We went to Dowling around noon today and, for the first time, I realized that our garden plot is actually "part shade" instead of "full sun". Great for working in the garden; not so great for growing food. The raspberries, rhubarb, and lettuce from the previous tenant seem to be doing well...guess we'll see how my tomatoes and basil fare.

I finally stuck the little watermelon and cucumber plants in the ground in the yard today. It's so late in the season, I have no idea if they will even mature, but the kids picked them out and I figure it's all part of the experiment this year. I ate three ripe blueberries off my new bushes while I was watering my new plantings. Yum.

Finished up the last of the strawberry rhubarb crisp tonight along with the rest of the leftovers from this weekend. It occurred to me that we virtually have zero food waste these days. I have recently devised a system where I make a list on a sticky note of all of the leftovers so I can keep track of what needs to be eaten.

I bet we used to throw out 75% of our leftovers because they went bad. Now nothing gets thrown out and the tiny percentage of what doesn't get eaten is fed to the worms (along with all the egg shells, banana peels, etc.). I have just discovered that if I don't give the kids snacks, they eat ALL of their meals without complaining--vegetables included--and almost always ask for seconds. It's like a miracle. We used to have to take the trash out every single day because it was full. Now we're down to maybe once a week and that usually has to be taken out because it starts to smell bad before it gets full.

Snacks read the grace tonight at dinner for the very first time. He had to get a little help from his dad, but he did it mostly himself. We were so proud.