s proud like that, but he had shoulder surgery 6 weeks ago which has limited what he can do. But what my daddy failed to mention was that with the rain we have had, the small 18 inch okra plants I normally cut okra from, has turned into a 8-9 ft Okra Plant Jungle. How many of you guys have cut okra from a jungle? Not a glorious job at all. My kids came out to the garden to help get it all cut. After 10 minutes they were itching and whining. Not a mom can we please go in now. But serious whining that made you think they were being killed by The Okra Jungle Tribes.

My daddy says, “It’s good for you to do a little work”. Thats right daddy, it is.

Well the whining continues and the itching gets worse and when I look at them they are breaking out in red whelps, so I have the kids go inside to shower.

That is when I start itching. I’m not talking about a little itch from a bug bite, I’m talking about itching like there is no tomorrow. And I start scratching and I can’t stop. My arms are red with whelps, my fingers are swelling and I have scratched so much I’m starting to bleed. And because the stocks are so tall you have to bend them over to cut the okra from the top, so now my head is covered in sticky okra seeds.

I start having visions of me with a machete running thru the Okra Jungle chopping down all the stocks in sight. And then because my arms are on fire and I start imagining setting the Okra Jungle on fire and saying “burn baby burn”. Then when I think it can’t get any worse, graceful me stumbles and falls into the garden fence but lucky for me some pretty vines growing up the side helps to soften the fall, until my daddy says “Don’t get in that poison ivy growing up the fence”. Seriously Daddy, poison ivy in the garden???

That’s it, I need water and I need it fast. I threw my knife down on the ground.

I didn’t grab my okra or anything Jesus, I just ran for my life. (A little humor from Sugar Brown) (If you don’t know who that is, please YouTube it, like now)

I did just that. Straight to my dads shower where I scrubbed and scrubbed and cried and cried, while my children searched my dads cabinets for benadryl, which he didn’t have, *note to self, buy daddy benadryl.

Finally, I decided nothing was going to help and got out of shower. No way was I putting those okra infested clothes but on, so my daughter went and got t-shirts from my daddy to wear.

About that time, in comes my hubsy who is not looking good at all, because all I see is okra covering his sweaty body.

So hubsy wears a pair of my dads scrub pants home and the kids and I wear a t shirt, yes just a t shirt. No judgement please! So glad we decided to obey all traffic laws. We looked like a bunch of okra pickin hillbillies.

After I got home a took a double dose of benadryl which knocked me into a benadryl induced coma.

So much for “Children of the Corn”. Its now called “Children of the Okra”.

*Stay tuned for the Sequel..Coming Soon

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Summer Dates on a Budget: Movie Night

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It’s extremely quiet at my house. Now, I love quietness.  I love being able to hear myself think, answer the phone without yelling for kiddo’s to be quiet, read anytime during the day without the tv blaring in the background, … Continue reading 

Great Idea Thursday #60

Hi Ya’ll!  Hope your having a Wonderful Wednesday!

This week has been really quiet for me.  Both of the kiddo’s are gone to church camp, having the time of their lives, while me and husby are home alone.  I haven’t experienced this much quietness in a very long time.  I have been a busy bee working on several posts and jotting down a list of ideas to work on over the next several week.

In case you missed it, here is a couple posts from this week……

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Summer Dates on a Budget:

Farmer’s Market Morning Date

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Blackberry & Lemon Cake

w/Lemon Buttercream Frosting

 

Hope you will check them out this week!

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I have some exciting news.

This week I am Co-Hosting “Great Idea  Thursday”, with Krista from…….

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And Joybee from…..

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Please stop by and show the love to both of them.

Now this is my first time as a Co-Host, so please bear with me! I know I have a lot to learn and lots of room for improvements (:

Are you ready to Show-Off what your creative mind has kept you busy with?

Link up your great work from this week!

It can be a recipe, a craft, or anything else you made yourself!

There is a few rules to remember when linking up  “Big Ides Thursday”.

*Please follow Me, Krista and Joybee on all Social Media
*Please link directly to your post not your home page.
*Share the love – please visit and comment on at least 2 other posts.
*Grab a Button or text link back to A Handful of Everything

 

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Party will run from Wednesday @ 6:00 pm EST to Sunday 11:59 pm EST

Thank you for stopping by to Party!

Have Fun and Be Creative!

 

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In Case You Missed It

Wow, what a busy week full of celebrations and activities this has been. Now don’t get me wrong, I love celebrating, I love parties, but there was just a few too many in one week for me!

But I didn’t want to leave out any special occasions from my blog so I decided to do a picture collage of all the events I did not to get to share throughout the week!

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We started last Friday morning with my Grandson Wyatt’s Kindergarden Graduation.(yes grandson, no judgement please) (Top left and middle picture) It was so adorable all of the children getting to walk across the stage in their little gown and cap!

That night we celebrated my son Keegan’s 15th Birthday with family and friends. I will share a full blog post of that later!

Saturday arrived and we spent the day celebrating my great-nephew’s 1st Birthday with a full FIESTA! His daddy is full hispanic and his family was gracious enough to host us all for a day of fun and AWESOME FOOD! (Top right picture, Middle left picture) I seriously felt I was in back in Guatemala, (sigh) it was wonderful!

Our church is starting a new series in our Children’s Department, so my sweet husby and I spent one evening this week decorating for “Clubhouse Pirate Adventure”. Argggg! Ahoy Matey! (middle center and middle right pictures) We always have a great time coming up with the vision and putting it into place! And to see the smiles on all the kiddo’s faces this weekend was PRICELESS!

After all of that celebrating and decorating, we slowed it down for a Date Night! (Bottom left picture) We had a bit of celebrating to do ourselves. I had just received notice that day, that i was selected to be a part of Author ReaAnne Thayne’s Street Team for her upcoming new release “Wild Iris Ridge”. I was beyond excited!
We decided on a quiet evening at a local Coffee Shop where we had some yummy drinks and treats. We ended the night at the bookstore which is one of my FAVORITE places! He is so good to me!

Yesterday, we wrapped the week up with my granddaughter Lilli’s 3rd Birthday! (Bottom center and bottom right pictures) Look how sweet she is blowing out her candle. (: And yes that is my VERY pregnant daughter beside sweet Lilli. She is due in 7 weeks! Lilli had a pool party and BBQ for her birthday and being the cool Mimi that I am, I made her a Bubble Guppie cake!

I was so shocked to see her jump off that diving board! WOW!

For once I can honestly say I am so glad tomorrow is Monday and a new week! I think its time for a slow-down!

I also wanted to share the Awesome Blogs I linked up with this weekend:
http://www.sweetbellaroos.com
http://easylifemealandpartyplanning.blogspot.com
http://memoriesbythemile.com
http://www.flamingotoes.com
http://www.cookinforthesevendwarfs.com/

Drop by and check them out!

And “In Case You Missed It”, make sure to check out my blog posts from this past week!

http://graceandgravy.com/2014/05/25/sometimes-we-just-need-a-do-over/

http://graceandgravy.com/2014/05/28/freedom-at-its-finest-and-potato-salad-too/

http://graceandgravy.com/2014/05/28/a-little-taste-of-mexico-and-the-truth-about-link-parties/

http://graceandgravy.com/2014/05/30/diy-homemade-powder-laundry-soap/

Have an AWESOME Monday!