New Ink

Last year, I took my Mama to Vegas to fulfill a promise I made 9 years prior: to take her to see Le Reve. It was a great trip, and we were not disappointed. This year she has retired, and as we were chatting about the first summer of her retirement she asked where we were going- or what we were going to do- for our summer 'thing' this time around.

Welllll, I thought Vegas would be hard to top... so I cheekily suggested we go get tattoos... and she said OK. 

For about 6 months we researched art and designs for our tattoos, shops and artists, costs and risks... then I found a really cool local shop filled with real artists, so in April I put down deposits for our sessions, and just like that we were committed.

Yesterday was our day.

I'm proud to say that neither of us chickened out, and 24 hours later neither of us have regrets.

Mom went first:

She made it look so easy. No flinching, not even a twitch for the whole two hours it took to finish her 'Moon Snail.' So I felt pretty good going in to mine...

My turn:

Mine took right at an hour, and most of it wasn't bad... except for the very top where it was over my ribs a little. That part I was glad to have over let's say.

We both came away loving what our artist did, and will go back at the end of August for a final touch-up after everything heals (colors fade during the healing process, and I want a little more light showing through the top petal edges).

It's easy to see why people say tattoos are addictive... I'd definitely think about a second one if a meaningful reason came up... just not any time soon.

Not sure what we'll do next summer, but for this year's 'thing,' we're lovin' our new ink!

The World of My Littles

Audrey kicked off her morning today with a request for fresh batteries in her camera... she then spent over an hour with her Bubba outside taking pictures. When they came in she proudly announced her camera memory was full, and insisted we upload them immediately and take a look at her work.

There were 206 photos and videos.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand so we did, with her recapping what was being done/ being said/ being smelled in each one (I'll spare you the details, because after all the photo is supposed to tell the story). Here's a little peek into their morning photo session:

 Each time I get to see what they see, unedited and uninfluenced, it feels like such a thrill... it's like having a peek at something forbidden and mysterious... the world of my Littles through their eyes, through their lenses. It's pretty cool.

Little Campers :: Nature/Solstice Project

Happy Summer Solstice! Today for our Little Campers session, we blended some of our well-loved family solstice activities with our weekly LC activity: we took a nature walk to gather summer flowers, we talked about the tradition of the Solstice and how important science and asking questions are...

...we made blackberry lemonade...

...and then with our bevs within reach we broke out the beads and pipe cleaners and made some firey-colored solstice ornaments!

 

The ornaments we made in this session will double as our Nature/Solstice Badges.

Side note: As you may know from past blog posts (like this one and this one), we choose to incorporate nontraditional holidays- like the solstices- into our family rhythm to preserve the meaning and the sacred in the why behind what we do day to day. As a family, we truly believe that an ethnocentric existence robs one of the richness that is the human experience. Our gracious friends joined in for the fun of it, and we had a great time! 

Next up: First Aid!

Last time: Gardening Project

Weekending

This weekend, we...

...woke up early on Saturday morning to greet the sprinkler guys, made some scrambled eggs and coffee, and packed up the car for a trip to the annual company picnic.
...ate BBQ, played outside in bathing suits with new friends, and returned home to a completely irrigated garden (so exciting!).
...took the fastest mid-afternoon showers ever and hit the road again to visit a new-to-us hole-in-the-wall Latin taco joint (and it was good). We tried two kinds of empanadas, barbacoa, guava-melon agua fresca, fresh plantain chips, and cinnamon-chocolate paletas, among other things.
...woke up early once again on Sunday, snuck out of the house for our traditional Father's Day doughnut run, and then returned to shower Daddy with presents and hugs and appreciation for all he does for us. The kiddos gave him portraits they painted of him, and we also gave him a new pair of house shoes to replace the pair he's completely worn out.
...spent the rest of Sunday lazing around the house reading books, rediscovering old toys, and playing a little Minecraft, all in the name of avoiding the heat and humidity.
...wrapped up Father's Day with a big dinner, early bath times, and cartoons in bed.

This weekend we spent our time celebrating the man in our family who works so hard to take such good care of us, all the while thinking of our own dads who did the same for us while we were growing up. 'Thankful' doesn't even begin to describe our weekend vibes.

But we are. We are so thankful.

Happy Monday, may we strive to keep in mind all we have to be thankful for!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, dad. You're the best. Really.

