I Just Can't

 

Tonight while looking at pictures of my dad, I scrolled past this post.

Sometimes looking at one's own blog is a bad idea.

August 2022

I just robbed three of Susannah's photographs so I could have something with which to anchor this post. As you may have guessed, snapshots are scant for August of 2022.  One boon of a broken camera and a busy life-- catching up on blogging has never been easier!

Baby Bumpkin is Assuredly Not a Baby: Millie Turns Twenty

 

Millie let me use her camera to take these pictures on her 20th birthday.
!!!!!!!
What a cute, wee 20-year old Bumpkin she is. ;) 

I'm not sure that Millie knows just how much I love her. She's always been my little, old soul, but she's also always contained a broad streak of sparkly mischief. Now that she's a capable, intelligent, independent young adult, one might think that the streak of mischief has faded.

And one would be dead wrong.

I love that Millie's maturity does not preclude her finding devious delight in blowing out her candle before I can take a picture of the act. She's grinning because I had already re-lit the candle here in an attempt to take a picture. 

Oh, the doe-eyed innocence...

...immediately followed by a smug grin as I yet again fail to capture the magical moment of her blowing out the candle. 

Ah, well. Consider that my birthday present to her.

We had extended company the weekend before and week of Millie's birthday. I have no pictures of any of the Terry or Smeal crews, though. I don't know why. Instead, I have pictures of Millie and food. Solid priorities!


She requested a form of deep-fried potatoes as accompaniment for both her birthday breakfast and her birthday supper, along with chocolate cream pies for dessert. As evening fell, I remember groaning that something needed to change for next year's birthday.  Salads all 'round, everyone!

The wind kept threatening to extinguish Millie's candles before she could. 

But she triumphed. AND SO DID I!!!! Look at that. I caught the magical moment of Millie blowing out her candles. (It helps that there were 20 of them.)
As always and ever and always again, I love you, babe. <3

Annika Wins the Lottery

 

The only other time I picked up the camera was the day after Annika's surgery. After nearly a year of being unable to use her arm for not only the things she loves to do (pushups, gardening, Newbsanity, etc.) but also for everyday chores like dishes and vacuuming, she finally jumped through the right hoops and had surgery for a torn labrum. The surgeon was surprised when he found a massive tear of nearly 60% of her labrum. He hadn't even been certain she needed surgery and performed it based on our assessment of her inabilities. Praise the Lord for a surgeon who listened!

Six months later, due to a skilled surgeon and the faithful care of a skilled physical therapist friend (THANK YOU, TITI!!!!), her shoulder is now back to normal...just in time for her surgery in March on the other shoulder.  <3

Pain from extensive shoulder surgery is consuming and intense. The surgeon warned of this, but one can't really be prepared for pain. Anyway, this is the face of a good-natured girl in pain, recovering from shoulder surgery at home, 

...recovering in the aftermath of her surgery by watching a documentary....

....a documentary about ROCK CLIMBING.   

Ha!  We love this girl.

 

Crummy Photos Phrom the Phone: 8/2022

Blueberry picking.

I took the kiddos swimming quite a few times while the older girls were working. Ransom loves both swimming and swinging, so he was in heaven.  

On an uncomfortably muggy evening when Millie and Annika were gone in the OBX for Poiema, and John was working late at Walmart pushing carts, I had the brilliant idea to use some money I'd just made cleaning an air bnb to take the lonely remainder for ice cream. Brilliant, right?! We went to the closest ice cream shop, and I ordered everyone "smalls." I should have deduced there might be a problem when two different shop employees asked me, "Are you sure you want smalls?!"  

"Why, sure, I do!" I cheerfully declared, thus setting in motion one of many mistakes I've made in my life. 

These were SMALLS.

Just imagine five children from ages ten to 1.5 years, frantically trying to eat mountains of ice cream that are melting faster than they can swallow.  Panic ensued. On top of that, this goofy girl dropped the ice cream off her cone into the parking lot less than a minute after I handed it to her. (I scooped it back onto the cone after wiping off gravel. No harm done, right?)

Another problem. Because I ordered Piper a "medium" before I knew that the "smalls" would be large, I was left with this-- OLDER girls who were also asking me to finish their ice cream as it melted. 

A hundred dry napkins couldn't do the job, so after we left, I pulled over near a stream, and we tramped down a short trail to wash off amid schools of minnows. 

Moving on,  Susannah drove the van a few times before the transmission went. Small girl: huge van: documented.

