Good Things, May 2010

More 30-Day Shred with Jemma;

sprinkler pool time;

Jemma's last, triumphant day of gymnastics;

"Ta-daaaaaa!";

much-loved Miss Shannon;

popsicles in the afternoon;

these perfect salted caramels;

going for a fast run around the lake at twilight, coming home to this sky, and drinking beer in the driveway with neighbors until it was completely dark last night;

bathing suits on doorknobs; two days this week at the beach with the girls; one last, sunny beach weekend at the cottage before our renter takes it over for the summer.

Kicking Off Summer

Sometimes, when the forecast is for 88 degrees and sunshine, it would be insane not to pack the kids up in the car and drive directly to the nearest large body of water.

So today we did. Jemma ta-da'ed her way through her last, victorious gymnastics class (complete with medal), and then we grabbed some new sand toys at Target (because ours are still in South Haven and, well, you can never have too many sand toys). We stopped home to make picnic lunches and pack a beach bag, picked up Annie from school, and we were off.

The girls ate their pb&js and bananas on the way there, finishing just as we pulled into the parking lot. Sunscreen-slathering, beach-gear-carrying, perfect-spot-picking, and we were there, at water's edge. For three hours, we dug holes, caught ladybugs, swam in the freezing cold water, ate fruity snacks, buried our legs, made sandcastles, and generally felt lucky to have a whole Tuesday afternoon to waste away in the sunshine.

The girls slowly - sloooooowly! - helped me drag everything back to the car. We got in, sandy and sticky, blasted the AC and turned on a movie, and drove through Starbucks for frappuccinos for the ride home. Perfection.

What's New, List-Style

• In-laws were here for the weekend. Projects we accomplished included: installing a new ceiling fan, wiring and installing new outdoor sconces, putting up shelves in the garage, building and staining a new windowbox, and putting the rest of the garden in. And by "we," I actually mean "my father-in-law," who did all but the garden work.
• About the garden: our efforts this year include lettuce, spinach, two types of cherry tomatoes, some romas, red and yellow peppers, eggplant, green beans, carrots, snap peas, shallots, and a windowbox full of herbs. We ate some of the lettuce in a salad for dinner tonight.
• Our second year as members of the Trillium Haven CSA began yesterday with the open house. We went, we brought pulled pork, we drummed, we ate, we played, we looked at fields, we sweated, we watched Jemma refuse to eat a single thing other than fruit, we left. Bring on the kale!
• We are going to Jamaica! In nine months! After two years in a row of February vacations in Florida that involved frost and wind and very little beach or pool time, we are stepping it up a notch and going a little farther south. There are nannies there. They do your laundry. I think it is going to be fairly awesome (in nine months).
• We turned our air conditioning on for the first time this year, and today it was so hot that we were playing in the sprinkler pool/running through a sprinkler/eating meals outside except for 1.5 hours in the middle of the day for quiet time. As long as it continues to be 88 and sunny, I'm determined to make it to the beach at least once this week!
• I fell last week while I was running (not ON anything, just tripped on my own self while running around the lake on the paved path I run at least three times a week) and got a horrible "bleeding boo-boo" on my knee. I put a hole in my new favorite running capris, and now I have a giant scab on my left knee, which Jemma must touch several times a day while asking, "Is it still crusty?"
• Jemma has her last Gymco class of the year tomorrow morning. I am sad! Gymnastics (first the parent-child participation class, then the three-year-old class that she transitioned into and cried about for the first few weeks) was really the very first activity that she and I did together outside of the house, and I can't believe that it's over, that she's moving on to preschool in the fall. Tomorrow, I get to go in the gym and watch her do all her "tricky moves" and take her picture and watch. She has already requested that I wear my hair in a ponytail.

That's it around here on May 24, 2010. Now I'm off to read The Book Thief in my air-conditioned bed and await my husband, who has promised to bring me something cold from Jersey Junction when he returns home tonight.

Cocktail Hour

I call this "Thank Goodness My Kids Are Briefly at Other People's Houses So I Can Make Dinner Without Anyone Talking to Me."

It's been one of those days. Cheers!

Say Yes to the Cake

For no reason at all that I know, Annie and Jemma conspired early yesterday morning to ask me if we could bake a cake. It was even before Annie went to school that she asked, "Mom? When I get home from school today, can we make a cake? Pleeeeeeassssseeee?" They gathered around my legs as I poured milk and packed snacks in a backpack, beseeching.

Making a cake was not really in the plans for yesterday. Plans included: unpacking from our weekend in South Haven, laundry, groceries, 30-Day Shred, Meatless Monday dinner-making, and multiple phone calls and e-mails to try to figure out when our school district's February break will be in 2011 plus the accompanying research and decision-making about where we might go. But. My New Year's resolution was to say "yes" more, so I agreed.

They really did make the cake with very little guidance from me. Of course, it takes about twenty times longer with them "helping" - Jemma perched on the counter, dumping in measuring cups full of flour or sugar or spoonfuls of vanilla, Annie standing on a chair to zest the orange and crack the eggs into a bowl - but their pride makes it worth the extra effort. They love to watch the mixer spin around and churn their ingredients into batter; they love to stand and peer into the oven to watch the cakes rise and brown. I hope they have memories of this - of simple May afternoons when we played freeze tag outside and the house smelled like cake cooling on the counter when we came back in.

Just before dinnertime, Annie supervised the whipping of the cream for the frosting, Jemma washed the strawberries, and I put on the finishing touches just as Jason walked in the door. (If that isn't as 1950's housewife as it gets, I don't know what is.) We ate big, thick slices of it after dinner, then carried a big hunk to a neighbor and another chunk to welcome friends to town, and this is all that's left.

Four Days

Three Conversations with Annie

Me: What's stinky in here?

Annie: NOTHING. (Giggle.)

Me: Did you toot?

Annie: NOOOOOOO!

Me: (skeptical look)

Annie: Well, I tooted way over there, but it maybe flew after me and now it's in here with me.

***

Annie: God could do anything.

Me: Yep.

Annie: Like, anything he wants to do.

Me: Yep.

Annie: I mean, God could turn that car into a big mud puddle! Or make it so he could bite someone's finger off but it wouldn't hurt them.

Me: Um, . . . . ?

***

Annie: Did you see that flag at that house? Was it halfway down?

Me: I didn't see it.

Annie: Daddy said if a flag is halfway down, it means someone is dying. Is someone dying at their house? Did someone die there? Daddy said that, one time when we were at the pretty place by the sea monster.

Me: I actually have no idea what you are talking about.

Annie: You KNOW, The Pretty Place.

Me: Where is The Pretty Place?

Annie: Where we go with the fountains and the coffee shop and the sea monster in the river.

Me: The Amway Grand Plaza?

Annie: Yes! So, did someone DIE?