Summer, Oh Favorite Season of Mine

What is there not to love about this season? Brown/red shoulders, chubby baby bodies shimmied into tight little bathing suits, plastic pools and dinners outside... I wonder if sumer would be so fun if it happened all year long? Somehow I don't think so, but I can't imagine why...

We just got back from a trip to see my family in Texas and from a close friend's wedding in California only to find the last vestiges of Spring burned into green greeness here in New Jersey. Funny that I likely would not have noticed it had we not left for the month of July but seemingly all colors merged into one in our absence.

There is much work to be done around this cozy little, messy little place of ours. Vegetables to be harvested (cucumbers! tomatoes! even a pepper!), lawn to be mowed, lots and lots of old but new now toys to be played with. Ahhh, summer, please hang around a while...

Our Nature Table

For the longest time I have been meaning to put together a nature table--a small place in our home that reflects the season of the year in one form or another. While we were living in Portland, we had a collection of beautiful natural objects that we found on our many hikes through the forests of the city, and this was a calm and pleasant place for us, but it was never a true nature table.

Recently, I joined the Seasons Round Exchange. To help inspire our fall nature table, I will make something for a fall nature table and send it off to my cyberspace partner and he or she will dot he same for us. I have participated in one of these "exchanges" in the past and I am looking forward to it again.

In the meantime, the kids and I put together a summer nature table using some fresh mint for a tree, rocks, shells, a blue silk for water, and various other natural items that we have collected. I also purchased this book, and I plan on using it to collect more ideas for our Autumn table.

While I love the idea of the table, I have not quite figured out how to incorporate it into our lives. Harvey does play with it--he makes animals climb on the rocks and swim in the water but it is otherwise largely ignored. If anyone has any ideas, please share!

Quotable Sunday

It is good to be back, back to my kids, back to my husband, and back here to my little home on the internet! Although we are just on the precipice of a new baby in our lives, I am hoping to be back here in a more consistent manner now that we are more settled in our new digs and our new routines.

I am going to join my Kyrie for Quotable Sunday to ease my reentry into this home of mine and to help get my juices flowing again. Nikki Giovanni is always good for that...


A Summer Love Poem


Clouds float by on a summer sky
I hop scotch over to you

Rainbows arch from ground to gold
I climb over to you


Thunder grumbles, lightning tumbles
And I bounce over to you


Sun beams back and catches me
Smiling over at you

Plastic Pool Party (for two)

An old friend has inspired some fun in the sun of the plastic pool variety and boy have we had some fun. I read her post while the kids were napping one day last week and found the answer to what we would do with our afternoon. We had one of these last summer and sold it at our garage sale before we moved. Amanda's post reminded me of the good times we spent last summer in the backyard, and the party continues this year. In between their splashed, I can even get a little knitting or reading time. I. love. summer.

Getting Dirty

and settling in. That is pretty much all we have been doing the past couple of weeks. This past weekend, we soaked up the last of Dada by running around in fountains, planting vegetables in our small garden, and catching up with my brother and his soon-to-be roommate Jesse around mealtimes.

Our existence in this new town has been a solitary one so far (with the exception of visiting family). Because we have no real "roots" here, I am scanning the Internet for things to do in the area, to get to know where we are. Today, the kids and I went to the zoo. Zoos normally depress me--all of those sad, lethargic animals trapped in small spaces, but this one was on the good end of bad. You actually feel like you are hiking through it--tall pine trees and chirping birds surround you. On the whole, it was a nice experience and we are sure to go back. Tomorrow, we are headed to Sauvie Island for some raspberry and blueberry picking.

I desperately want to feel rooted here, tied to a place, in it for the long haul. I know it will come with time, with a new job, and with a new home that is truly ours, For too long now, we have been in a state of upheaval. Now it is time for settling down.

Settling In

So, here we are. All moved in, almost all unpacked, and... and... and, well, what now? No really, what now?


Well, we went to the kiddie fountain at the park yesterday and rediscovered Harvey's love of water. He ran through them with a fierceness that I have never witnessed in him before. Watching him made me wonder if he was somehow expressing his anxst at all of the changes that have taken place in his life as of late.


