Back to School End of Sad Summer

The kids are officially back to school. It's been a crazy summer, long but short and never very warm. It just didn't really feel like summer to me much.

Of course it didn't get off to a good start and I was wary of everything all summer and now we end it with the loss of a beloved family member. My husband's father passed away Friday night, thankfully he made it there Thursday to see him before he passed. Today is the funeral and tomorrow hubby will be home. I miss him like crazy and just want to give him a big hug.

I've been trying to work to keep my mind off things. Yesterday I worked in my gardens.

I kept my garden up real well until the past couple weeks. Now it looks like hell. The tomato cages fell over and some of the tomato plants are dying. Plus it's been so cold the tomatoes are not getting ripe they are green and rotting on the vine. Gross.

And now those horrible gray/white nasty bugs are back all over my pumpkins and squash. They are so gross and eat right through my pumpkins from the inside out. They ruined over half of my pumpkins last year. I thought they were gone for good but all the sudden they are back. None of my natural stuff is getting rid of them: soapy water; veggie oil mixed with water; veggie oil and garlic; or a combination of everything. I've even tried some natural pesticides but these bugs are so gross and resilient nothing is getting rid of them. I don't even know what they are. Before last year I never had any problems with bugs in my garden except for a few leaf eaters.

My flower garden is looking sad, too. I let it go kinda wild with herbs and didn't plant as many perennials as I normally do. I don't think my heart was in it this year as much as normal. I started out great with my early seed planting and nourished my seedlings-then the break in and so much else happened this summer that was sad and depressing plus I have been working so hard trying to put book proposals together and even working on my fiction.

I have tons of reviews and links to post so I'll try to keep everyone up to date. I received some fab products to review and my kids and I are loving them. I bet you will, too.

Now that the older kids are back in school I might have more time to write... if I find something to keep the three year old busy. He loves to color and play games so we can kinda work side by side sometimes.