because the sun is not out today and I have not been strolling through the fields

Instead, it is cloudy. My butt is pressed firmly onto the desk chair and my eyes are locked onto the cursor as it moves around my computer monitor. My sinuses are congested, and I think it's a cold and not just allergies. I have a headache. I have to pick the kids up in 4 1/2 hours, have dinner ready in 5 1/2 hours, and teach Jazzercise in 7 hours. In the meantime, I am working. So, for these five minutes, I choose to say "fuck it all" and to ponder the meaning of the grasshopper.

The Summer Day by Mary Oliver (from the Poetry 180 series which I also mentioned here).

Red Letter Day

Although I have the proof, I will take pity on my youngest daughter and NOT post the photo I took of her bare little self as she used the potty for the first time!!

My Vacation, by Maggie... Mama forgot to post this.

Much like the guy who writes The Family Circle cartoon does, I asked Mags to fill in for me when I needed a little break from posting. Of course, this meant I had to ask her what pictures she liked, get her to comment on each one, upload the whole thing, and well, I kind of moved on to other things before I ever actually posted it. So, here, delayed, is "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" by Maggie O.



















That's when we had a blanket on us during the carriage ride. I was happy! (Colleen says: ...although a little freaked out - BUT, really happy.)

























That was one time when we had ice cream. It was at the garden. Yeah, we ate alot of ice cream.

























That was when I rode the horse at the garden. Yeah. But it wasn't real.



















I was sure being silly then. Or I was sleeping.

























That was the picture book in our hotel. Our other hotel had one, too. (Colleen says: Mags was FASCINATED by the Bibles in the rooms.)

























That's at the playground when I played with the rocks.



















There's my hand on Papa's shoulder!



















I made my quesadilla into a castle! (Colleen says: ...and then BEGGED Mama to take a picture of it.)



















The salsa dancers in the park in Victoria. There's the cowboy in the corner, too - but he doesn't look like Woody from Toy Story. He has a blue hat. (Colleen says: This was NOT Dancing with the Stars...)



















The fountain in front of Starbucks.



















We tried to take the change out, but Mama wouldn't let us.



















The princess horse named Molly who took us on our carriage ride.



















Santa on vacation taking the ferry from Canada to Anacortes. (Colleen says: We also saw Santa at Market Day in Chemainus, BC - So, that's at least two men who CLAIMED to be Santa on one trip. Of course, we were pretty far north, so who's to say for sure...? Didn't you always know that Santa would wear a red and white Hawaiian shirt on vacation?)

How Many Berries Does It Take to Make a Child Explode?

I took the girls to Columbia Farms on Sauvie Island to go berry picking today. By myself. And, oh my God, the berries!! The girls were mostly tolerant, if not actually productive - although Maggie picked up on the "they don't charge you for what you eat in the field" notion immediately. She was like a little Joey Chestnut in the aisle. Although we had an entire half-flat, she kept asking if she was going to be able to have any of them when we got home.

Now, I just need to figure out what to do with all of the berries in, oh say, the next 12 hours before they start to get mushy and attract little bugs. Jay and I are mostly fine doing like Mags and Ellie and just gorging ourselves straight from the little cardboard containers, but it's ALOT of berries. I'll let you know what happens...

Dejeuner sur L'Herbe

Nothing beats a picnic lunch in Washington Park on a sunny day, although Erica sent me a lovely picture of a pastrami sandwich worthy of high praise today. This was from last week, and really kind of shows why Portland is one of the best places in the universe.

Sadie Makes Banana Waffles in her Underwear

If we hadn't gone with "Elinor," our next choice was "Sadie Makes Banana Waffles in her Underwear."

And with Mags, it was either going to be "Margaret" or "Ape Girl Loves the Roller Coaster."

In both cases, it was a close call, which is what makes me so glad we don't live in New Zealand. See if you don't agree.

...not currently keeping a journal...

