Monthly Archives: July 2011

yikes

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The title of this post might more aptly be called “anxious” or maybe “worried” or during a few choice moments every day, “terrified.” I know people have more than one child every single day and still others have many more than just one child (take, for example, The Mom across the street with 13!) But lately just having ONE (feisty! strong-willed!) child seems like a lot. Today marks the 27th week, which means I’m really getting into the third trimester now. This also means that there are only about three months (plus some pocket change?) left until we welcome another little birdie to our nest. Yikes!

I’m not really worried about taking care of the new baby (although I should probably add that to the worry list, ahem) or even much about labor & delivery. Been there, done that… I’m mostly worried about, well, everything else. How will I have enough love for another child? How will I keep Wren from killing the new baby when she realizes it isn’t going away? How will I find time to continue my work? How will I be able to make healthy meals and keep the house in a *reasonable* state? How will I ever have time for Chris again? How will I go to the grocery store or run an errand with a baby attached to me and a toddler running for the hills?

Again, I know people do it all the time, but I just can’t really picture how it’s all going to look and feel. I guess this is part of the wonder and mystery of life’s unknowns. The unknowns that keep life interesting, worth getting up in the morning for. Good intentions go a long way, right? Say yes, please.

In the meantime, I’m nesting. It helps to devote the worried energy to practical things, no? I decided we just needed to paint the house right now because I couldn’t take the peeling paint anymore. Great timing, ha! Truth be told, I’m just trying out paint colors on the back of the house, but the process has begun. I’ve also been organizing and reorganizing the little birdie’s toys in some new-to-us bins that I found on Craigslist (thank you, stranger!) Already, she’s discovered toys that had been buried at the bottom of the old bins. It was totally worth it. On the cooking front, I made a big pot of split pea soup the other day. You know you have a pregnant brain when it’s 87 and humid and you decide that cooking a big pot of split pea soup sounds like a good idea. Yeah. I also made a huge batch of homemade granola bars in an effort to have healthier, not-from-a-bag snacks on hand. So it feels good to be creating things, cooking healthy meals, focusing on what we have control over now because I know pretty soon it will all be thrown up into the air. And hopefully some of it will be caught.

Have any tips, lovelies? Please and thank you.

thorough

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At first I was a bit annoyed that the little birdie emptied out all the raisin boxes, but she was just so proud of her work. And when I thought about it for a minute, I too was proud. She opened up all the boxes, emptied them out into her little pan and (eventually) put the boxes in the recycling bin. At least she’s thorough! She might even have eaten a few along the way. A few.

How’s your week going, lovelies?

the jungle

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It doesn’t seem to matter what I do OR neglect to do. My garden seems to turn into a jungle, a tangled mess of green stuff. Last year, I overplanted two small beds. This year, we expanded the garden to take up half the back yard and I actually followed the directions on spacing the seeds and starts that I bought. I only bought four tiny tomato plants, but I’ve lost count of how many we actually have growing now in the garden because at least a couple dozen have sprouted from last year’s compost that we mixed into the soil.

And it’s not just a tomato jungle. See that pumpkin plant? I did not intentionally plant it either, but it’s taken over the south half of the garden. You have to be careful when standing near the garden that its curly tendrils don’t quickly wrap their sticky, prickly selves around your limbs. We have to keep retraining the pumpkin plant to stay in the garden or else it would probably spread across the lawn and happily find its way to the hammock twenty feet away. Crazy stuff! And the weeds? Sigh. They’re back. But you knew that would happen, right?

While the heat wave of 2011 has not mixed well with my psyche and growing belly (and butt), the garden seems to be absolutely thrilled. So at least one of us is happy with it.

How’s your garden growing this year, lovelies? What have you been able to harvest where you live?

farmer’s market bounty

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The little birdie and I had a blast at yesterday’s Traverse City farmer’s market, which is open on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. Although it’s smaller, I prefer the Wednesday market because it’s not as crowded. As you can see, we loaded up on mid-summer’s bounty.

We were pleasantly surprised to find a quart of local strawberries because that’s all Wren could talk about on the walk downtown and I didn’t want to disappoint her by telling her there wouldn’t be any so I just kept saying, “what about cherries? I bet we can find some delicious cherries…” But we DID find some strawberries (actually Wren saw them first!) and they’re the best we’ve had all summer. Like little candied jewels.

I was happy to find some pickling cukes because we just ran out of the huge batch we made last fall and it doesn’t seem right to have an outdoor summer meal without that pickled crunch.

And the blueberries! I’m not a huge fan of blueberries hidden in pies, but a fresh, flowery blueberry? Yes, please and thank you.

To round out our color palette and crisper drawer, we grabbed some of the season’s first apricots, a quart of beans and, of course, cherries. You can’t live through summer in northern Michigan and not have a constant supply of fresh cherries, right?

Speaking (err, writing) or summer in northern Michigan… have you seen the article in Bon Appetit about Mario Batali and his love affair with the food, people and land/waterscape of northern Michigan? “Traverse City is the antidote to New York City.” Woah. Click here to read it. 

keeping up with the boys

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The little birdie’s older boy cousins are in the area for about a month and she has been working hard at keeping up with them. I love that she doesn’t realize that she’s smaller and younger AND a girl. She just wants to do what they’re doing: “Wren’s turn NOW!” I also love that being a boy or a girl means nothing yet and doesn’t determine what you should be doing or saying or wearing or role-playing. It’s just good ole kiddo summer fun: playing in the water, fishing, eating watermelon, lying in the hammock. Aah, to be a kid again…

matching

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The little birdie is really into noticing when things are “the same” right now so she was thrilled when I suggested we wear “matching” dresses and flip-flops this past weekend. A photo of us together is rare (Moms take most pictures, no?) so I was glad Chris captured the moment for us. Almost 26 weeks along and the little birdie is almost 26 months, woah.

Click on

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How did it already get to be the middle of July? Whew. We’ve been making sand castles, visiting with friends and family, tackling a mountain of work, playing in the back yard, going to festivals, listening to live music, eating lots of frozen confections, watching the garden grow and trying to work in some lazy moments too. And summer zooms on by!

Have anything fun planned for the weekend? More grilled pizzas are on the docket for us tonight, mmmm. Here’s wishing you a weekend full of lazy summer moments! And a few places for you to click on over to, in case you find yourself in front of the ole lapper-topper….

  • I love me some trifle so when I saw this idea for mini to-go trifles, my heart just about skipped a beat. Too bad our fresh raspberries/cherries/blueberries just don’t stick around long enough for me to concoct a special dessert for them…
  • I quick-pickled the last of our radishes using this easy-peasy recipe. I think it’s my new favorite way to munch on the spicy little guys. And it allowed me to check something off my summer list. Yessss.
  • Did you see Charlotte’s rainbow party? Complete with milk shots and a colored sprinkle rim? Gasp!
  • Love maps and old globes? Yeah, me too. This round-up of map decor in kids rooms via Ohdeedoh is fantastic.
  • Dear Melissa is pushing me to pick up a new hobby: knitting! What do you think, lovelies? Can I do it?
Enjoy!