Any Similar Revival

Another Little A.

Little A. and I went to Wooster today with Heidi to meet Willow and Aidan. It was fun to have the two little guys together, and we had a lot of fun. We started at Quailcrest herb farm and pulled wagons, rode in wagons, petted the dog, played in fountains, ran around like crazy. Then we went to Broken Stone bakery for lunch and Tulipan for dessert. Yum! Here are some photos that I CAN show, of Willow's Aidan, who is getting to be so big and so ridiculously cute!

With his daddy, who had just cycled 50 miles! Way to go, Luke!

So Cool.

We are still adjusting to the new changes in our life. Sometimes I just want to feel normal, and that's not going to happen for a while.

Greetings from my Alternate Universe

Well, that's how this feels. That, or the Twilight Zone, and an alternate universe just sounds less creepy. I don't think I could have prepared any differently for suddenly having a child in my home--I think it will take time to feel more normal, no matter what. All weirdness aside, we're doing pretty well. Sleeping has gotten easier for him, and he sleeps in much later than we do in the mornings, which is a blessing! He hasn't gotten to spend much time with Chad yet, so he is very clingy with me and wouldn't let Chad put him to bed last night. I understand completely, but I'm hoping this weekend helps both of them with their relationship. I did finally have a meltdown last night, which made me feel MUCH better. I've had all these emotions churning since Tuesday (just Tuesday??) and I needed to let them out. Today he has a visit with his birth mom, and I don't know how that will affect him. We're taking it one day at a time. One hour at a time!

So, when I least expected it. . .

The county called and gave us a foster placement! Little A. is two-years-old, big and strong for his age. And he's also cute as a button. Things were a little crazy around here last night, especially since he was homesick for his parents and confused about who exactly we are. Hopefully, it will get better. During the day, we are having a marvelous time. I'm not going to post full-face pictures of him online just now, but here he is otherwise!

He really liked this puzzle. He did it like 15 times until he could get it right almost every time.

And he really loves water. I pulled up the step stool for him and let him play in the dishwater (don't worry, it was pretty clean). He could pour water from one cup to another for hours. He has great powers of concentration when he plays--more than in any other kid I've seen. He just turned two in May, and he can really entertain himself and is VERY busy!

Who knows how long we'll have him here. We knew in our heads that this process could be a heartbreaker, way back when we started. I think, though, that we didn't really understand how risky this is until today.

Buried in Berries

That's where I've been, in case you've been wondering. First of all, I have to show you what treasures I found at the Seville garage sales last Friday. I can't explain why, I can only tell you that I did.

Seriously, though, who could resist?

These little bits of awesomeness were only $0.50 each.
I think this is my favorite:

And this little gem. I can't wait to pass along nuggets of wisdom:

Ok, back to my title, Chad and I decided to check out Rittman orchard this Saturday, since we'd heard through Jill that they had luscious strawberries. As soon as we saw the buckets people were bringing back from the fields, we plunked down $2 for two buckets and very merrily went about our berry-picking way. This is Chad's new favorite activity.

We went home with this, 13 pounds of strawberries.

On Sunday, after church, lunch at Fiesta Jalopenos with Mike, Kristen and Emma, and Emma's dance recital (totally cute), we convinced our friends (it wasn't hard) to go pickin' with us again, even though Kristen was still wearing her church dress. It made berry picking all that more idyllic.

Emma was the best though. She doesn't like strawberries or raspberries "that much," but she has fun picking them and running around the rows of bushes!

Then we hit the raspberries. SIGH.

It became a contest between us and her parents. She'd run back and forth, examining our buckets, telling us she was in charge of the game. At the end, she ran back to Kristen, "I have BAD NEWS, Mom! They're beating you!"

But I think we all won! Almost 5 pounds of raspberries each!

Chad found a good spot. What you don't see is Kristen on the other side of the row, skirt notwithstanding, doing exactly the same thing. The competition was fierce.

So, what have I done with all those pounds of berries? More like, what HAVEN'T I done? I've pureed strawberries and frozen them in muffin pans for smoothies.

I have thirty little ruby-colored smoothie "muffins" in my freezer now!

I froze some whole and some sliced. We made strawberry ice cream Saturday night, and it's enough to make you giggle.

This morning, I got up early and made 8 jars of raspberry freezer jam. So pretty.

Berries are kind of addicting. Once you start, it's hard to stop!

June! You can't be half over already!

What is with time lately? It is moving so fast I can hardly keep up. After our epic weekend, I've been slow to start back into things. I think I'm tired. Even though I didn't do the hard work, as Chad and Luke did. The weather has been heavy and sluggish, too, and that doesn't help matters. I've been reading the chronicles of Narnia to Olivia while the twins are supposed to be napping. I've been laying on my couch at home reading the rest of the time. In between, I've made attempts at finishing laundry and mowing the lawn. And making dinner. I'm hoping my energy comes back around soon, but if it doesn't, I'm happy to continue laying around on the couch reading.

