"I Go"

Henry put two words together today.  "I go." He said it as he made a controlled fall off the toy shelf onto the couch. And then he did it five more times. I know I should have stopped him but it was really cute.  He's very into "going."  He uses that word a lot.

Its Been Awhile!

Things have been busy.  Most of my free time the last few weeks has been spent on writing a research paper on autism for a grad class I'm taking.  The paper came together really fast.  Fastest twenty page paper I've ever written!   Or so I thought until I went to print it out two hours before it was due.  Somehow, I had written it in 14 point font.  Suddenly my paper was down to 13 pages!  After a brief period of freaking out, and a brief period of trying to add some things to the paper while wearing a screaming, hair-pulling Henry in the baby backpack and getting it up to fourteen and a half pages, I decided I had to just let it go.  So I did and I turned it in and haven't thought a thing about it since.

NT has been busy running a science club at two elementaries, teaching an extra class, and taking the children on "walnut walks."  A walnut walk is where you search the neighborhood for walnut trees, climb the trees, shake them, and collect the walnuts.  We learned that walnut husks stain everything, including your skin.  There's also a whole process to removing the husk, drying the nuts, etc.  Somehow the washing machine has been put into use for this project.

Isn't this lovely?  It's what I'm planning on getting at the end of walnut season.

Its only a mere 1k.  I mean, think about all the money we're saving on walnuts!

Oli enjoys first grade.  She even rides the bus.  It's strange putting your child on a bus and watching it pull away.  The first few days she looked a little panicked as it pulled away and yes, I did follow the bus to school on the first day. She did fine and doesn't seem to mind it.   In fact, she has two older girls who watch out for her, which is very sweet.

Jake turned three though I think that deserves a post of its own.  Coming soon!

Henry, oh Henry.  I say that a lot.  Henry is one busy boy!  He's added some words to his vocabulary like, "oh geez" (his favorite thing to say), "Owie" (Oli), "mommy", "daddy", "eow" (meow, used for all animals), and "uh oh."  He also body surfs but only after he's dumped something out (crayons, walnuts, whatever).  He lays down in the crayon pile, waves his arms around, and rolls around in it while laughing.  He keeps me on my toes, that's for sure!

Storing Up Warm Summer Memories

We have a picture book called, Gathering, by Betsy Bowen, that is read quite frequently around here.   The family in the book has to store up warm summer memories for the cold winter.  A few weeks ago, after jumping off the dock at my extended family's cabin, Oli said to me, "Mom, I'm storing up this memory for the cold winter!"  So along the same lines, here are the memories of summer 2011.

In June we took a family trip to the north shore of Lake Superior.  We camped at Gooseberry Falls State Park.  It was Jacob and Henry's first time in a tent, as well as the first time Olivia could remember sleeping in a tent.  The only tent we have is the four-person tent that we got for our wedding and it was a bit squished.  The low temperature for the night was thirty-eight degrees so it was a good kind of squished.

State park camping is a great way to camp for families.  You can sleep in a tent but there are also bathrooms, hot showers, water spigots, and wood that's already been chopped.   Our kids loved camping.  Even now, three months later, they still talk about going back to "our" campsite (which they even remember the campsite number of) and how they saw a waterfall.  

There is just something so relaxing about sitting on the shore of Lake Superior, watching the waves, looking for agates, and feeling the sun on your face.  It calls me back, year after year.

The birthdays of our two June babies are another highlight.  Oli had some friends over for a "fairy house making" party.  NT and Oli built some little houses out of wood and then the girls decorated them with moss, rocks, silk flowers, twigs, and little wooden objects we found at the craft store.  It was so fun to see how the girls built their houses.  

Here's Mr. One-der-ful on his birthday.  We had chocolate banana cake and lots of hugs and kisses.

I wrote about it before but Olivia learned to ride her bike without training wheels which made for some fun late summer trips around town with the boys on the bike trailer.  Just the other day, I was biking to the library with the boys in the trailer (Oli was already back at school) when I passed the carriage house we lived in the first year we lived here.  There were many winter days when I stood with baby Oli looking out those carriage house windows (probably forlornly or maybe just bored) and as I rode my bike past the other day, I thought how funny it would be if I could have seen myself biking past five years later.  I'm definitely not bored now!

And of course the garden.  The garden is something that is dreamed about as soon as Christmas is over.  The garden in Wisconsin went through an excellent period this summer (about two days long) when it was beautifully weeded. I'm definitely storing that memory up for the winter.  There was some really good sweating, hoeing, and weed pulling done in high heat.  Another warm memory.  There was some good family togetherness with Jacob driving his trucks between rows, Oli asking a million questions, and Henry toddling around eating dirt and rocks.  

Picking strawberries in the backyard garden.

More warm memories of Farm Island Lake and spending time with extended family who range in age from one to eighty-seven.  We also spent a weekend in Pine City where the children swam to their heart's content.

 We played at parks, ran around the backyard, swam, had at least three days where we stayed inside and read books with the air-conditioning going full blast, went on kiddie rides at the county fair, and ate all the strawberries, raspberries, and blackcaps that we possibly could.  It was a good summer.

