We went on a picnic today to celebrate the end of summer. I thought that being in the mountains in the midst of nature would be a peaceful, relaxing way to finish up the season. As usual, our outings don't exactly turn out according the the vision in my head. The first picnic site we stopped at, Dallin didn't want to stay there because he thought it was creepy. I liked it because it was secluded, with trees all around. But it was dark and kind of isolated, even though the road was just a few yards away. Sariah had a huge meltdown because she had to get back in the car. We found a second place and vowed to stay there. It looked okay, but as we ate our lunch, I became more and more aware the fact that being out in nature really means being out in the middle of other people's litter. It is so stinkin' sad that people cannot clean up after themselves! Dallin and I had a great discussion on the way home about the need to leave a campsite just the way you found it. It was so frustrating to be constantly saying, "No no, don't touch that, that's yucky!" Or to have to be so vigilant to make sure your kids don't cut themselves on someone else's broken beer bottle.
So at the second picnic spot, Dallin discovered that picnics and flies go hand in hand. I discovered that I prefer to eat my meals standing up (hello, scary picnic table!). Dallin dropped his deli burrito after the first bite, and of course once you drop something at a campsite, it's gone forever. Dallin kept going on and on about how boring this all was. I'd stayed up till 1:00 am and was paying for it with my mood. Sariah was her happy little self, just taking it all in, roaming around with her lunch in her arms.
After we ate, we hiked around a bit, and they did end up both having fun, though Sariah kept wanting to be carried because she was afraid of slipping on the rocks on the steep slopes. We collected leaves (and were excited to find Oregon grape, just like we have in our front yard), rocks, sticks (found them shaped like various letters of the alphabet), moss, bark (for making bark boats), etc. I had this grand idea that when we got home, we'd make all these cool art projects with what we'd collected, but Dallin wanted to play with his friends, and I was NOT making cool art projects with the entire neighborhood.
All in all, from first bite of lunch till we got back in the car, the whole excursion was less than 45 minutes. But hey, we did it--we celebrated the last day of summer vacation. So my goal to go up the canyon every week this summer? Yeah, I think we made it twice. Counting today. OK, maybe three times, because I think we took Grandma and cousins up once. We went to the library twice. (That was supposed to be an every-week thing too.)
We did manage to mostly stay away from the TV and computer. I do have to wave the flag of success to celebrate that one! The only time we slipped back into some old ways with the Wii and computer was the last few weeks that I was preparing for the organ workshop. And, amazingly, I think there were only 1-2 days where I gave in and allowed the TV to be turned on. Since we got home, we've been back to no-media during the week, except for many evenings we allow Wii Fit.
Staying off the computer has been much harder the second time! I have managed to do it (mostly, except for a couple of times when James had the kids out of the house to walk the dog), but man, there have been days where I've longed and longed to check out of life for awhile on the internet. I am steeling myself for next week when Dallin's back in school, knowing that Sariah won't hold me accountable like he would. The one drawback to only getting on the computer at night has been that it's tempting to do that all night and ignore James, so with school starting I am hoping to switch my computer time to Sariah's nap time and stay off completely during the evenings. Wish me luck!
I didn't end up doing much at all with getting our family off of sugar. I'm trying to start that goal up again with the beginning of school, mainly focusing on having high-protein breakfasts at first.
The garden? Well, let's just say that one's been an adventure. Things went fabulously well until about the middle of July. The squash bugs devoured the zucchini and crook neck squashes. I actually had to pull the plants to keep the bugs from spreading to the rest of the garden. (Note to self: when you see those cute little eggs on the undersides of all your leaves? Destroy them! They are not cute!) The tomatoes have yet to ripen. Lots of green tomatoes, rotting on the bottoms. No red ones as of yet. All of the peppers were picked by Sariah. Not just the peppers themselves, but the entire plants, ripped out of the ground. The carrots have stayed puny. The corn grew for awhile, but stopped. Who knows why? The pumpkin plants wilted and died. We got a couple of tiny butternut squashes, which Sariah promptly picked. Hopefully there is still time for some more to grow. We've had a few tiny cantaloupes, but for some reason they keep shrivelling up and dying. I think I will count myself lucky if I make it through the entire summer with enough green beans for one meal. We have gotten to eat a couple of cucumbers, though. And we enjoyed the zucchini before the squash bugs started enjoying it.
All in all, the garden has been a good experience. Maybe the harvest can't be counted in number of vegetables eaten, but it can certainly be counted in emotional benefits. Dallin and I have bonded over this garden. He has been out with me almost every night searching for newly ripened veggies. Even on days where we've had contention and been at each other's throats, we can go out to the garden and be together, and everything is all right. He helped me hand pick squash bugs for days, since I was determined to keep this an organic garden and not spray. I'm not sure he's actually eaten anything out of the garden, but he sure has had fun tending it.
I have mixed feelings about school starting. I've been seriously thinking--again--about homeschooling in a year, so I keep analyzing myself, trying to imagine what it would be like and how I'd be feeling if I weren't sending Dallin off to school on Monday. I have to be honest, the last few days he's been really hyper and I've been ready to have him be at school. But mainly, I've decided that I could handle being with my own kids all day, every day--it's the neighbor kids I'm really ready to say a big, long goodbye to! And if I homeschooled, all those neighbor kids would be in school for most of the day!