Since not long after I moved into this house, I have kept a journal - in Word - on my computer. Due to some messing around with computers that I've had to do to maintain a "free trial" of a certain program for work, Jay has had to dismantle my computer and hook me up to another one. I did not remember to have him give me access to the journal - and I don't actually even have Word loaded on this machine. Could I fix the situation? Yes. Could I actually (perish the thought) pick up a pen and write in a notebook? Yeah. But, I'm not. And, usually, it feels a little bit freeing not to have to keep a record of our days quite so methodically for a bit. Then there are times when I realize that if I don't write things down somewhere, they will be lost to the ages, which is especially unfair at this point to Ellie because in the last few weeks, she has figured out how to sing a perfectly angelic (and well-articulated) version of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

And then there's this: Last night as I put Ellie to bed, I asked her if she wanted to kiss 'Bud (her pink stuffed elephant) good night. She said, "yeah" (her favorite word of the week), took that little pachyderm's proboscis between her thumb and forefinger and gently bent it to find the best spot on the very tip of its trunk to plant a sweet wet kiss. I don't want to forget that kind of thing when she's 16 and stealing my car keys.

Bottle #2: Sokol Blosser 2006 Rose of Pinot Noir

What to drink on a fabulously sunny summer afternoon when your plans for lunching at Washington Park's Rose Garden in Portland fall through because half-way through the drive down your daughter starts crying because she is parched and not feeling well, causing you to pull into your husband's work parking lot, inform him of a change in plans, open up the car's hatch, extrude your ever-so-well planned and balanced picnic fare and eat lunch on the blacktop while said daughter naps in the car leading you to believe that she may really be sick - perhaps suffering a relapse of the strep throat that you are determined to wipe out of your household once and for all?

Yes, Sokol Blosser 2006 Rose of Pinot Noir. (Here's a link to the 2007.) Not a saccharine fruity rose, mind you - but rather a crisp and feminine (I mean that in a good way) wine - perfect for sucking down while your little sunshine lounges on the sofa watching Meet the Robinsons for the 72nd time - or for taking outside to the front porch when, even calling upon your most compassionate Mommy instincts, you just can't stand to stay with the kid and miss out on the entire day's offering of Vitamin D (Thank you, Sun!) And look how cool it is that the viscosity of the wine causes it to sit not entirely horizontally in the bottle. (Ha! Kidding, just a little 'trick photography' there.)

A Long Strange Trip, or Playtime with a Pre-Schooler

"Shhhhh! Be very quiet! We have to hide in the tent because Captain Hook and the Big Pink Monsters are outside!!! Oh no! They're right over there by Farley! We have to close the breeze out of the tent or they might find us!!!"

Has someone been snacking on funny mushrooms? Or is it just the imagination of a certain blonde three and a half year old excited about the tent that her mother has put together just so she could PLAY in it?! (Thanks, Gail!) After donning protective headgear (see photo of Ellie), we later braved the wild yard and went hunting for the monster. Thankfully, we were VERY quiet, and when we found the monster by the red rubber ball between the wood pile and the vine maples outside Maggie's room, THANK GOD he was sleeping.

We'll be fine if we stick together.

Monitored

Last night my Jazzercise class was monitored, and it was relatively painless - although this morning, I am sore and my muscles are feeling a little like they would feel if I had held them tense overnight. I was long overdue for an observation - so far overdue that I had stopped driving into the grange parking lot with a knot in my stomach wondering when the unfamiliar car with the Jazzercise decal would show up. But, I had been given a little (unitentional?) heads-up the day before and had actually spent some time putting my set together early in the day and making sure it was well-balanced. Very fortunately, I had managed to stay sane, beer-free and on time earlier in the evening even though my post-Kindercare running around included picking up Big Chris at Julianne's, a hurried spaghetti dinner and a car swap.

BC Recommendations

Old Town Bakery, Ladysmith, BC: The most amazing cinnamon buns on the west coast, I'm sure - in a cute little town and bargain priced at something like $2.25.



















Ladysmith Transfer Beach Park: A town park complete with a full-on water play area! And an awesome playground - Two local service organizations seem to have built the play structures, and it's almost like they were trying to see who could out-do the other. Kids win! We were just lucky to get there BEFORE the local day camp vans brought every kid in BC to play and have lunch by the water. (But even the kids were pretty well-behaved, and with Mags liking to watch boys as she does, God help us, the camp kids actually added to the fun.)



