Adjustment Period

Surrounded, as we are, by buildings owned by three different schools, our neighborhood feels something like a large, quiet park all summer long.  We ride our bikes through empty parking lots and wander across grassy fields.  But then, 9:00 a.m., on an August Tuesday rolls around, and suddenly there is a stream of cars rolling down the street.  Cars doors open and slam shut, wheeled carts go rolling by, directions are given by cheerful college girls in purple shirts.  Box fans, clear plastic bins, cases of bottled water are carried down the street. There are some tears, some laughter.  By 6:00 p.m., there are 800 college freshman living across the street.  Noisy cars, the campus bus, car doors, foot traffic, the smell of cigarette smoke.  And then there's the first weekend where 800 19 year-olds have to find something fun to do on a Friday night.  I'll let you imagine what that sounds like at 1:00 a.m.

Of course, fall brings it own adjustments anytime.  Oli starts first grade.  NT goes back to work.  There are church groups and early childhood activities for Jacob and Henry.  I should make out a house cleaning schedule.  I should make a list of all the meals I like to cook and put them on a calendar so I don't have to look through cookbooks late in the afternoon.  I should make an exercise schedule.  And sign all the school forms.  But I'm not feeling very ready for all this quite yet.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

{pretty}

I haven't felt much like planning meals lately so 4 o'clock usually finds me trying to figure out something for dinner.  Today I happened to take out a cookbook called, Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland.  I usually think of this cookbook as being a good winter cookbook as most of the recipes seem to require a lot of cooking but the weather's been cool this week.  I found a recipe for Sarma, also known as stuffed cabbage rolls.  We just picked a cabbage from the garden the other day (and there's at least ten more cabbages waiting for us) so I thought this would be great.  It was tasty - I'll probably make it again.  You blanche the cabbage leaves and then mix pork, rice and spices together, roll them up in the leaf, and then cook in a sauce of pureed tomatoes.  We have tons of tomatoes growing right now too so this was a great fresh dish.  We had a creamy cucumber salad on the side.

{happy}

Eating blackcaps (wild black raspberries) at the garden.  Every time we would hand him one, he would lean back and eat it.


{funny}

These two...Oli and her friend J.  When they were four, they were in childcare together for a parenting group at church and decided they were going to have a playdate.  They've been friends ever since.  On this day, they planned a wedding.  I'm not exactly sure who was getting married but from my post in the kitchen I gathered it was a royal wedding with official proclamations, a wedding rock (which only they know the meaning of), piano music, singing, and decorations (note the decorated piano).  

{real}

At the beginning of the summer, I imagined myself bike riding all over town with the boys in the bike trailer and Oli on her bike.  I figured if we took the training wheels off, we would go much faster.  This was about May.  For a month, I tried holding onto the back of her bike while she would try to balance and ride.  This got us nowhere.  A friend of mine had read about taking the pedals off the bike to teach balance.  So one night, NT took off the pedals and had her practice coasting and balancing.  After about thirty minutes of this, he put the pedals back on, gave her a push and off she went.  It was like magic! Our next obstacle, was starting up on the bike without a push.  She was really afraid she was going to fall.  One day I offered to pay her a dime every time she tried to start riding on her own.  She tried and tried but just couldn't get it.  Finally, last night, as NT and I were standing outside talking to some neighborhood friends, she did it!  

Notes from the Garden

The garden is growing great!  I think this has been our best year for keeping up with the weeding.  We've fallen into a nice schedule of going to the garden (located on our friend's land) after dinner and staying for about two hours.  This works well as both boys often fall asleep in the car, giving us a little time to work.  Though hoeing with a baby on the back is a great workout, it's not so much fun.

So far, in the middle of July, we have tons of green beans and are just getting our first cucumbers and onions.  We have lots of tomatoes on the vine, though they are still green.  The watermelon vines are just flowering.

We added a new super to the hives today.  NT weighed the hives about two weeks ago by stepping on a bathroom scale and weighing each box..  All together the hives weighed 350 pounds.  It looks like a good year for honey.

Going up to the garden has been such a great family activity this year.  Jacob likes to play in the dirt with his trucks and Oli is a great helper by doing things such as entertaining Henry, getting water for everyone, and picking berries and onions.  It is fun to work together as a family.  This is the first year that I haven't spent most of my time entertaining fussy kids or trying to work with a giant pregnant belly.  It feels great to actually be able to finish weeding a row.

Of course, we also have our little garden in our backyard.  So far we've eaten a few small tomaotes (stupice variety), lots of swiss chard, green beans, lettuces, and carrots, as well as cherries from our cherry tree.  The strawberries and spinach finished about a month ago and the raspberries and peas just finished.  It is amazing what you can grow in a small space!

Six

When I was One, I had just begun

When I was Two, I was nearly new

When I was Three, I was hardly Me

When I was Four, I was not much more

When I was Five, I was just alive

But now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever.  So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.

Poem by A. A. Milne