Summer, Don't Go...

Many of you considered Labor Day the official goodbye to summer.  Others are watching the calender for the official beginning of Fall on September 22.  That makes this month a gift full of mild weather, moderately long, sunny days and anticipation of seasons to come.  My youngest just asked, "How many years is it 'til Christmas?"  Oh, if time only moved that slowly for the grownups!

Baby Watermelon in our Garden

While our garden's watermelons were a seasonal failure (see how cute one of those little ones was before a suspected squash borer sucked the life out of the vine?), purchased fresh melons were a summer favorite, and not something we've wanted to give up yet.  

A fun after-school treat has been frozen watermelon. When I ran out of refrigerator room and had to hurriedly freeze half a watermelon, we later used the ice cream scoop to scrape watermelon ice with a flavor to rival any store-bought treat.  But, that is a lot of work.  When I have time, I prefer slicing the melon first, then freezing it like this:

What I don't want outdoors are toxins in products I've purchased for family fun.  Here's a look at what environmental scientists found when they looked at some popular backyard picnic gear.

Even late in the summer, I'm still concerned about mosquitoes in the backyard.  For at least a few seasons now we've been using this WVE recipe (3rd one down on their site) for homemade bug repellent made with citronella.  

A Missouri-based company recently sent us some samples of their Mosquitno arm bands and stickers that use all-natural citronella to repel pests.  They seemed to help when I put them on the kids during evening play hours in the yard.

Hope your September is full of beautiful days and family fun as you soak up what's left of summer.

Be sure to bookmark FlourSackMama.com so you won't miss a thing as we grow into a site that can bring you more of what you want!