Lady Marmalade, Victoria, BC: Awesome, kid-friendly breakfast. Mags and I had left the hotel searching for coffee EARLY on Sunday morning when it was just us, the birds and some sketchy stoop-sleeping panhandlers wandering Johnson Street. We found an open Starbucks and on the way home smelled BACON. We followed our noses to Lady Marmalade, went back and roused the others and had a great breakfast, complete with porridge before heading toward the ferry terminal. The prices were reasonable, too - In fact, they had a review hanging in the window that was titled, "Eat Cheap, Not Crap" - and I'd say that's right on target.



















Luciano's, Victoria, BC: Outside seating, good food, and as kid-friendly as a nice restaurant gets. The girls split an order of spaghetti and meatbals, and we only broke one glass on the sidewalk.



















Chemainus, BC: "Just an hour's drive from Victoria, but a world away in time." Although the "world famous murals" are a little creepy - I swear the one guy's eyes followed me wherever I went (see above)... the town is friendly and quiet and a perfect place to spend a fireworks-free July 4.

Renaissance Books, Chemainus, BC: Peter Gray has a used book shop in an old house in Chemainus. He clearly LOVES his books - When I browsed around while the family was back in the hotel napping one afternoon, I scored some finds. When I brought a copy of Peggy Guggenheim's autobiography to the counter, he said, "Where did you FIND that? I totally forgot we had that book!" And he said it in such a way that led me to believe he does not forget many individual books. I don't know if he has a human family, but if he does, they must be very understanding. My grand total came to $43 Canadian, and as he wrote down each book title in his ledger, I found as I counted my loonies that I only had $40, and he was fine with that. I hope that somebody somewhere reads this and goes to see this store someday.



















Willow Street Cafe, Chemainus, BC: There are NOT alot of places to eat in Chemainus - In fact, you can kind of wander up and down the deserted street wondering how all of the stores (which seem to be perpetually closed) can possibly be in business, but when we came into the range of Willow Street Cafe, the proprietor welcomed us to the porch out front and got us settled in for a good dinner. The menu for dinner is small, but there were two specials - Jay had the meat lasagna and I had a chicken curry over jasmine rice that was really very good.

Doctor's Medical Clinic, Yates St., Victoria, BC: In and out fast, not too spendy for an out-of-pocket transaction, prescription granted and filled across the parking lot. Bada-bing, bada-boom, bye-bye strep throat.

The People - The guy on the pedal cab who hooked us up with dinner recommendations, the girl who drove Mags and me around on our carriage ride, various wait staff, hotel cleaning people, etc. etc. - What a nice bunch of folks! Seriously. Except for the one lady at Market Day in Chemainus who sold me the duck casserole dish. If it hadn't been so cute, I would've given you the stink eye for sure, Lady.



























Just one thing... Whoever the hell designed the fences in Victoria obviously was not the parent of a young child. Look at the photo with Jay and Ellie - It's almost like they intentionally left out the most important part of the fence, just tempting 3 1/2 year olds to flop over the lower rung and fling themselves headfirst 20 feet down onto the hood of some unsuspecting car. In the picture of Maggie, I have given her specific instructions to STAND RIGHT THERE AND DON'T MOVE AT ALL WHILE I TAKE THIS PICTURE TO SHOW THE WORLD HOW STUPID THAT FENCE IS.

Honey, I think Mt. Adams Erupted

As I was driving toward home yesterday afternoon I noticed that the sky was bright blue and completely cloudless - except for a giant cloud of smoke to the east from the direction of Mt. Adams.

Hitting the Summer Stride

Yesterday was a really great Sunday - I was actually struck mid-day with the realization that we were heading toward a near-perfect day according to my personal perfect day criteria. I didn't say anything to keep from jinxing it midway through...

We all woke up early and decided to head out for breakfast, but being weary of the Kountry Cafe, we set out for a slightly more cultured (table cloths) yet laid-back (Hawthorne) breakfast at Bread and Ink Cafe in Portland. We got there minutes after they opened, so we had most of the restaurant to ourselves. The high potential for the day became obvious when the next table to sit down was a couple with FOUR kids, thus reducing any noise or commotion that my two little angels might produce to a mere buzz in the ear of other patrons. Maggie had perhaps the best Belgian waffles that I have ever tasted, and I got to eat a good amount of them because they were served with a heaping portion of whipped cream, and since said whipped cream was on her plate, I had a hard time convincing her that the waffles were the main point of the meal...

