Naomi has carefully explained to Simeon that “rush hour” means the time when cars can go fast on the freeway, since there aren’t many cars. When there are lots of cars, it’s called…I can’t remember the whole name, but “traffical hour” is in there.
Simeon has picked this up quite easily, and will happily tell Naomi, “It’s rush hour, Naomi!” as we’re sailing down the freeway.
It’s too cute to disabuse either of them of this idea. Besides, it does make more sense their way.
was yesterday. Despite the forecast for RAIN, RAIN, RAIN, both Thursday and Friday had a significant amount of sun. And only a small amount of rain. So we went to the farmer’s market downtown and had some good fun. Salmon, rhubarb, strawberries, beef jerky (one of these things is not like the others…). The salmon is Copper River salmon, which only has a season of about three weeks and is totally delicious – more so even than other salmon. It always comes around Michael’s birthday, which he doesn’t mind. In the market is a fishmonger where they throw the fish, and we got to see our salmon thrown. The kids were most impressed.
Then we went and picked up the rest of the straw for our garden. More on that in a different post. I’m trying out a different technique. Then we came home and had Quiet Time and proceeded to spend most of the afternoon outside enjoying the beautiful weather. And spreading more compost, since the pile is depleted, but still there. We’re nearly done, though, and I got a whole bunch of stuff planted Thursday! More to go, but this spring has been so cold that it hasn’t seemed like a good idea to try putting things out early.
Yesterday evening we had friends over to help us eat some of the salmon. That was a lot of fun, and the kids all heartily enjoyed the salmon. (I was realizing that, since I grew up in Texas, I hadn’t had salmon until much later in life. It’s just not a Texas fish.) It was great to see our friends – they are a lot of fun, and our kids do well together, too. Prepping dinner on a weeknight with Michael home is really a breeze, particularly if he’s grilling most of the food.
The kids are definitely enjoying long hours of each day spent outdoors. Naomi spent quite a while practicing biking uphill – the large hill next to our house – yesterday. And then she spent some time practicing biking up our driveway, which is even steeper. The girls also cleaned off the plastic table for Michael, which involved the hose, so was totally fun. Simeon did a lot of digging, whether in the compost bed or in the hole in the garden that I let them make, he didn’t care much. Needless to say, he was pretty dirty by the end of the day – the sign of time well spent, as far as he’s concerned.
Staycation continues to be fun and both productive and relaxing.
Michael here. I don’t know if we’ll keep this up daily, but here’s a quick note on day 2: The Day of Three Contractors.
First, the Door Works mechanic arrived to install a garage door opener for our garage:
I think I’ve wanted a garage door opener for that garage since we moved in, and we started the project of getting electricity out to the garage almost 2 years ago (July ‘09). I was very happy to finally see the garage door opening on its own this morning.
While the mechanic was at work, the second contractor arrived: well, a deliveryman, actually, with 3 cubic yards of compost for our garden. The kids were delighted to see it dumped on our front walk and spent hours playing king of the mountain on a pile of pit-washed dairy manure. I reminded them what that pile actually was. They told me that it was a tradition to jump on it anyway.
While we were shoveling, the third contractor arrived from Roto-Rooter. Nothing was actually wrong: we just wanted to do preventative maintenance. The cleaning went very well: he said the pipe looked great and will hopefully be good for many years. He was fast, too: he came and went before the garage door mechanic was finished.
So, three contractors had come and gone by 11:00. We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon working in the garden, taking compost to various spots, pulling weeds, chatting with the neighbors, and so forth. The girls had their last choir rehearsal of the school year, and then dinner was provided by our favorite little Italian joint. It was a golden day – the kids were happy to be playing out of doors, and we were happy to get so much done on our house!
At dinner tonight, we were discussing a particular pastry that the kids wanted to make. They were distressed that we didn’t have a recipe for it, and Monica replied that we could certainly look up a recipe for it online.
Hannah remarked, “I’m glad we have a computer and don’t have to use our wits like people in Daddy’s time did.”
I couldn’t stop laughing – that quote works on so many levels.
Michael’s taken some time off, and we’re staying home and doing things around our area. And, to tell the truth, around the house. Of course, the forecast is RAIN, RAIN, RAIN. Oh, well. Last week we had a whole bunch of nice weather, so I shouldn’t complain.
This morning, Michael took the kids to our local science museum. They had a great time. Lots of experiences to relate, funny stories to tell, and a butterfly landed on Simeon! It sounded like a lot of fun, and they saw just about the whole museum.
I spent the morning creating a big mess. And also some pickled asparagus.
It looks a little scary, doesn’t it? I’ll keep you posted on how it actually tastes.
This afternoon, after naps and quiet time, the kids and Michael did Dada’s legos, which is always a big treat. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, it’s a whole lot of fun. I think they played legos for two hours straight. And while they did, I made a dress for Hannah. We were all creating things together in the dining room, which made for a pleasant afternoon of family togetherness.
