A Weekend at the Pool

Some of my fondest summer memories from childhood are tied to time at the pool.

To make sure my own children begin building summertime pool memories, we spent the weekend at Matt's mom and stepdad's house hanging out at their pool.

Weekend pool time is a great chance for quality time with Dad!

Matt spent a lot of time teaching one to become more comfortable with the water while throwing the other as high as she could go!

Pool time, especially when it's a home pool, isn't just about swimming. Jack got a chance to understand more of what it takes to care for a pool when his Nanny showed him how to check the chemicals. Even though it's a saltwater pool, there still has to be the right balance.

And when your grandparents live on a golf course, sometimes an evening ride in the golf cart is a perfect end to a near-perfect day.

 Then add in plenty of squirrels, birds and bunnies along the trail to make it even better.

 Nothing says summer like quality time at the pool!

CSA Wednesday

On Wednesday we head to a local farm to pick up produce as part of a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.

There wasn't a pick up last week, but this week's supply more than made up for it.

Here's what we got today:

Cantaloupe

Corn

Eggplant

Leeks - I must admit, I'm not fond of these

Onions galore

Cherry Tomatoes

Eggs

The Tastes of Summer

A year or two ago I was listening to "The Splendid Table" on NPR when the host asked how far one would be willing to travel for that first taste of a ripened summer tomato. 30 miles? 60 miles? 4 hours? 8 hours?

I answered all her questions as if she was sititng right there in the seat next to me. And I answered them all with a resounding YES!

My husband looked at me as if I were crazy. It wasn't the first time.

When I was a child I once developed a nasty rash. My parents believed it was because of the massive amount of tomatoes I had consumed the day before?????

I love, love, love, love fresh tomatoes. Not super market fresh, but just from the garden fresh. The more acidic, the better. Which is why I've been a bit disappointed in the tomatoes I've gotten at the farmer's market so far this summer. They just haven't been acidic enough.

Besides eating them in slices coated with salt and pepper, another way I enjoy them in the summer is in a cucumber salad. I've made at least one cucumber salad a week these past four weeks. It's super easy. Slice a tomato, a cucumber and an onion. Mix them in a large bowl with Kraft Zesty Italian. It's best after sitting in the fridge a few hours.

I also love making BLTs in the summer. I put a new twist on it last week when I fried some green tomatoes and added swiss cheese to my sandwich.

In addition to summer tomatoes, peaches are a big hit in our home. Jack enjoys eating them peeling and all. My favorite way to eat them is in a peach cobbler. I mix a cup of milk, a cup of sugar and a cup of self-rising flour together. I then add the peaches and about 1/2 stick of melted butter and bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes. I got this recipe several years back from the person I buy the peaches from, and it's the easiest and best peach cobbler recipe I've come across.

Last week I used some of the blueberries we recently picked and did a blueberry cobbler the same way. Add a scoop of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream, and you've got yourself a delicious and sweet summer treat.

And now I have a new summer favorite dish to add to my list. Just this past Friday, on the longest day of the year, we enjoyed a carrot dish at a Summer Solistice party. The carrots were thinly sliced and cooked in the oven for about 12 minutes with some butter and a chicken buillon cube. Fresh dill was sprinkled on top after they were removed. It was declicious! I can't wait to try making it myself. I'm thinking of adding a bit of squeezed lemon to my version.

A Bug's Life

This here is our specimen box.

Don't let it fool you. It may look like an ordinary shoe box, but inside we have collected some of the summer's most interesting critters.

Disclaimer: No bugs were harmed during the collection process. All said specimens were deceased at the time of capture!!

Being a self-professed girly-girl, I know nothing about entymology. That is to say, I have no clue what any of these are except for the dead worm.

Jack, and sometimes Mattie, love our bug hunts.

We scoured every inch of this fence and noticed many unusual bugs in green and brown and black. One plank had so many baby spiders I felt a wee bit light-headed.

And this bush has been a flying bee, ladybug, wasp, you-name-it magnet this past week.

The Challenge

I decided to take the Orange Rhino challenge after reading this blogpost on getting the upper hand on an out-of-control temper.

Lisa-Jo's post made me cry.

I can remember a time when Jack was a baby and thinking I would never be able to raise my voice to this precious soul. I wondered what kind of parent could yell at their child.

Now here I am in a place where I don't like who I've become as a mother. For the past six months all I feel like I've been doing is yelling.

So before it gets to the point where my children's memories are of a constantly frazzled and mad mom, I've decided to put the breaks on the yelling.

I've been extra conscious about it the past few days. I've taken some of the rhino's tips about figuring out my pressure points as well as trying to rate my decibel level - as well as my tone.

I'm officially beginning my 365 days of no yelling at my children (I'm going to add my husband into the mix for the heck of it as well) with this post. I'm sure I'll have to start over. I'm even more sure I'll have to start over multiple times.

I just want to tame this beast while there is still time.

Postcrossing

Last week we became postcrossers.

Not sure what that means?

It's a term used to describe those that participate in the activity of postcrossing, a database of people from all over the world who send postcards to each other.

As soon as we officially became postcrossers, we headed to our local art museum to pick out some cards.

Postcrossers are allowed to send five cards at a time. Instead of sending them all in one day, I spread it out throughout the week so that Jack would have something to look forward to each morning.

People in Taiwan, Belarus, Russia, Germany and the Netherlands should hopefully be receiving their cards soon. That all depends on if I got the postage right????

Once our cards are received and recorded by the recipients in the database, we will be eligible to start receiving postcards of our own.

For those interested in the idea, you should check out the postcrossing website.

It's a fun way to learn about geography and to see countries through the eyes of their inhabitants.

Summer Reading with the Children

We started going back to story time at our local library last week.

I say back because Jack and I went almost every week for several years, but stopped after Mattie was born. She had never been until last week. Such as it goes with the second child.

I'm happy to report she loves it, especially the songs!

Almost all libraries around the country have summer reading programs where patrons sign up to read a set number of books for the summer. Ours is no different. Though we participated the last two years in the read-along-with-a-parent category, I decided not to sign Jack up this summer.

I'm one of those people that rushes things. I knew if Jack had a list, even a small one, I'd likely take the joy out of reading by trying to make him move too quickly to the next book.

Instead, we're checking out books at our leisure. I'm letting Mattie get the first one she pulls off the shelf each time. Jack is back into the shark and president books we have checked out soooooo many times before. I'm adding some silly poetry books into the mix.

I also checked out two classics to read aloud. The first one, "Mrs. Piggle Wiggle," may not be considered a classical in the literal sense, but it is to me. I loved reading these stories when I was a child about how Mrs. Piggle Wiggle helped parents teach their children how to behave properly. Now that I'm a parent myself, the complaints of the children throughout the book sound all too familiar.

We began "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" today. I especially like how the writer introducing the book refers to it as "a book for boys." There's already been a fight in the first chapter. If that doesn't ring true to the nature of a lot of boys, I'm not sure what does.