After breakfast, we parked at the corner of 37th and SE Stark in the shade of a tree next to my old apartment and crossed the street to Laurelhurst Park to play for a bit. The girls liked the playground, and especially enjoyed communing with the ducks and dogs. Ellie "entertained" countless passers-by by talking with the ducks. It went like this: She'd get a little too close to a duck. The duck would quack, "Get away from me, you little cretin!" Ellie would think he was saying, "Hi, my name is Mac. What's yours?" To which Ellie would shout, "WACK! WACK! WACK!" until the duck hopped in the pond and swam away.

After the park, Jay suggested that we go to Portland Nursery to look for bean plants. The Meager Garden has three bean plants that are all doing fabulously well, but once it became clear that they were thriving, I remembered that the joy of having bean plants in the first place is getting to pick and eat lots of beans. Three plants, no matter how fabulous, aren't going to cut it. So, Saturday, I drove around Clark County looking for bean starts to no avail. But, Portland Nursery is a place like none other, and I was able to successfully score 5 new 4" pots, each with 3 starts, thereby boosting our potential bean production exponentially - right when I was about to give up on finding any.

All that activity, and it was still only 10 in the morning. When we got home, the weather was sunny and hot, and Jay was able to spend some time with Ric's tractor mowing the "front 40" in preparation for a year-round path he wants to create out to the tall trees (and future camping spot) in the front of the yard. The girls were fascinated by the activity - Girls love guys on tractors, after all.

We had decided that we wanted the girls to take early naps, so I gave them popsicles because popsicles drip on small children which easily leads to a quick shower to clean off, and showers easily segue into naptime. (And I thought my implication analysis skills had disappeared during my first pregnancy...) Early naptime accomplished, we were able to get the girls up and out in time to go to the English Estate Winery next to the giant gravel pit right in Vancouver. They were having an "Art and Wine" weekend, and we've always been a little curious about what they're doing out there. We got a couple of bottles of wine and headed out just as Ellie completely lost it because she had to leave the horsie swing that had become her new favorite thing in the universe. (Picture Jay carrying her off as she screamed, "NOOOO, HOOORRRRRRRRRRRRSIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEE!!!!!!!! HORRRRSSIIIIEEEEEEEE!!!)

Yummy dinner together. Hot day turned into a cool evening. Jay put the kids to bed while I planted the new bean plants. Then, a few last words in the Sunday crossword before bed, and voila: great day.

Photo of the Week

Once or twice this week I've found myself saying things like, "It's SO hot out!" And then, as quickly as possible, I whoop myself upside the head and remind myself that we sit through eight months of rain and clouds dreaming and longing for this! Summer! Yay!

Ours is not to reason why...

For the seven summers that I have been acquainted with the garden here, the blueberry bushes have been in residence. I know that Jay did not give them alot of love back in the beginning, but there have been years when we really did try to care for them and coax berries to grow. There was even a year when we draped them in protective netting, thinking it would keep the birds from eating the few berries that managed to plump themselves into something edible. All the netting ever did was succeed in capturing birds, sending me bounding into the house to get Jay to untangle some poor (and angry) little tweeter who had gotten his spindly foot stuck. Whatever the reason - maybe the bushes sense that two little rugrats love blueberries, maybe it's just that they appreciate the neglect - We have LOTS of blueberries this year! Plump and scrumptious!

Mags will stand there and pick them until she's blue in the face (ha) - while I tend to the meager veggie garden I'm trying to maintain now that I am officially in "summer mode." This is a great task for her because it prevents her from trying to "help" by weeding my planters filled with sedums.

So Nice and Considerate, those Canadians

Flowers? I got flowers...

Pictures are better than words at Butchart Gardens. By the way, I still love my little camera. Look at the picture of Jay and girls going down the steps into the sunken garden - It was totally like when Willy Wonka leads the kids and parents into the chocolate room and tells them they can eat anything and everyone just stares in amazement and then runs around like crazy people. It was like that, except you weren't allowed to step on the grass and you really weren't supposed to consume the flowers.