The Difference Between Spring and Summer

In the spring, when the weather begins to warm, we jump at the chance to be outside, seizing every excuse and opportunity to exit our home to breathe in the fresh air and stretch our winter-weary limbs.  After breakfast is eaten and clothes are changed, little boys tumble pell-mell from the house, like frisky puppies released to frolic on the lawn.  Everything is fun, if it's done outdoors.  I watch my sons blow bubbles and walk barefoot in the grass and climb trees and ride the Gator and swing and hunt rabbits and work play in flowerbeds and mow the yard (well, pretend to mow the yard!) and ride the Gator some more, and I think, "This is what I've waited all winter long to see.  It's every bit as wonderful as I imagined."

But something changes as spring turns into summer.  The mercury inches higher in the thermometer.  The newness of time outdoors is gone since we've had several months of warm weather by now.  My boys become more and more reluctant to venture out of the house.  I send them out to play; and they return shortly, saying, "It's hot!"  After afternoon quiet times, I hand them a homemade pineapple or grape popsicle and shoo them out with instructions to find a shady tree to sit under while they eat their frozen treat.  When the popsicle is gone, the boys return hastily, grateful for the coolness found indoors.  It's just not the same as spring, when I could hardly get them to come in!

However, summer has one feature that rivals spring's fresh outdoor delights; and that is The Evening.  

Is there anything like a summer evening?  The air cools, the pace relaxes; and once again, we love nothing more than to be outside.  Once again, we have to give ourselves a stern talking-to when it's time to come in because the delight we experience out-of-doors entices us to linger.  Once again, I watch my sons enjoy all the simple delights of a childhood in the countryside; and my heart wells up as I hear their voices ring through the night air.  Storing up sweet memories is what summer evenings are all about.

Sometimes the fun comes from playing with neighbor children--in this case, with a boomerang.

Sometimes it comes from swinging--and Shav especially likes it when his grandpa pushes him because Shav tries to reach Grandpa with his feet, then Grandpa staggers backwards and grunts as if Shav had just kicked him, and Shav laughs and laughs.  :)

Sometimes the fun comes from the trampoline--although Shav is still a little unsure of himself when he's on that strange bouncy contraption that makes him feel like "the sky is falling, the sky is falling!"--or at the very least, "the earth is moving, the earth is moving!"

Sometimes the fun comes from hide-and-seek...or tag...or any of the other quintessential childhood games that young ones so easily learn to play.  But whatever activity they choose, I find my pleasure in watching them...and, if I can snag them long enough to ask them to pause, in photographing them.  

A year from now, when this season rolls around and we once again revel in the gift of summer evenings, these boys won't look the same.  They won't walk or talk or play or act the same.

If I don't catch these moments now, they'll be gone.

 Gone like a popsicle melting in the heat.

 Gone like the fireflies, disappearing after their brief but brilliant show.

 Gone like the summer bats, zipping and zooming through the air as they chase their insect feast.

Gone like the summer of 2011 itself will be before we know it.

So I press the button on my camera and freeze these moments, storing them up in my heart so that when fall's chill sends us scurrying indoors and winter's winds discourage us from budging too far from our wood stove, I'll remember that not only is lovely spring on the way...

...but so are glorious summer evenings.

Boys & Knives

Although my boys play with toy weapons all the time,

 I rarely arm them with real ones.

 One morning recently was an exception, however.

 I gave both David and Tobin a small paring knife and showed them how to cut up cheese for the Caprese Salad we were serving to guests that evening.

I did not, however, give a knife to Shav; he got to play with measuring cups and other harmless kitchen gadgets instead.  Although Tobin at three years of age was responsible enough for the privilege of using a knife, Shav at two seemed a wee bit too young for that.  ;-)

 David and Tobin seemed excited to use real knives...it kept them occupied productively, instead of squabbling...and it genuinely helped me out by reducing my preparation time for the salad.

A real win-win-win situation.  ;-)

~ By the way, if you want to involve your children more with household tasks, teaching and training them to be proficient in skills that they'll use the rest of their lives, you might want to check out this article I read recently.  It includes some wonderful lists of age-appropriate activities that children can be taught to do.  I'll freely admit that I'm not there, when it comes to teaching my sons to do all of the things listed for their age group.  But I'm *getting* there.  ;-)

Lovin' My WOO

Several years ago, I read this article by Florence Feldman about WOO--or Window of Organizing Opportunity.  "Yes!"  I thought.  "She's hit the nail on the head.  That's EXACTLY my experience.  Sometimes getting rid of things and organizing what remains and making the countless decisions involved in the process is easy as pie; but other times it feels like pulling teeth, and I can hardly seem to make any progress.  As much as I wish I could do it easily all the time, I can't!"

