Our son was born in April, two weeks early.
Very quickly I learned my work had quadrupled, available time had halved, my days began at 430a and by 9p my eyes were closing.
Oh but it's been a fun summer!
In June our sweet daughter turned two. What a wonderful age, two is! So much happens in just a half hour and I can barely catch glimpses on paper to look back on and remember when I get a chance to catch my breath. Her language has skyrocketed, her understanding has doubled, her interests have broadened, her world has grown wider and newer and brighter. She's begun to take an interest in letters and words, so in July we began working through the alphabet, one letter a week. This week we are on K, though we haven't begun yet. I'm keeping it VERY simple, just practicing recognizing it and signing it, completing an activity or two that incorporate the letter, and (if I can think of something) preparing a food that uses the letter. I don't know what I'm going to do with K, but J was jello we made from scratch using the Nourishing Gourmet's recipe. We also go to the library and get books that feature the letter of the week. Isabel can already recognize each letter written and signed, but we're still working on recognizing the sounds of the letters.
In July, she was potty trained. We began introducing the concept waay back in January and kind of half-heartedly encouraged her to use it. One week I decided enough was enough and in three days she was fully potty trained. Not overnight, yet, but naptimes and outings have so far been accident-free. Hooray!
I sewed three dresses for her, including a party dress that is not yet hemmed (though she insists on wearing it out anyway, to such exclusive events as grocery shopping). I also made a doll sling out of a leftover strip of an old sheet. She loves it and it's quite adorable.
And I actually made curtains that look pretty okay and not too sloppy (if you didn't know, curtains are the bane of my existence. without getting too dramatic). It took me two hours to do one window. None of them are hemmed.
And I began a quilt. That's about all I've done with it. It's sitting in my sewing basket with my other projects, basted but not yet quilted.
We painted our kitchen navy blue. Well, truthfully, I asked my husband every weekend if our kitchen was finally going to be painted or what. Sweet guy, he did it and didn't grumble.
I discovered I'm much more governmentally paranoid than I originally thought. More libertarian than I thought. I am all for personal responsibility and individual rights.
And more left-wing than I thought, when it comes to guns. I fully support the second amendment in
theory. In reality, guns terrify me. I've been repeating "guns don't kill people, people do" over and over but it hasn't done much to lessen my fears. How do people get over that? How do mothers allow guns in the house with their children? I can envision an accident happening plainly.
I'm not sure my gun fear is irrational, like my spider fear. That's totally and completely irrational. I'm not afraid of what spiders can do. I'm afraid of what they look like. Stupid, isn't it? I also learned I'm afraid of snakes. This wasn't a fear until there were three different articles in the paper in a four-week span of dangerous (and humongous) snakes escaping their cages and killing babies or slinking through the water system in counties near ours. I shudder just thinking about it. Ugh.
One of the verses I've been working to weave through the fabric of my thinking, since I was 30 weeks pregnant, is II Timothy 1:7: "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."
After our pastor was transferred to another church in June (Methodist), we began attending a new church. So far, I love it. I know being "fed" depends on me and whether I get something out of attending a church service is my responsibility, but when I'm doing all the grasping and nothing is meeting me halfway, I grow tired. And oh, how I've missed deep, real, authentic (buzz word of the millennium) worship. It's like water to the seeds He's sown throughout the week in my own, private worship of my King.
We missed nearly all of the summer fruit picking. It has rained so much this summer. That's good for the plants, but not so much for the pickers. I'm rather disappointed, since I was really hoping to begin canning and stocking and such this year. Maybe next year.......
I've tried, and failed, twice at making yogurt. I've made it once, last year, successfully, but can't seem to do it again and I'm not willing to potentially waste another quart of milk in further attempts. Frustrating, but with yogurt at $2 a quart at the store, I'm okay with it. For now. Maybe I'll look into a yogurt maker.
The month of August was spent beneath a blanket of humidity. And I lamented the fall (literally) of my yeast breads. How do I combat humidity when baking? I've had to give up and buy (ugh) store bread. I'll be happier when drier weather returns. Last weekend, after dinner, we took a walk up to the park near us. For the first time since April our shirts didn't stick to our backs before leaving the front stoop. It was actually pleasant.
I've lost 10 pounds of baby weight. Only 20 more to go.......
Speaking of baby...This summer was spent marvelling at how quickly he's grown! Hugh Kelly is the size of a seven month old. He's four months. He's so long and has such big hands and feet! While I'm sad the babyhood is so quickly passing by, I'm excited to think of the boy and man he's becoming. Watching Isabel grow into herself and the astounding, wonderful things she does has only made me look forward even more to Hugh Kelly's growing, rather than wanting to hold onto the babyhood. Though I do want that, at times. Such kissable baby cheeks!
With my reduced free time and early nights, my time online has become severely limited. I'm finding I'm not actually missing it. With all the trips to the library, I've been getting books for myself, too (you can see what I'm reading in the link at the top of my blog). I'm not sure that's been healthy, though, because I'm the type of reader who is all-consumed by what she's reading and frequently reads to finish her book as quickly as possible, often within a day. Even if I've got three different books going at once. Who needs to vacuum when there's a book to finish? I've been evaluating this and while I know me reading is the greatest example I can set for my children to encourage them to be readers, too (though I hardly need to do anything to encourage Isabel....she sits for 30 minutes at a time looking through her books on her own several times a day), I also want my children to have the example of a productive and busy daily life. Much of our day is spent in "downtime", where I'm reading and Isabel is reading or fiddling with a toy or jumping through the living room or running back and forth across our house in various shoes and outfits. I want to get back into knitting. Anyone know of a fabulous pattern for 3oz of bright pink hand-woven hand-dyed 100% merino wool? How about a simple and easy sock pattern for a first time sock knitter? Do I have to use DPNs for socks, or can I magic loop it with my circulars?
And that brings me to today. It's the day after Labor Day. My in-laws have gone home after their weekend trip to see us. The house is (slowly) getting cleaned up from an enjoyable visit. It's time for a new season to begin. I'll miss summer but I'm looking forward to fall. I wonder what we'll do this season. What are you doing this fall?