Hibernation

This week has been the first week of the season with a heat index of 100 or higher every day. This makes it extremely hard to be outside doing the things we love, and it marks the beginning of the downhill spiral for all our plants and flowers.

It's been hot, y'all. There really is something to be said about "dry heat." This ain't that.

Predictably, we've withdrawn into our sheltered, shaded, air-conditioned spaces, and just as predictably I've started eyeballing the nooks and crannies around the house that have fallen into chaos and disorder. My kitchen pantry caught my full attention today.

In the last few days (with the help of the steroids), I've canned four quarts of chicken stock and 27 1/2 pints of homemade jellies.

Yes, I said twenty-seven and a half.

But when it was time to put my lovely jeweled jars away on their shelf, I found there just wasn't any room.

Exhibit A:

So this afternoon I tackled the clearing of the shelves with vigor and actually got the kids to pitch in! In purging the expired pantry items (we had a jar of Nutella that expired the Christmas after Henry was born!) and gathering together all the odds-and-ends that were tucked here and there with no rhyme or reason, a funny thing happened; we found ourselves moving from the pantry to the cabinet over the appliances, and from there to the cabinet over the microwave, and from there to the cabinet over the chest freezer... and we probably could have kept going.  

By the time we needed to break to make dinner, my dogs were barkin'! But we had a neat-as-a-pin pantry (with lots of freed-up shelf space!), all our canning jars back together in one space, room for all our coffee mugs to be in one cabinet, and all my crocks and fermentation weights together in their own space. 

Exhibit B:

If I can keep up this motivation for the rest of the oncoming summer swelter, we'll be pretty well off for it come fall! 

(But who am I kidding, I only have 3 more days of steroids left and then I'll probably be done.)

I'm happy for the progress we made during these first few days of summer hibernation, though, and look at all that room for the salsa and canned pears and apple sauce to come! Even if we don't lift another finger to purge or organize, I'm feeling pretty good about it all.

Puttin' Up Zucchini

 Oh, this glorious pile of green and yellow! Look at those zucchini (green and yellow) and crookneck squash... oh how my family is tired of eating them... already! Time to start thinking about the seasons upcoming where they won't be coming out of our ears...

Today I started processing some of our summer squash (after giving away another bag full to some family friends). I'm keeping it simple for this first round and cubing/blanching/freezing them. However in my initial looking around, I found some good ideas for inspiration when the next wave comes. Check it out:

1. Topping my list is this recipe for zucchini-pepper sweet relish. A few of my peppers are taking off, so this might happen soon
2. I might also take a swing at zucchini pickles, if I can convince myself that the texture won't be off-putting 
3. I really liked this little article for six ways to preserve zucchini, and that spread might win a chance at a few of my green beauties
4. This all-purpose general article about preserving and using preserved zucchini will also be one I'm sure I'll look back up again
5. Today, though, I started simple with this very basic blurb on how to freeze zucchini, and I have a tray of cubed squash in my chest freezer doin' their first freeze right now

I think I'll also be revisiting this recipe for zucchini bread (which everyone over here will actually eat, especially with a smear of cream cheese), and maybe a double-batch will put some in the freezer for later, too.

I'm not tired of the bounty yet, and quite frankly the steroids I'm on for the poison ivy I've had are kinda helping me tackle this mound and keep everything else up in the air at the same time, so there's always a silver lining, right? Who needs sleep, anyway?! LET'S MAKE SOME ZUCCHINI STUFF!

*ahem*

Yay, summer squash!

Little Campers :: Gardening Project

Little Campers session #2 went down today, and we unintentionally ended up building off our service project from last time: today's topic featured the ins-and-outs of Gardening. Although it is hard to start something growing in mid-June in Texas, we brought our A-game and high hopes and planted zinnias, a sweet Carmen pepper, a baby basil plant, a yellow squash, and an heirloom tomato scavenged from what was left in a local garden supply store. Us mamas tried to leave most of the work to the kiddos, making each responsible for a different plant (tried being the operative word).

While we worked, we talked about the basics of building a garden, the importance of soil health, why we mulch, and the work of good bugs.

Afterward each kiddo was quizzed with a gardening question, and upon answering received a Gardening Patch made with scrap leather and my wood burning tool.

We left the garden(s) in Piper and Spencer's capable hands, and hopefully it won't get too hot too fast for these little plant babies to establish themselves!

Up next: Nature/Solstice Project!

Last time: Service Project