Right before Annika's surgery, I took everyone to the park, but swimming was closed because of thunder, so instead we went for a hike/run in the woods and were caught in a gorgeous storm: torrential downpour, kind park ranger, and all. Here's Cadence in the parking lot after we got back to the van. Zeke wallowed farther away and longer than anyone else. It was even better than swimming (until that flash of lightning right overhead that made me bellow for him to GET OUT OF THE WATER AND GET IN THE VAN RIGHT NOOOOOW!)

Oh. Here's a picture of a sleeping beauty on her uncomfortable bed.

And that, folks, is August. 

 

July 2022

                           

July burgeoned with all bright things. The flowerbeds erupted with color, and after the previous summer's ceaseless deluge, July of 2022 returned us to a more normal garden season. Some crops failed entirely, others labored to eke out a small bowlful for the table, and still others threw out their chests and grew so mightily that we raced to keep up.

People visit in every season, but in summertime, the gatherings spill over and center outside instead of in. Each summer, I inwardly give thanks dozens of times to Dude and Mom Owen for our patio, the gift that keeps on giving. In July, Susannah (perhaps to her chagrin) had a "proper" celebration of her midwinter birthday, we hosted the Johnson side of the family on a sunny day and met baby Ian, and we hosted the local Owen side for an Independence Day barbecue crowned with Dude's boxful of explosives. 

Right now, in February, July yawns wide with promise. Looking at these pictures, though, I know it'll fill up before I blink twice, with more of the same. It just can't help itself.

*Pip took the pictures of Ransom and rudbeckia and a laughing Nixie; Susannah took those of the clouds and flames and a baby by the chicken fence.

County Fair: 2022

Even though Rundy and Deborah live fairly close, we don't see them as often as we'd like, so the county fair is always a good excuse to spend the bulk of a sunny day with endearing little cousins. 

On our way down the midway, Annika quickly ducked into a tent and got distracted by cowboy hats. 

Then it was on to the tractors, a highlight for small boys.

 

And also for small girls! (Cadence and Aidan matching their outfits to their respective tractors was coincidental.)

Oh, dear. Look, it's another homeschool haircut.

At the fair, tractor-sitting is best followed by cow-watching, or-- in Annika's case-- cow-coveting.

Best buds.  (And unless Aidan starts growing, they'll soon be mistaken for twins.)

Cows make Annika happier than just about anything.

Off to look at and be frightened by other small mammals.

The annual stairstep picture, 2022! Looking back over the years, the number of people we now have to squeeze into the frame makes me happy. I am the luckiest girl.

We then walked through the rides before Deborah had to leave. Tadhg and Pippin fixated on the cars pretty quickly.

Here are too many pictures of them, but only because it was just as much fun to watch them riding as it was for them to ride. They were the happiest children at the fair!

Then Debbie went on the ferris wheel with the boys while I held Marnie.

Pip rode with Lark, and Millie sat with Cadence on the high swings. I was afraid Cadence would panic mid-flight, but she was a champ and grinned through the whole thing.

Elephant ears and selfie time were next on the docket.

Deborah came close to overheating, so a rest in shade was necessary. She was carrying Tessa on the inside and Marnie on the outside, with two little boys in tow. 

Remember how these steps in the grandstand terrified Cadence last year? Seeing Tadhg and Pippin tromp up them without a care in the world bolstered her to make the attempt. 

She looks like a grumpy duck, but that's just the face of a young girl conquering her fears. 

Oliphaunt ears!

...to be shared equally.  Ransom was the stickiest of fans. 

By the time we left the grandstand, I had to call Cadence down. What a girl!

On our way out, we caught a human cannonball act, which made me a bit sad. 

This couple used to perform their act in the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey circus, the very circus whose glory inflamed my youthful dreams for years, but with the slow demise of the American circus, they're now relegated to summer performances in front of a dozen people at the podunk county fair.

For their last hurrah, a few of the children used their own money to go on a second ride. Aidan confidently assured me that he was old enough to go on Cliff Hanger and that he would not be scared. I let him ride it. He was scared. After he disembarked, though, he told me he was going to go on it every single year! Direct quote: "It makes me shake because I'm scared, but then once I get used to it, I'm not scared anymore."

Cadence, Skylark, and I capped off our visit with a ride on the swings-- Cadence's second. She rode in a seat all by herself this time, swinging wide over the fair with all the elbow room she could desire. She loved it, but Lark wasn't too sure of herself, and once we were airborne, I remembered with astonishment that this wild ride swinging us sideways through the blue sky was the restful one I used to find so calming when I was younger. 

Yup. I'm old now.