2:43 AM.

Just became great-grandma again. Zi'liyah, family is going to call her Zi. 8 lbs. 6 oz. 20 inches long. Daddy and Mommy doing good too. Born at 3:02. Grandma Daughter 3 is still struggling with becoming a grandma but the entire family keeps pointing out her daughter followed in HER FOOT STEPS. Graduated, working full time and 18. Daddy is also. AND just like her mother, not married. SIGH. 

I would say it's a weird name but we actually had an Amish family name their baby using the initials of several family members and then had to spend a year teaching everyone how they wanted it pronounced. 

Since my back injections I am sleeping better, just not very long. I rest daily at 2 pm at the insistence of Charlotte. She wants me to lay on the bed with her for 30 minutes. Probably has been a good habit as I try hard to have my work down by then so when I get up from the rest it's prep supper and take laundry down and put it away.

Sherm found out the Country Variety store (Mennonite store) had black raspberries so we went to get some. I couldn't find them anywhere last year. I got 46 pints . Making pie filling (quart wide mouth jars) and jam (pint regular mouth jars) . We have one Amish family that is selling a little bit of them. I'll get some from them for fresh eating this weekend. Hopefully our will make enough next year to cut down on what I have to buy. It was half of stores prices.

They also had blueberries, Hubby had already bought 12 jars of blueberry preserves. But I am short on blueberry pie filling. They had a 20 lb. box for half of what all the other stores were selling blueberries for. I got it.

I also ordered sour cherries, 27 lbs. to make pie filling. Hubby had already ordered those preserves also. 

IF I have enough blackberries and red raspberries ripe I will mix some of the black raspberries and blueberries with them and make a mix berry pie filling. 

They had peaches, smaller than regular and not as juicy. I okay with what we have with peaches.  I need pears though but haven't found a supply yet.

Our "applesauce" tree is almost ready to harvest, The ones now falling are turning ripe faster than the ones on the tree. Today , Hubby is picking up the ones that fell so he can mow and is taking a bucket out with him so if there are any good he can bring them to the house for me. The bad ones Hubby tossing in the tractor bucket and take them over and dumps them at E's for their pigs. We call the other apple tree the pie tree or cider tree... because that's what the apples are good for and no one knows what type of apples they are.

We bought eggs from an Amish lady that grows beets for me. We bartered 5 gallons of asparagus for her for 5 gallons of beets for us. She was at a Sister's day so her Husband had the 5 little ones and taking care of selling eggs.  Said she had tripled her flock to have enough to sell and almost doesn't really get enough. I think it's the humidity as chickens don't lay good in hot or cold weather and they don't heat the coops in the winter.

Hubby got his hearing aids fixed and I had a hearing test. I am still good with the hearing but they noticed the left ear isn't as good as it was 2 yrs. ago but still within normal range. So him saying I am just not hearing him went out the window as the Doctor told him he was mumbling and his voice is gravelly. Told me to make sure I was getting B vitamin especially folic acid B 9, Magnesium and Zinc in our diet. So I checked what foods was needed to be in the diet. 

I know there are red raspberries, blackberries, peas, snowpeas, lettuce, spinach, mustard greens, cherry tomatoes, herbs, and maybe onions, beets and turnips to pick today to deal with on top of berries I bought. We don't have any appointments until Hubby gets his truck back, hopefully next Wed. Figure I can do some canning in the morning while the beds dry from dew, then harvest and do more canning when it's too hot/humid to be out.

The last of the garden beds we ordered are in. Got them unloaded from UPS truck before the rain dumped buckets on us and the driver. Got so bad we couldn't see the end of the porch 8 ft from the door. We want to get them in within the next week so I can start planting fall/winter crops. Our primary doctor asked us how to do that as he just started last year growing any garden, first time for him and his wife. 

Hubby mentioned that made 15 beds... I looked at him and told him I only needed 13, he forgot he still had 2 beds in the barn... Sigh... we will be finding a spot for them. He thinks we have enough weed barrier to make another row.

In the past 5 days, he has told me at least once a day, that he didn't understand what I meant when I told him something. I stopped and thought about what I said and resaid it and then asked him to tell me what he thought I said. He had it correct... that is an IMPROVEMENT as before he would just say, I didn't say that, and he wasn't catching he didn't understand what was said. I told him yesterday that was an improvement after he was laughing at my brother, who was struggling to understand the text I sent. My text was had lunch at the Inn, ran in to cuz Judy L Daddy's side and her friend whose brothers see you several times a week. She didn't give her name. Manager working floor at the Inn grew up down the street from us. You know her brother Tom P. He came back with we don't have a cuz Judy (we have one on Daddy's side and one on Mother's) He didn't know anyone working at the Inn. Manage texted her brother who just happen to be eating lunch with MY BROTHER. Hubby understood the text but he realized I am dealing with it from two sides. At least my sister in law and their kids are dealing with the issues more than I am. 

Some of Son2's test results have came back. He worked burn pits in Iraq for a solid 12 months. He has PSTD (I figure all soldiers in battle would have that) and mild to medium COPD. Still has more testing to jump through. His girlfriend is struggling to handle it and the changes that have to be made to be supportive of him. He said the only blessing of finding out now that her answer was to ignore him and not be there like she said she would is they are not married or even living together. He is glad he already quit smoking (again) He has a support system of us and several other veterans that live around him. Daughter 3 and Daughter 4 both have PSTD (both lost infants) and mild COPD from smoking so he's called them also.

I did remind him she might have PSTD herself and not know it. Her dad was a vet from Nam, he ended up shooting himself in the car in the driveway and she was the one to find him. It could have triggered her and her not understand or know  that it did. He hadn't thought about that but he was going to go talk to her mom (she was raised by her dad) to see if she would check on her regularly,

Going to grab coffee and go sit on the kitchen porch with Charlotte so I don't start rattling pots and pans and wake Hubby

Prayers for peace

Blessed be