What a Weekend!

Our three-day weekend started out blissfully unplanned and unfilled, promising a chance to rest, catch up on chores, and spend a little time with the kiddos. How things changed! Our poor brave sweet girl kicked off the weekend by missing her Field Day on Friday due to tummy troubles. Then on Friday night she developed an earache that quickly spiraled into an ear infection, and on Sunday night her eardrum burst.

Talk about a bad weekend to develop a need for medical care! Because everything else was closed, we ended up in the ER looking for relief from her ear pain........... and they sent us home saying it was just some fluid buildup that should resolve itself! It was that night that her eardrum burst.

So we shuffled through the rest of the weekend bouncing between meds, teas, warm compresses and sleep deprivation, and as soon as her pediatrician's office opened on Tuesday morning we were there.

Now, two prescriptions and another missed day of school later, we are so ready to say goodbye to this ever-stretching 5-day three-day weekend and get back into the swing of things!

The evening we were walking out of the ER- without any relief and little clue of what was to come that night- Audrey found a penny in the parking lot and as she pocketed it said, "I'm a little bit luckier now!"

............ and then she skewered her foot on a splinter lodged in her carpet when we got home.

What a weekend we've had, y'all!

Weekending

Hope y'all are having a good one! Happy weekending!

(Hey look, our front lawn is finally mowed!)

Summer PJs

My kids are still wearing their Solstice pjs in all their flannel glory, despite the fact that the air conditioner is on now and it's humid and muggy and hot. They have other pjs, I promise, but whenever these in particular are clean, they always choose them.

I've tried laying out others with short sleeves or lighter fabrics, but they'll change into these favorites without fail. Then one night I asked Audrey why exactly they keep picking out these too-warm pjs and she said, "Because they're the ones you made."

Daaaaawwwwww. Well then. That had never occurred to me before.

So when we caught a break the other day, we pulled out the sewing machines and the lightweight cottons from the fabric stash and set to work on some new summer pjs!

The first pair of pants I made Hen were from a very old, very soft pillowcase, and the fabric just couldn't live up to one more job... they ripped clear across the fanny the first time he tried to wear them. The successful pair was from another pillowcase- a much thicker, newer one- and they ended up a little on the big side which is fine considering how fast he grows!

And of course Audrey got a nightgown.

My office is still littered with sewing notions (and I hate to think about the high chance that the carpet is also littered with pins now, too), both kids' sewing machines are somewhere in the piles, and there is still a few things on the list to make... so here's hoping we get another 'break'!

Resurrected Ghosts

This year, forever after known as The Year We Didn't Have A Garden, has been an amazing year for the plants around us so far. Things are just exploding into blossom and bloom. The place where our garden used to be is filled with 3-foot-tall grasses, spear-shaped cones of flowers, and much to our surprise, resurrected ghosts of what once was cultivated there...

So far we've found two squash-type plants (pumpkins maybe? that would figure... can't successfully grow them when I try, but leave them alone and there's two), multiple annual flowers, and several herbs including two stands of dill mixed in with the weeds!

Maybe it isn't fair for us to say we didn't have a garden this year... we just have a more wild, less traditional one... but it's there nonetheless!

Weekend Morning

"I used to love night best but the older I get 

the more treasures and hope and joy I find in mornings." 

— Terri Guillemets

Happy weekending!

Checking In

Right now things are going about 100 miles per hour around here. We're balancing the usual business at home with a bathroom renovation stalled mid-tile installation, end-of-the-year events for both school and dance class, and the irresistible pull to constantly monitor our new bees.

While all the goings-on around us seem to be pushing us to speed up and multitask, our bees call for a perfect balancing counterpoint- slow, calm deliberation. It has been a joy to have them for a distraction from all this May madness.

We got into our new hives for the first time yesterday just to check in on things. We found both queens alive and not squished during nuc installation (whew!), a slew of new little eggs, and bizarre new columns of wax rising from the center of the nuc frames up into the top feeders.

I have no idea if it's normal for them to be building comb like that, but it was cool to find!

And now we're back into the crazy swing of things, longingly glancing out toward our bee yard and waiting patiently for the next warm-ish sunny day so we can go check in on them again!

A Beehaver

It's been pretty darn close to a year since I officially started delving into the world of bees and beekeeping (remember when I took that crash-course in the basics?). Today I came full circle and brought home my own little colonies.

I will no longer be one of the only beekeepers' club members that has to raise their hand when someone asks, "Is there anyone here who doesn't have bees yet?"

Guess who has bees now? (I'm raising my hand)

I have finally graduated to a "Beehaver." Now I just need to figure out how to be a beekeeper!

Poor Leeloo

Audrey: "Mama, I think it's too hot for Leeloo outside. Do we still have her pool?"

Me: "Yes! You think it's time to get it out for her?"

Audrey: (dramatically) "YES. It's just too hot out there. Poor Leeloo!"

So we drag the little kiddie pool out of the garden shed, clean it out, and fill it up... for Leeloo...

The kids were right, I guess it really was hot enough for there to be a real draw to that little plastic pool...

Poor Leeloo...

(She did eventually get a turn, by the way)

Swallowed Up

I am loving the fact that it seems we get a 'real' spring this year... usually we just go from cold to hot, but this year? This year we're getting rain and sun and cool breezes and a crazy burst of everything growing like mad.

Our woods have turned lush and dark and magical, and the little gingerbread playhouse has almost been swallowed up by it. When the kids get out there to play in it, they say it's almost like they can disappear.

I have to admit there is definitely a good chi around their little place, and the more we leave the honeysuckle, rosemary and redbuds alone, the better it seems to get.

But then again we could all benefit from being swallowed up by something wild and left to our own devices sometimes, don't you think?

A Happy Mother's Day

Hidden notes, early doughnuts, secret projects, and THE BEE YARD FINISHED!

A happy Mother's Day here, and a happy Mother's Day wish to all. Happy weekending!

Suspense

I've spent every spare moment since the weekend prepping our bee yard. The grass has been removed, the landscaping fabric is secured, and the whole pad site is now bordered with rocks. This weekend I'll get the mulch that will fill in and cover the whole thing- hopefully while the hubs is building the hive stands- and then without a moment to spare I'll go get my bees!

The suspense is killing me.

Recycling

When Henry and I have an hour or so in the mornings- usually just before lunch- when one can't possibly spend an entire hour playing a Star Wars board game but there's not quite enough time to start a proper project, we usually find ourselves pulling out our sewing machines.

One of our favorite projects is to recycle something stained, torn, or outgrown into something fresh and new again.

We had an hour just like that here recently, so out came a pair of pants that had suddenly become too short and a skirt of mine that was never very flattering (but was made out of adorable vintage-inspired fabric that I couldn't make myself get rid of).

I turned the pants into shorts for Little Brother, and with his own little machine and in the spirit of recycling Henry turned the cutoff pant legs into pillows for his Snoopy.

I've always loved the satisfaction of 'saving' something from being wasted and seeing it repurposed and reused, but watching that same sense of satisfaction find my little guy... that was the best.

Though I still feel pretty satisfied with my own projects, too.

We love recycling!