Real Time: Living in the Space-time Vortex

This is what happens when you plant your gardens a month late. A bushel of freshly picked cucumbers finds itself kitchen neighbors with socks, jeans, and a hoodie sweatshirt. This is one year that I'll be happy for the hot kitchen while canning!

Why the Blue Heron

I sat drably in dust while sorting sheaves of garlic innumerable,
My thoughts a litany of what must be done,
When a sudden gasp and hushed command broke through monotony.
The line from her outstretched finger led to the barn
And from there to its peak,
Where a heron stood, calm and aloof like a king.

The moment stretched long, but he a second later stirred--
Slow beating of wings, a wash of blues and grays,
Elegant motion with no need of haste.
He rose above the fretful hens
And sailed over their tedium and care
On an unseen draft of warmth, and I,
One who sees purpose in all things,
Left a part of me there, a dry stalk with garlic at my feet,
Mouth open, eyes tied to him passing overhead.

Real Time: After Coming Home from Church

Today's the last day of summer, and she's pulling out all the stops, dazzling us with heat and sunshine after some cold, fall-ish days. After church, we stopped at the library and broke into a sweat walking two blocks back to the van.

This week I'm switching clothes over-- I am. I REALLY am. Yessir!-- even if I have to give myself a dozen pep talks in order to even start. I'll be packing away sandals and summer frocks, packing away the sunscreen and sunburns, and finally remembering to pack away the photo backdrop from Susannah's party a month ago.

Everything's in order.
I am totally on top of things.

July

High-speed internet hasn't been available on Mount Hunger until this summer. Last week, we switched providers, and we are now the fastest jackrabbits around.

Expect the month of August to appear whenever I sit down to load pictures, which, thanks to high-speed internet, will no longer be a several-day task. Hip, hip!

Oh, and happy September! (We're getting there.)

BFF

I'm sure Ruger's obnoxious delusion that he belongs to us isn't helped by the fact that now when Aidan catches him in the morning, he exclaims, "My Ruger! Good Ruger. My Ruger!" And then they sit down and have a cup of tea together while waiting for Mom to come and pick Ruger up.

Rain, Rain...

...go ahead and stay. 

At least when there are silly munchkins who dress themselves for rainy play.

Good choice. Roomy bathing suit and goggles. You never know when a simple rainfall might morph into a monsoon, right?

And, if the monsoon lasts for years, you might even need all the extra room in that borrowed bathing suit.

Cadence Tests the Waters

Give Me All the Cutting Boards, Please

I saw a cutting board a couple of years ago at a rummage sale that caught my eye. Twenty-five cents for a thick-cut, maple* cutting board?

Yes, please. It was stained and had a burn mark, but the burn mark reminded me of a crescent moon, and I knew it needed a rabbit jumping over it.

It might have taken me two years to actually sand it down and decorate it, but I did it!
And it's my favorite. Also, I've only ever burned on chemically-coated bamboo, because they are the least expensive boards to buy, but the experience is often tedious and frustrating. I found this board a dream. I felt like I was slicing through soft butter.

Give me all the natural cutting boards, please. I will borrow them and return them with decorations. For real. (But, for now, at least, this one's mine.)

* Thanks for the i.d., Matt.  Even though you probably won't ever see this, credit where credit is due.

Walk in a Green Wood

The three big girls left us for a week of Meeting camp, so, in keeping with last year's success, I took the rest of us for a mini-hike, followed by swimming.

I took few snapshots of the walk and none of swimming.

Voila.

Carnival Rides Outside Our Door

It pays to be so enthusiastic about large machinery that you stand on the edge of the lawn and wave each time one rolls slowly past.

One day, someone will stop and ask your mother if he can give you a ride down the road.

And then when he sees the wistfulness of your big brother, he'll chip in another ride for free.

Babies not allowed, sorry.

Texas Key Limes

...made the best Key Lime Pie.  We gobbled it too fast for me to document the actual pie. Oops.
All our thanks to you, Molly!