Norah is reacting to those changes as well, but in a very different. Hanging close to us at parks and agonizing when I leave the house even for a moment. We are getting through it and we will fall in love with our new city. For now, we are taking it moment to moment.

Summer Days

I am going to miss the seasons when we leave the Northeast. I mean, I really love the summer. I love the year long summer in Texas but I think I may even love the Northeast summer more. Why? Probably because it takes so long to get here, teases you a few times before it arrives, then makes you pay for it in January, February, and March. We have been outside a lot lately.

Yesterday, we went to the Essex County Environmental Center. I have been meaning to take the kids there for months, and one particularly bad morning spurred us into action. It was worth the trip. We took a little walk in the woods, met a little turtle, and saw some fish. Harvey went into his stupor, moved to a trance-like state by the great outdoors. We made some "ravioli" (Norah's word for granola), yogurt and honey with some bark and twigs, we sat quietly waiting for the deer to come, we whined to be picked up and then we went home because this mama can not carry two babies through the woods

My Very Own Summer Bag

Amanda Soule of SouleMama posted the greatest idea the other day--a summer bag (hers is a beach bag) exclusively for mamas! No sand, no diapers, no toys--just mama stuff. This is a truly novel concept and one that I have already adapted for myself. I change the contents of it pretty regularly, but as of today it has the following inside of it:
1. my current mindless knitting project (the Baby Boo Sweater) by Alchemy Yarns of Transformation
2. a video camera--I have been quite intent lately on catching my kiddos at some of their cutest moments
3. summer reading (Healthy Child, Whole Child)
4. an old pair of sunglasses
5. some honey candies if I am lucky
Mine is not exclusively a beach bag as we spend very little time at the beach. I take it to the park, outside in our backyard, on trips to the in-laws, etc... Because this is my bag, I end up carting around two bags for every trip--one for diapers, toys, and general kid stuff and then my own. It is so worth it--there is no spilled milk in my bag, no plastic bags full of dirty diapers, no renegade raisins. I love it. I love my summer bag.
In other news, we have been eating like kings and queens this summer so far. On Friday, when H woke up from his nap, I had this waiting for him on his high chair tray. Hazelnut spread with bananas and raspberries on a dessert crepe from a recipe out of this book. Wow was it good. More time in the kitchen and time in the outdoors to come this week. Happy Sunday.

Sandplay

We have really been enjoying the fruits of summer as of the past couple of weeks--fresh berries, herbs grown in our garden, time in the plastic pool in our backyard. Yesterday we went to Lake Valhalla in the afternoon when the kids woke up from their nap and boy did they have some fun in the sun. Harvey crawled right into the water and stayed there. Norah ran back and forth, exclaiming, "I'm running" all the while.

I thought I would take the time there to get some reading done but it was too much fun to hang out with them in the water. Harvey just loves splashing--gets the biggest kick out of it and Norah, well she just loves life. I have never met a more exuberant child.

I love summer. I love summer. I love summer.

Hot and Sticky

We are in the middle of a scorcher here in the Northeast and I am loving every minute of it--I will be so sad to see the hot days of summer go. It was in the high 90s today and it is going to be like this. Heaven. A true taste of Texas Heaven here in New Jersey. After some significant drama today, we broke out the aeropool and had ourselves some backyard fun. A little beer, some hamburgers, a lot of "running around naked" on Norah's part, some deucing on Harvey's part--fun was had by all.

In other news, I have begun a new knitting project--one that involves a sweater and size three needles. The Baby Boo sweater for a close friend made from an Alchemy Yarns of Transformation pattern. I was initially concerned about the length of time that it would take me to produce the thing (supposed to be a Christmas present), but it is coming along quite well. I am knitting it in the round and making significant progress so I will keep you updated.
Finally, I made myself a simply and tasty dessert last night--one that reminded me so much of my mom that I could cry--strawberries with sour cream and brown sugar. What a treat.

Summer

Please pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease please come fast. I want to go for walks. I want to swing Norah and Harvey in the park. I want to let them roll around in the grass. The tulips will be here soon in Montclair and I bet the bluebonnets are almost out in Texas. No wait, maybe that is May. Anyways, more whining... I want, I want, I want to wear tank tops and 80's cut-off jeans, I want to listen to Janis Joplin, I want to make rocket popsicle thingies. No more mittens, no more.