I’m optimistic that summer may actually come some day. And when it does, Hannah will need some clothes. Naomi gets lots of great hand-me-downs, so even though I’m sure I’ll buy and make things for her, I’m a bit more concerned about having some clothes for Hannah to wear. She was highly enthusiastic about this dress, which was gratifying. And it was a really simple pattern, so I put it together today! I foresee that this will be a popular pattern for some more summer clothes…
Most mornings since the institution of morning bike ride in our household have not been rainy. Some have been downright pretty. If I had been on my game, I would have brought the camera along on one of those rides. However, “on my game” is not an expression that can be used for me before…probably 9 a.m. (sometimes later), so I of course did not bring my camera on a sunny day. I DID bring it on a non-rainy morning, though, so that you could see some of the fun.
Some of you may be asking yourselves: “Isn’t Monica pregnant? Like, 27 weeks pregnant? Aren’t pregnant women supposed to avoid balance activities like biking?” Yes, yes, and YES! So here’s how we solve that dilemma:
It’s a recumbent tricycle. I got it on craigslist last summer, and have really, really enjoyed it. And you can see that we can attach the burly cart to the back for Sim, who rides a tricycle (but a kids’ one), so can’t keep up with the bigger bikes yet.
How thrilled is everyone to be going on a bike ride? Naomi has a bell toy that she keeps in the garage, and she rings it as I back out the burly/trike combination. This is something like the beeping that large trucks do when they’re backing up. Naomi says it tells people that I’m coming. On this particular ride, Sim brought along a maraca so he could join in the fun.
This one is the most enthusiastic biker every morning. As long as we remember to put her hair in a low ponytail so that it doesn’t get all in her face. Nothing so annoying as hair in your face as you bike!
Sim sometimes likes to get some running in beforehand, since it’s mostly fresh air for him, not so much exercise, since…
…he’s in the burly. This particular morning, he still has a maraca so that he can provide musical diversion as we go up the hills.
Here’s my view for most of the ride.
Although, of course, sometimes they’re much farther up the road than I am. I didn’t manage to get one of them standing on their pedals, but I’ll see what I can do sometime soon. But the pink and purple with streamers really cracks me up. Sim and I are much less pastel.
Last week we went over to the new wetlands that had been put in about a year ago at a local park. It was lots of fun.
It was chilly, and it had rained recently, so we were all bundled and booted. The hats weren’t really necessary, since it wasn’t really COLD, but Naomi wanted one to keep her hair back, and Simeon…just wanted one.
There are many fascinating things at the wetlands.
Some of them get into our shoes. Each of the kids had a shoe-emptying stop.
Naomi is our star dandelion picker this year. We go about and pick them so that they don’t go to seed (although we’ve fallen down on the job this week). She recently made $10 picking dandelions for the local aunt and uncle. They pay more per dandelion than we do, and didn’t realize what a very dedicated dandelion picker they’d hired. She was really impressed with the size of this one. We didn’t pick it, though. You know, take only pictures, leave only footprints.
Hannah brought her nature book and wanted to sketch.
I imagine that, once the small things that are planted on the perimeter grow up, a photo from this angle will look very different.
The kids all appreciated the logs placed strategically around.
You wouldn’t guess we’re in the middle of the city, would you?
Fallen logs = comfy nap spots.
Now, imagine lots and LOTS of duck pictures. Here’s just one, a representative of the ones the kids wanted me to take of every duck we saw. We saw more than 22 ducks (carefully documented by Hannah), so I’m not including all the pictures I took. Oh, and we also saw (and heard) a redwing blackbird. But the picture I took of him was not remotely close enough to show him in this format. We also saw a flicker, as well as the hole in a large snag (standing dead tree) that was probably its home. And there were all kinds of sparrows swooping and darting about.
Did I mention the kids enjoyed the logs?
The log climbing reminds me that Michael and the local aunt recently taught the children the Log Song.
They learned it while they were making the wood pile from the wood that was left after the cherry trees came down.
I had heard it vaguely sometime in the past, but hadn’t remembered it.
Now, thanks to Michael and my sister, I can hear it playing in my head as the children play on the logs.
“It’s log, it’s log, it’s big, it’s heavy, it’s wood!”
“Everyone wants a log. Come on and get your log.”
And Sim collected large pieces of gravel. Which I made him leave on the path before we went back to the car. You know, take only pictures, leave only footprints.
The kids were very interested in the wildlife.
And the logs.
It was gratifying to have them hold still to hear the redwing blackbird, or cheer when the swallows came swooping close to them, or notice small details of nature.
Nobody wanted to get in the car to go home, but we’ll get to go back again soon.
We had a great time there. It was pleasant and peaceful and natural and 8 minutes’ drive from our house.