We're Going to be Bankrupt Soon

I mean, it's not as if we have far to go, and since I now understand why people spend too much money on power tools, it won't be much longer until I buy myself a workshop-full.

Not really.

But I did enjoy working on this little project, about which EVERYONE who's come into even minimal contact with me this summer is thoroughly sick of hearing.

I only let these two help at the very end because I felt guilty for hogging all the fun. Plus, they'd been begging for a couple of hours.

It looked pretty good when it was done,

better yet when the natural wood was painted to match the free painted wood,

and then suddenly didn't look so great as soon as I piled 8 children's-worth of fancy clothes, sweatshirts, jackets, and miscellany thereon.

There. That's better. (And it hasn't looked that good since.)

For those who asked in person, here are the basic plans I adapted to fit our space and needs. I think the designer is like a baker who writes recipes assuming everyone who reads them will know how to bake, but if I, as an amateur, can muddle through, you can, too!

Notes:

I pre-drilled the holes and dipped the screws in wood glue before I used them, hoping for additional stability, and as much as I love the look of the metal industrial piping Ana White used, it's far too expensive. I just used wood dowels and standard pole hardware attached to 2x4 stabilizers flipped on end, which cut the cost significantly. The whole shebang cost me just over $80, and it was worth every penny. (I used a gift card to buy the baskets on top, the baskets on the inside were hand-me-downs, and the white baskets underneath aren't baskets at all. They're re-purposed drawers from a dresser we bought when we only had two children.) 

A Big Hullaballoo: Closet Bedroom, Redux, Part 3

In the month of July, key developments occurred in not just one closet bedroom, but TWO.

For starters, after I spent a couple of months searching for a cheap captain's bed within driving range, John's mom found one for us at a resale shop nearby. Annie had been hoping for a natural look instead of black pressboard or the like, and this fulfilled her expectations to the letter. And then Grandma and Grandpa Owen refused to let us pay for it. Believe me, I tried! I lose every single, stinking time.

Not too sorry a loss, though, eh? Look at that bed. Ahhhhhh.

Look! Drawers!

I told Annika I could make a headboard or bracket shelf for over her bed, and when she showed her room to Aunt Debbie, she excitedly told her that we'd even talked about someday putting in a window so she wouldn't shrivel away without the sight of light and green. A window! If it did happen, though, it wasn't going to be until at least next summer, after I saved some money and figured out how to chop a hole in the side of our house.

Debbie called me the next morning. She'd talked things over with Rundy when she'd arrived home, and he had all the tools because he'd done it before, and would it be okay for him to come the following Saturday to chop a hole in the side of our house?

I thought about it loooooong and hard.

No, I didn't, you sillies! I SAID YES RIGHT AWAY!!!!!!

Six days later, on a blisteringly hot day, Rundy arrived and got to work. Isn't that the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? It was to Annika and I!

We left for an air-conditioned baby shower that afternoon, and when we returned, Rundy had installed Annika's window. (I took this picture the next day after we moved her bed back into place, so you can't see the whole window, but it's a beauty.)

Not only that, but he ALSO cut a hole in Millie's closet bedroom so that she, too, could enjoy the taste of fresh air!

When I tried to pay him for the windows, he turned me down. An anonymous donar (it took me one day to figure out that it was my very own mother!)  had offered to pay for the windows. The 8 hours of labor that resulted in 2 windows, but, thankfully, not heat stroke, he also offered to us as a gift.

I was and am still so overwhelmed by Mom and Rundy's generosity that I have yet to make either of them a thank you card. Seriously, how big of a thank you card can equal windows?! I'm thinking on it...


Then Dude moved in for the day, began the framing, and patched up all the drywall.

 Annika's closet suddenly grew a whole lot bigger! (Guess who else still hasn't received a thank you note.)

And that's the end for the month of July.
Stay tuned for more of this exciting, interminable adventure series!!!!!!!