So my new projects for fall: researching homeschooling, ordering snippets of curriculum materials to get a feel for what it would be like, making cloth diapers--lots of them, thinking about Christmas gifts and making plans to create them, working on our adoption (not sure what or how, but thinking I should do something), still needing to finish letters and pictures to Sariah's birth family... there's always something new!
So at the second picnic spot, Dallin discovered that picnics and flies go hand in hand. I discovered that I prefer to eat my meals standing up (hello, scary picnic table!). Dallin dropped his deli burrito after the first bite, and of course once you drop something at a campsite, it's gone forever. Dallin kept going on and on about how boring this all was. I'd stayed up till 1:00 am and was paying for it with my mood. Sariah was her happy little self, just taking it all in, roaming around with her lunch in her arms.
After we ate, we hiked around a bit, and they did end up both having fun, though Sariah kept wanting to be carried because she was afraid of slipping on the rocks on the steep slopes. We collected leaves (and were excited to find Oregon grape, just like we have in our front yard), rocks, sticks (found them shaped like various letters of the alphabet), moss, bark (for making bark boats), etc. I had this grand idea that when we got home, we'd make all these cool art projects with what we'd collected, but Dallin wanted to play with his friends, and I was NOT making cool art projects with the entire neighborhood.
All in all, from first bite of lunch till we got back in the car, the whole excursion was less than 45 minutes. But hey, we did it--we celebrated the last day of summer vacation. So my goal to go up the canyon every week this summer? Yeah, I think we made it twice. Counting today. OK, maybe three times, because I think we took Grandma and cousins up once. We went to the library twice. (That was supposed to be an every-week thing too.)
We did manage to mostly stay away from the TV and computer. I do have to wave the flag of success to celebrate that one! The only time we slipped back into some old ways with the Wii and computer was the last few weeks that I was preparing for the organ workshop. And, amazingly, I think there were only 1-2 days where I gave in and allowed the TV to be turned on. Since we got home, we've been back to no-media during the week, except for many evenings we allow Wii Fit.
Staying off the computer has been much harder the second time! I have managed to do it (mostly, except for a couple of times when James had the kids out of the house to walk the dog), but man, there have been days where I've longed and longed to check out of life for awhile on the internet. I am steeling myself for next week when Dallin's back in school, knowing that Sariah won't hold me accountable like he would. The one drawback to only getting on the computer at night has been that it's tempting to do that all night and ignore James, so with school starting I am hoping to switch my computer time to Sariah's nap time and stay off completely during the evenings. Wish me luck!
I didn't end up doing much at all with getting our family off of sugar. I'm trying to start that goal up again with the beginning of school, mainly focusing on having high-protein breakfasts at first.
The garden? Well, let's just say that one's been an adventure. Things went fabulously well until about the middle of July. The squash bugs devoured the zucchini and crook neck squashes. I actually had to pull the plants to keep the bugs from spreading to the rest of the garden. (Note to self: when you see those cute little eggs on the undersides of all your leaves? Destroy them! They are not cute!) The tomatoes have yet to ripen. Lots of green tomatoes, rotting on the bottoms. No red ones as of yet. All of the peppers were picked by Sariah. Not just the peppers themselves, but the entire plants, ripped out of the ground. The carrots have stayed puny. The corn grew for awhile, but stopped. Who knows why? The pumpkin plants wilted and died. We got a couple of tiny butternut squashes, which Sariah promptly picked. Hopefully there is still time for some more to grow. We've had a few tiny cantaloupes, but for some reason they keep shrivelling up and dying. I think I will count myself lucky if I make it through the entire summer with enough green beans for one meal. We have gotten to eat a couple of cucumbers, though. And we enjoyed the zucchini before the squash bugs started enjoying it.
All in all, the garden has been a good experience. Maybe the harvest can't be counted in number of vegetables eaten, but it can certainly be counted in emotional benefits. Dallin and I have bonded over this garden. He has been out with me almost every night searching for newly ripened veggies. Even on days where we've had contention and been at each other's throats, we can go out to the garden and be together, and everything is all right. He helped me hand pick squash bugs for days, since I was determined to keep this an organic garden and not spray. I'm not sure he's actually eaten anything out of the garden, but he sure has had fun tending it.
I have mixed feelings about school starting. I've been seriously thinking--again--about homeschooling in a year, so I keep analyzing myself, trying to imagine what it would be like and how I'd be feeling if I weren't sending Dallin off to school on Monday. I have to be honest, the last few days he's been really hyper and I've been ready to have him be at school. But mainly, I've decided that I could handle being with my own kids all day, every day--it's the neighbor kids I'm really ready to say a big, long goodbye to! And if I homeschooled, all those neighbor kids would be in school for most of the day!
So my new projects for fall: researching homeschooling, ordering snippets of curriculum materials to get a feel for what it would be like, making cloth diapers--lots of them, thinking about Christmas gifts and making plans to create them, working on our adoption (not sure what or how, but thinking I should do something), still needing to finish letters and pictures to Sariah's birth family... there's always something new!
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