Cleaning and Lightning Bugs

So, our garden is still taking off. It is really exciting to see it grow each day. Our beans (now begging for the poles we have yet to put up) are growing little vines and our broccoli and cauliflower are getting bigger each day. Scroll down to the last post to see what these plant sections looked like just a few weeks back. I am amazed how they have exploded.



Our zucchini has been growing extremely well - we have 6 hills that are just bursting with leaves and vines!
















The landscape has turned all green. Driving through the hills you can see various shades of green depending on the corn or beans you are seeing- but all green nonetheless. So very pretty. I keep forgetting how far out in the country we are (we just get used to the scenery and the drive) but last week we were reminded once again. We had some people over from our church last Tuesday. We live about 15 minutes from Zearing (where these people are from). One woman remarked upon entering that "Wow! You guys really Are out in the sticks!" I just had to laugh and ask "what sticks?" Maybe she meant "stalks".



That same night, a wonderful summertime legend came to life. I have always heard of lightning bugs, but had never seen them for myself. Mostly, I kind of pictured little bugs...that kind of lit up. Didn't sound too neat or too exciting, let alone something to look forward to.

Phil and I were standing outside, and he pointed to a burst of light and said "look, there's one!". I looked and replied with a cursory "neat..." And then I looked a bit further and saw the cornfield next to us. The entire patch looked like there were a hundred little sparks shooting up from it. That got an "OOOH!" I had no idea that they could be so plentiful, and I find myself drawn outside at dusk each night, walking through the yard and garden looking over the acres and acres of small shooting sparks.

I wish it were something that could be caught on camera or that I could bring each one of you here to see for yourself. I tried many a shot attempting to capture the experience, and the best I got was the one above. You can see a few little light spots - that's them. They are only light for about a second, and they look like tiny shooting stars on the ground.

During the talk with the group from church, a funny story came out. I have to share it with you because those of you know know us would think this is interesting. An older lady- very grandmotherly - told us of her first impressions of us when we came the church for the first time. She is one ofthe sweetest, most positive ladies we have around here, and so it was funny to hear such words from her. She exclaimed "When I first saw you at church, I just knew you weren't from Iowa. I thought to myself, these people are from Pennsylvania - Dutch country!" Mind you, on Sunday's Phil doesn't wear his suspenders...and he had not purchased his straw hat. I don't remember what I was wearing, but I don't even own a plain blue dress. I just think it was cute that someone who had no idea who we were, had thought we must have been out of Amish country. Phil and I laughed as we told her about our friend's going away party, where they had cut out beards from felt and made old fashioned aprons for us- for we were moving TO amish country!

We have also been jokingly accused of being in the witness protection program. And while the people who bring this up (it has been multiple groups now) don't act like they really believe it, I am sure that if we told them in hushed tones that we were part of some secret scandal, they would believe it in a second. I think we are just that odd to them.


I don't know where anyone would get the idea we were amish from...


















On another note, Ryan has been helping me with my cleaning. He has quite the fascination with the broom - and each chance he gets he hunts it down and carries it around, squishing it on the floor here and there...and other times, he helps me "fold" my laundry by taking it all out of the basket and putting it on the floor. I don't know why I don't get more done in the day with all of this quality help around!