From Sunday, little Jillian:

And wearing Leah's sunglasses:

Speaking of Leah:

Cuteness all around!

And here is my very own cutie!

Destruction, mwhahahaha!

Before:

After:

(That awesome orange ladder is what props up my clothesline when it gets heavy.)

During:

Oh, my poor ferns!

Ouch!

Leah liked watching.

Stay tuned for more updates. We still have a long way to go!

Today was pure summer

I loved today. Today tasted like summer. Today smelled like summer. It was long and full and fun, and I ate and laughed and ran around and threw rose petals in the air. After a sweet little lunch at Heidi's and a turn about her garden, I went to Strongsville to pick up three cheeky monkeys. Instead of staying at their house this afternoon, we headed back to Medina to hang out with Myles. Here they are, having found the box of musical toys that my wonderful friend Jill dropped off yesterday. Thank you Jill, for all the noisy toys. Really. I can't thank you enough. It was so thoughtful.

My cheeky monkeys:

They are fascinated by my garden, especially the herbs. We walked around, rubbing leaves between our fingers, smelling lavender ("It smells like froot loops!" Ben insisted.) and sage and lemon balm ("It smells like candy!" Emma exclaimed.) Then, eyeing my crazy climbing roses, Emma asked in her most innocent voice, "Allyson, can we pick some of your flowers?" I grabbed my trusty clippers and started dead-heading the bush. I handed the big, full-blown, luxurious blossoms to each child in turn, who then joyfully rubbed them against their faces, pulled off all the petals, and threw them into the air, shrieking. Olivia declared that she was the bride and Emma was the flower girl. Ben just liked the throwing part. Since we were having their mommy and Aunt Heidi and Uncle Frank and Jordan over for dinner later, we decided that we were decorating the driveway as a welcome present for them.

They liked playing with the roses too. There is something decadent and indulgent about having huge roses to just play with, to tuck behind ears and study and inhale. I tried to explain to them how rich they were, to have all these roses. They're still children, though, and see it as part of their birthright.

When the porch was sufficiently strewn with blossoms, we headed inside to make signs for the impromptu dinner party.

Olivia's menu explains bread for appetizers, salad, and Swedish meatballs, plus wonderful chocolate ice cream for dessert. Wonderful chocolate ice cream is right, but we'll get to that in a second.

Ok, the ice cream. We got an ice cream machine yesterday! And today, I made some for the first time. Oh. My. Goodness. I started laughing, it was so good. It was ridiculous.

We got a little involved with getting every last bit.

We all agreed, though, that Olivia was really the winner of the Rocky Clean Plate Award. Heidi gave her a prize.

Oh look, those noisy toys again.  Ah, it was a lovely day. Expect to see some more ice cream posts in the near future. I think it's my new favorite thing.

Handing the camera over to a small girl

The other day, Emma was looking a bit bored in the backyard. Ben didn't want to go on the teeter-totter (teetew-tottew, in Emma-speak), and Liv wasn't yet home from school. "Allyson, do you have your camera?" I looked at her, all big-shining-brown eyes and crazy Medusa hair, and I melted. And handed it over. "Here you go," I said. "Just make sure you have the wrist strap on all the time, and don't run with it." And off she went. She took a million pictures of everything: the backyard. the toys in backyard. The flowers  by the back door. Each room in the house. Most of them were blurry, as she ran off to take the next photo before the shutter has closed on the previous one. But I love some of them, love, love, love them.

I think we'll spend some time this summer talking about photography--it's never to early to start, right? Especially composition and thinking about what kind of picture you want to make. Right now, the novelty of seeing reality recreated on the screen is too overpowering, but soon, the end result will become important to them.

Lovely Buzzing Light

I spent a loooooong time out by these flowering trees, watching the bees drunkenly sweeping from blossom to blossom. Their legs were so packed with pollen, I'm surprised they could fly at all. It smelled like heaven, sweet, green heaven.

Then I saw this little guy up front.

And who knew leeks could be so beautiful?

Rich, I'm RICH, I tell you!

Summer is really here

The Medina Farmers Market has started up again, every Saturday morning in the square, 9--1. It's such a nice little market, and it gets better and better as the season progresses. If you live in this area, you should really check it out, especially in the next few weeks, with the strawberry season in full swing and blueberries starting in early July.

Check out my crazy rose bush! It's been pretty hum-drum for the past 6 years, and all of a sudden, BOOM! Gorgeousness!

And this beauty always does well.

How are you enjoying the season?