From dusk till dawn...

I finally tackled the garage. We hadn't unpacked the boxes in there since the move. I've avoided that area because it was too overwhelming to think about. I've lived without everything in there for 9 months, so what could I actually need? However, the time has come. There was much purging to be done. I have huge piles of giveaway boxes waiting on the driveway. That feels so so good. I sent the girls to the playroom with bags instructing them to fill them with donations. I didn't know how well that would fly so I gave them a pep talk about how Mary and Laura Ingalls had only a couple of very special toys and look how happy they were. Look how creative they are in the outdoors, etc. This always works (probably not for too many more years!) and an hour later, they had filled their bags. I had to get the bags out of sight fast so there was no going back. Some other fun things about cleaning the garage were finding some old journals from when I was 9 and 12. Sela loved reading them. Nina was so relieved to find all her dress-ups and that the red glitter shoes now fit her. I can't say it was a super fantastic day, but it was productive and that's a good thing.





When you clean your garage all day, your kids find their own snacks, like this hotdog bun I just noticed when I uploaded the photo!
I'm very good at the taking stuff out part!

Is there anything more precious than a sleeping child?

I have always loved the sight of my little ones sleeping. Their deep breathing, their smiles, their calmness. Rollin has so much energy that we often go to sleep around the same time, which is not early. The long summer days have really changed his sleep habits. He is hyper until 10 o' clock. It wears me out, but he is seriously adorable at night and Zig and I get such a kick out of him. But Daddy isn't home tonight and I was looking forward to some reading and alone time. I tried hard to get the boy down at a decent hour. After several (at least 5) unsuccessful attempts to get little Rollie to sleep, he finally fell asleep in my lap while I was reading to the girls. We all enjoyed snuggling him. Sela and Nina were fascinated watching his facial expressions change while he slept. You could tell he wanted to wake up but he couldn't. When he first fell asleep he was smiling a lot. They were speculating about the dreams he was having. It was so cute to listen to them and just wonderful to be cuddled up together. The reading can wait....

Back to menu planning...

There are quite a few summertime recipes I've been wanting to try with all the wonderful local produce beginning to hit the markets. I finally got myself a little bit organized and did some planning this weekend. I also cleaned out my pantry which is very satisfying. It seems like it needs a little sprucing up every few months. Lots of salads planned for this week because of the heat. Most are new (to me) recipes.

























Sunday: Panzanella, Roasted Halibut, Carmelized corn and peppers, fresh fruit, and lemon muffins.
Monday: Curried Egg Salad, Wild Rice Cherry Soup
Tuesday: Sushi Rice bowls, Strawberry Smoothies
Wednesday: Garlic Soba Noodles and Parmesan Crusted Tofu, Cherries
Thursday: Green Pasta with Fava Beans and Broccoli
Friday: Spring Panzanella (the rest tbd)
Saturday: Homemade Pizzas
Sunday: Spring Wild Rice Salad, Fish

It's heating up around here!

Sunday afternoon we had Dave and Julie and their girls over for dinner. It was a hot afternon with temperatures early in the day reaching 90 degrees. What a shock to the system, going from 60s and 70s to 90 in just a few days. We can now sleep with all the windows open at night and eat outside everyday. Sela is taking very good care of the chicks and goes straight to the barn to refill their food and water each morning as soon as she wakes up. They are growing fast and will be moving to their permanenmt home in a couple more weeks. Yesterday, she named one of chicks Tiffany, after her friend. She said the chick is very beautiful, like Tiffany. Looking ahead, we have a very open week and a forecast of more warm sunny weather. I love summer.



Nina and Natalie disappeared to Natalie's car for an hour and came back with mouths full of gum. Sneaky girls.


Sela and Tiffany


















The chirping in the bush turned out to be a tiny baby bird separated from its mom. It looked to be just a few days old.




Rollin and Nina play together more and more each day.

To the market we go...

I remember riding my bike to a little corner store in the summertime for a cold treat and thinking that was just the greatest adventure. We lived in a couple places where this was possible and often used to do it when we visited Jewel and Paw Paw at the Harlingen Country Club. Today was a really warm day and the kids and I decided to ride to the Redmond Farmer's Market. We started by the wineries in Woodinville and took the rivertrail to Redmond. It was a great workout for me because Nina, Rollin, and all our snacks added some good resistance. The big reward when we arrived hot and sweaty was a shaved ice snowcone. Sela commented on how good the snowcone was and that if we had driven, she would have probably been cold when she ate it. We got a huge bag of sugar snap peas and a pound of rainier cherries for the trip home and headed back. Unfortunately, we got a bit of a late start and it was very hot riding back in the heat of the day. The whole outing took us about 3 hours. Sela is a trooper though and didn't complain even though we were both tired at the end. We stopped a few times under bridges to rest in the shade.

Camp Sela

Sela was an absolutely amazing helper yesterday! Without being asked or prodded, she totally entertained Sam and Nina from dusk till dawn. They made activity books with lists of things they wanted to do and then they did a few. They even copied down a recipe they wanted to make called chocolate truffle heart cookies. With Nina and Sam, you can pretty much guarantee chocolate will be involved. We were missing some ingredients so they had to settle for strawberry muffins.

In the afternoon, they played kickball, decorated rocks and created personalities for them, played horses, and spent hours in the tree that has become a little playhouse. They kept a close watch on the chickies and rode their bikes and snacked on berries. They made a fairy house with little beds of rose petals. Sela led her little campers on a nature walk and they collected all the colors of the rainbow. It was a really rewarding feeling to see her teaching the younger kids some of the same things we have done together. It was nice to have a little break as well.

Unfortunately, with my extra time I attempted to wash the covers to the kids little fruit bean bags. Uh, that took about five hours after one million tiny white weightless balls tumbled all over the floor and somehow ended up in every corner of the house. I would have taken a picture of the disaster, but I was pretty peeved. Mostly because on a nice day where I have tons of productive work to do around here, I had to spend at least five hours of my life dealing with that mess! Oh well, I finally cleaned up the last bit this morning. I mentioned to the kids that I will never ever wash the bean bag covers again so please do not stain them! :)

"friend rocks"

Flower PressingThe largest berry so far(in our small patch)

Orange roses

I can't take credit for this rose bush, but oh my goodness, it is my favorite plant in the whole yard. Located right outside my bedroom window, this rose bush produces the most gorgeous roses in my favorite color. There are so many right now that I have them in vases all over the house. I just checked out a few books from the library this week to learn about caring for roses because I have to make sure I keep this amazing plant thriving!