Several years ago, another thing happened:  I joined FlyLady's email group, so to this day I get her messages and read her tips and encouragement (or delete them, if I don't have time to read them but want to get rid of some of the emails in my inbox!); and I've benefited GREATLY from her.  But I found that her expectation that every day would include time for decluttering was a difficult one for me to meet.  

The WOO makes much more sense to me.  Go through the window when it's open.  Don't get discouraged when it's not, but wait and watch for the next opportunity.

All of that to say this:  summer is the window for me.  Like many homeschooling moms, I seize the chance to spend extra time organizing my home, my closet, my papers, my bookshelves, my spices, my life in the summer.  And it's so, so, so much fun.  :)

My latest area I've focused on is my pie safe.  Previously, it was stuffed with stuff, and the top was topped with puzzles, papers, crafts, and all kinds of other things that didn't belong there.  But no more.  What a delight to bring order to that piece of furniture:  to discover treasures in it that I hadn't seen for a while, to get rid of a whole bunch of useless junk that had accumulated, and to see the beauty of an organized cabinet.  It makes me breathe a sigh of relief just thinking about it.  :)

I'm not quite done with the project so I haven't taken any pictures; but before I go jump back through my WOO, I'll post an image that makes me smile.  We had so much fun with that fruit photo shoot for the header pics; but as you can see, I had to remind Tobin to NOT EAT THE FRUIT until we were done.  

It's hard to wait sometimes.  ;-)

Wordless Wednesday {Don't Stick Your Tongue Out at Me!}

;-)

What's Growing Around Here

I have a confession to make...

Our garden is A MESS.

What began with promise in the spring has turned into summer's dry, hot reality:  a garden where the weeds have zoomed ahead of us, triumphantly soaring to the sky, as if to prove that they are the victors.  But we award no trophies for tallest weeds!

Instead, we look among the weeds for the treasure tucked away.  And we find it.

Basil, my favorite herb...

Green peppers...

...some to be eaten now, and some to be chopped and frozen to be pulled out in winter's bleakness and used in recipes for food that tastes like summer.  I'm giddy every time I think about how I won't need to buy green peppers this coming winter at the grocery store; they're expensive in the winter, and I'm pleased at the thought of saving some money.  :)

Tomatoes...

...oh, the tomatoes!  We've got all stages of growth:  blossoms...

...green ones...

...all the way to red ones.  Home-grown tomatoes are probably my most favorite item of garden produce.  If we only had enough room for one plant, I would want it to be a tomato plant.  :)

We have cucumbers...

...and more cantaloupe than we know what to do with.

Our corn didn't win any records for maturing the earliest in the county...

 ...but at last, I believe it's ready.  We'll be eating it soon.

The grapes are coming along wonderfully, and we have high hopes that an abundant harvest this fall will compensate for the last two years of very poor harvests.

And then there are the potatoes.

 How many people does it take to dig potatoes?

 *insert your own punch line here...because I can't think of one*  :)

 But yeah, we've got potatoes.

 Lots and lots of potatoes.

In dirt so hard, you'd think you were digging in a brickyard.

 Our mighty men have managed to unearth quite a few of them...but hey, we're not stingy with our potato-digging excitement.  If you'd like the chance to show us your stuff, or if you're in the need of exercise and don't want to drive all the way to town to go to a gym, or if you just want to take pity on us, we'll do this for you:
We'll leave the fork out for you.  ;-)

There are also the non-edible items growing around here.  Crepe myrtle, for example, is glorious right now...

 ...but David's marigolds, humble though they may be, are almost as brilliant in their flashy orange hues.

Speaking of non-edibles (although technically, I suppose they could very well be edibles, at least in some parts of the world), our two goats still inhabit our pastureland.  They've grown so much since we got them two summers ago that our old descriptions of "the little one" and "the bigger one" don't apply.  They're both bigger ones now!

Growth around here isn't confined to plants and animals, and this little one is a fine example of that.

Almost on a daily basis, we see changes in Shav.  New words, new expressions, new actions all spring forth, amazing and delighting us.  

These lovely days of summer are good for growing things.

These are golden days.