Friday, June 04, 2010

summer kick off

summer is off to a great start. almost every morning the kids and/or i go outside with a bowl and collect mulberries from the trees then we mix them with yogurt or swirl them up in a smoothie or just eat them as-is. manna from heaven right in my backyard folks. then we go for walks or the kids play in the clubhouse david built for them under the big tree in the back. i weed and water and play the kids some records to keep them moving and not badgering me about turning on the tv. i must say the record player is invaluable in that sense. who needs tv when you can have a dance party in the living room?

speaking of living room, the air conditioner has been fixed so we are all sleeping in our beds and not in "the cave" in the living room. the mattresses have been moved back upstairs and as much as i thought the process of sleeping all in a big pile a la where the wild things are was annoying, the first night back to normal felt kind of of a letdown. but the air is on when we need it so business as usual.

gardening is in full swing, naturally. it's funny how you forget how hot the summer is and how much you sweat until you're outside doing it again. at which point i am like WHY DO I DO THIS? but then i get back in and plop down, take a long drag on my ice tea and it just melts away until next time. i weeded for about an hour today at the shared garden with maggie and austin. lugged around tires to add to the potato stacks, thinned out the ever expanding raspberry canes (gah i can't believe we've never thinned these before!), etc. the kids sat in the shade watching a movie on the computer. outdoor experience FAIL/gardening time WIN! the beans are looking great and i can't wait for them to get in mah belly. tomatoes are getting tall, raspberries are on their way, harvested some strawberries here and there. honestly we can't seem to grow them very successfully though. we've planted a few dozen plants over the last 3 yrs and they either are whimpy, dead, or flavorless in their production. i think we've agreed to give em one more year before scraping them and moving on. i've come to the conclusion that i can't not grow things everywhere i go. remember the sequence in fight club where ed norton is surveying his apartment and mentally filling it with items from an ikea-like catalog? that is absolutely what my brain does when i see open spaces but with a garden instead of furniture. when we moved here i imagined a container garden and POOF here it is. even though we already share a very sizable garden with friends (+1000 sq/ft) and even though we now help tend a community garden (~4000 sq feet?). nope, still must grow things here at the apartment too.

also we've started a new thing at our house where every night david reads aloud to us for about 30-45 minutes. we just finished book one of the spiderwick chronicles, picking up the second and third books today. then next we're going to tackle the narnia books. if you guys have any suggestions for child-friendly novels please let me know.

finally, guys i've got a problem. a period piece problem. i can't stop! ive gone off on a jane austen bender and i can't seem to consume anything else. though i admit i've got to spend some time with my sparkly vampire friends again soon to prep for the june 30th release of eclipse. but anyways i'm pretty much not watching or reading much of anything besides period love dramas right now - sense and sensibility, pride and prejudice, becoming jane, brideshead revisited, etc. HURTS SO GOOD!

9 comments:

Heather said...

My kids love The Boxcar children series as well as the Captain Underpants series, and diary of a wimpy kid they may be a little old for your kids? Not sure what they are into. Also the Judy Blume series starting with Tales or a Fourth Grade Nothing, there are 5 books about Peter and his little brother Fudge and his nemesis Sheila. funny reads!

Amy said...

Have you seen "Much Ado About Nothing"? Swoon. My favorite! Also, Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea are beautiful, wholesome movies.

tara said...

you like this.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/48659515/mr-darcy-proposal-mug?ref=recently_listed_items

Mandy said...

Wind in the Willows.....love that one!!

Jenny Hoffman said...

I feel your pain/pleasure about the period love dramas. Its hard to stop. Have you read Anna Karenina? Maybe the best piece of period fiction EVER. I GUARANTEE if you read it, your bender will come to an end because its so juicy and so long (500 pages?) you will have had your fill. Check it out if you haven't!
Oh, and the strawberry patch thing...my strawberries are ever-bearing Ozark Beauties. I thought they would be the better choice because they're supposed to produce a few berries every day- NOT. They're spindly and don't make as many berries as I had hoped. I might try a june bearing variety next year. I figure it would be better to have a flush of delicious berries the second week of June and be done with it, than be waiting in disappointment all summer long! As far as flavor goes, I've heard adding a bit of sugar to the watering can will make the berries sweeter.
Glad your a/c is fixed! Aren't we spoiled! LOL

Anonymous said...

Oh! you must watch "Lost in Austen"! It's a British mini-series. If you have netflix, it's a watch instantly. Lots of fun!

Child friendly novels- we go through lots of those around here. Have you tried Pippi Longstocking? My kids LOVE that one! Wind in the Willows, Little house series, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Alice in Wonderland, EB White books, Boxcar Children. That's a good start!

anne marie said...

i should get a record player for my kids, too. but i've been thinking about letting them learn how to play at least one musical instrument. http://learntoplayviolinnow.com/learn-how-to-play-theviolin-the-easy-way

Deanna said...

When I am in those Austen moments (I know what you mean), I have gone to the Library and borrowed Wives and Daughters, North and South (not the western), and Cranford. It will feed your habit. All movies based on books by Elizabeth Gaskell. I love them almost as much (dare I say it) as Jane Austen.

Rachel said...

Calvin Coconut series!