A Cargo Of Joy: Warning:This Post Contains Many Photos!

I have about 20 photos of varied topics to show you, so I am going to try to keep the text light, here!

Fresh picked strawberries from our GinormaGarden in my hand. Note the green edge of my sweatshirt... I told my mom that I need to dress in jeans, boots, and a sweatshirt every day in the summer and I am sure to lose weight! I wanted to pick black raspberries to make jam, and I am a mosquito magnet... they are instantly drawn to me. So I dressed up in 85* weather to pick berries... anyway, I digress. Strawberries.

This is Cueball Squash! It's very yummy. :) This is the first year that we have grown this, and it is really great!

Zucchini and Summer Squash, fresh from the garden. You don't realize how great actual fresh veggies are until you eat them straight out of the garden. You think that zucchini from the grocery store tastes great... then you try zucchini from the garden...

I showed Ryla her little cubby holes under her slide so she could put things in them... I wasn't thinking she could put her in it, though. She quickly cleared up that lapse in thought for me, though!

My husband manned the grill last night and made chicken, potatoes & broccoli, and cueball squash. Everything was fantastic! The squash was amazing cooked this way! It was a great dinner!

Since it was such a beautiful afternoon we decided to eat outside... and I felt like the occasion merited my new fiesta ware that I got at a garage sale(14 plates for $10!), and my special, favorite teal glasses and pitcher!

freshly picked black raspberries in the sun! :D Can't wait to make jam today!

I got this little gem in a box of junk for $2. I will show you some of the other things later... there are a couple of doozies in there! There were several mini crocks in there... this is just the most adorable one!

I got all of these in the box! No chips!

I baked a fresh double batch of Blueberry Strawberry Banana Bread. Turned out great! I also made a fresh batch of Applesauce for my daughter who is an applesauce fiend!

Yum!

This is my silly painted manatee gourd. I love manatees! I live in Michigan, however, so buying one of the big manatee mailboxes would look a little... strange. I had to have something manatee, though! When I saw the lady painting this at Webster's Flea Market, I knew I had to have it!

My husband found this up in our crookedy, falling down barn! I thought it was pretty neat! There is a lot of junk in our barn from the previous tenants, and we have slowly but surely cleaning it out... this is just one of the newest things that we have found.

This is our raised bed garden. The GinormaGarden is at my mom's house, but we planted this one at our house just for fun. It has 3 cayenne peppers and 3 different kinds of radishes. My husband loves both of those things!

Matt and Ryla playing with Matt's hummer toy. :) She was a little wary at first, but she quickly got into... throwing pebbles at it. Maybe she didn't quite get over being wary... :)

This is my ground cover flower that I call the Sea Anemone. It is all floaty and beautiful... I didn't check the tag to see what it really was.. ha. So I couldn't tell you!

Just thought I would share a front view of my house. Ignore the dead, dying, and growing hanging plants, please. My chenille plant isn't making it, and I forgot to water my petunias for 2 days... that one will come back, though.