Overloaded and Overwhelmed, but hey, the tomatoes are doing great!

Overloaded, overwhelmed, and undermotivated pretty much sums up how I've been feeling lately.

I have felt overloaded with work, both at home and the office. I feel like I have been in triage mode, just keeping things stable, until I have more time. When that time will ever happen, is really anybody's guess.

The boys are on summer break, and I am amazed and appalled at how much they eat, and how much mess and dishes they create! Thank goodness I have disabused them of the notion that I am their short order cook. They have learned to feed themselves, but still have a ways to go on the clean up.

On that note, I have learned to become very specific with chore assignments, and use the "carrot and stick approach", (major props to Tamy for reminding me of this quite awhile ago). Their future spouses will thank me for teaching them how to clean the kitchen, declutter, and do laundry, oh, yes indeed. (School starts in about 5 weeks, but whose counting??)

The house has also been demanding attention and money. Two out of three toilets decided to give up the ghost a week ago, and it was no fun to only have one functional bathroom for the four of us for a few days. No fun at all. We are also saving up for bathroom and roof renovations which need to be taken care of soon. I see why people call it being a "Home Moaner".

It hasn't been all work and no play, even though a lot of our "play" has been focused on the community swim team on which our youngest son participates. I volunteer as a cook in the canteen during swim meets and the 4th of July celebration. (Breakfast burrito anyone?)

For the last several years on the holiday at the pool, I have had to respond to first aid emergencies, and this year was no exception. There is a horseshoe tournament as part of the holiday gathering, and one of our neighbors and his brother participated, while consuming many cans of beer without the benefit of any other hydration or food. This tournament lasts several hours, and it was 100 F and humid monsoon conditions. I was chatting with some friends when I saw this man collapse on the deck stairs. His brother, (a sheriffs deputy supposedly trained in first aid), and a few lifeguards went over to attend to him. Several minutes went by with him on the stairs sweating in the heat, so I also went to check on him, and he was pale with a thready pulse and slurred speech. He denied any medical conditions like heart disease and denied drinking!! I insisted that the guards and brother bring him into the air conditioned clubhouse which we did. I got ice packs and water and had him start hydrating as he was suffering from heat exhaustion. His brother finally revealed that YES, they had been drinking quite heavily. (Really? Gosh, that's just lame to lie to people trying to help you, next time I will just assume someone has been drinking, it's more efficient that way. I have lost my Emergency Room nurse mojo I suppose.) He perked right up after some fluids and cooling time. Never a dull moment on the pool deck...

Gardening provides a respite from this craziness. I realized that I like gardening because the plants don't talk back, and do what they are supposed to, when provided with the right light, food, and water.



I used red plastic strips, (cut from a plastic tablecloth), to stake the tomatoes as agricultural research has shown that exposing tomato plants to the color RED, promotes more plentiful and faster ripening fruit.



Here are the lovely results from my Sweet 100 cherry and rainbow heirloom tomato plants. I have harvested 48 cherry tomatoes so far from my Sweet 100 plant, I want to see if the plant lives up to its name of yielding 100 tomatoes. I plan to make a tomato tart today.

I hope you are doing well this summer and thank you so much for allowing me to vent and share in summer overload!