September lake day.

Two weeks ago we had a Sunday that was glorious. Fisher had Chess Club at the library, so we all rode our bikes there. Then, not wanting to spend any time indoors, Alla and I rode off to the lake to put in our toes and soak up some Vitamin D. I am thinking that because we did this, we earned yet another amazing Sunday yesterday - 85 degrees on October 11th. Amazing.

Anyway. Back to two weeks ago.

I often forget about the lake once school starts up and we are feeling a bit of fall, but let this day stand as a reminder that perhaps the best thing to do on a hot September (or October!) day, it to ride to a lake in your flip flops and pretend summer's never going to end. Walk in the water as long as you want, collect snails to put in a sandy shelter, walk out as far as you can without getting your clothes completely soaked, watch yellow leaves fall on the shore. Appreciate. Soak in.

Because like the flip of a switch, those warm hours are gone and the fleece is preferred over the flip-flops.

DHC Customer Spotlight

I've been outed. The new DHC catalog is out and I'm in it! Here's the story.

One day in April I was headed out for a snowy windy run when my cell phone rang and it was DHC on the other end, asking did I want to come out to San Francisco and be their Customer Spotlight for their November catalog. Um, let me think about it. YES!

Obviously LOTS of arrangements had to be made, but my mom and Bob were so amazing and took the kids for three nights so Ron and I could head out and enjoy the sunshine fog.

We were treated to an amazing dinner, I got to meet up with my old friend Vanessa from college days at Cal State Fullerton, and then I spend an entire day in a photo studio being primped and fed. They even made me a latte!

This here is the gorgeous Kala Ketchum, super make up and hair artist.

Ron and I even had a little time in the city, most of which we spend walking. A lot. Spotted this Fisher sign on a car.

Chinatown. You can't go to SF without walking through Chinatown. And getting chopsticks to bring home to your kids. You just can't.

Can you believe Ron spotted this SIX THIRTY-SEVEN sign while traipsing about the city? So he brought me back after my day in the spotlight so I could take a picture.

 

One of the coolest parts was that I was being photographed by a photographer, who also happens to shoot Canon, so whaddya know, he snapped this lovely one of Ron and I on our way out of the studio and into the car that was waiting to take us back to our hotel. It was all glam, I tell you!

Truthfully, when I found out we were going to San Francisco, I realized we were going to get to meet our new nieces, which was in fact the best part. It was short, but look at this face. What an amazing trip.

Random notes on the last day of September.

Now that we are headed into the second month of school, I can say with confidence that on most mornings there is some sort of crisis, but only five minutes before it's time to go. So, you know, no time to solve said crisis.

Halloween negotiations have begun, which means Alla trying to figure out how to get as much as she can in the way of dress-up clothes.

One thing I did well in September: joined the Y and started regularly taking the Body Pump class, so I can truthfully say that yes, I do lift weights. (A few dumbbells at home aren't the same, I learned this month.)

Apparently the kids on our street have moved on from baseball and are only wanting to play football now, which is breaking Fisher's heart.

We are hoping the Twins don't break our hearts this week.

Alla's latest obsessions: finding a babydoll (apparently at some point she gave all of hers away), and making working quills.

The best book I read in September: The Marvels. I recommend it to everyone.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. I am always suggesting that moms get in the picture, too, and rarely taking my own advice. Last Tuesday we were at a Twins game and I handed the camera to my daughter, who came through with this shot. Thank you, Alla!

2. We wore shorts and t-shirts to that game. In September. It is strangely warm for late September.

3. The way I know it's September is that both kids are coughing, and they have managed to gift me with a sore throat, sneezes, and snot. Thanks, school! No better way to enjoy the last day of summer than curled up with a cup of tea, I always say.

4. Our street was paved over the summer, and it is now a complete hazard to little boy knees. And elbows. And hands. Every kid in the neighborhood has fallen and completely left skin on the street. These are not clean cuts, they are just ripped off skin. Thanks, City of Shoreview.

5. With the kids back in school I decided to take on some ambitious personal care, namely joining the Y so I can be more focused on weight-training. Yes, you can work out in 10 minutes on You Tube, but no it's not the same as lifting a bar for an hour. My body will thank me, one day, I think.

6. The book dilemma has been resolved, as I finished Did You Ever Have a Family (fairly good) and got to move on to The Marvels (so far, lovely).

7. I've got a new spot over on the photo blog that showcases where I've been featured over the past few months - check it out!

8. The kids and I just finished up reading Gooseberry Park, which was a lovely read aloud. Heads up: you'll need four different voices for the four main characters.

9. Costco has a new chicken sausage that is chipotle lime flavor and calling my name for a late lunch.

10. On Sunday Fisher and I went out to lunch to celebrate his half birthday, and the ridiculous people at Red Robin decided that all three screens needed to be on the Vikings and not one could be switched to Twins baseball. Not one. If I had a Twitter account, I'd be alerting the Twins president. Luckily, we followed the play by play on MLB.com, which made my little seven and a half year old mostly happy.

Camp.

Last month we sent Alla to camp. For a week! This was all her doing; she asked in the spring if there was some camp she could go to and do all those fun outdoor things. She got her fill, let me tell you. She went during the one week where we had torrential rain and cool temps two days in a row, and she had to kayak to their cabin's overnight camp spot.

 

But. She was in good spirits when we picked her up and had so much to tell us, and you could tell it was good for her, and she learned things and was so confident. But needed hot water and clean clothes.

This happened to be the very same day we had to pick up Fisher from his last day of Diabetes [day] camp about an hour away from her camp, so we sped to a Target for clean shoes (I had brought everything else fresh, but who knew all three pairs of shoes would be muddy and there would be dirt in between her toes), and then walked around the lakefront in Hudson, Wisconsin for a bit.

 

The wind blew and she chatted all about the days and the kids and the counselors and the games and songs, and we just listened to her voice that we had never gone five whole days without.

 

Ten on Tuesday.

1. She's done it again, grown a whole bunch of beautiful sunflowers for us to gaze upon as fall rolls around.

 

2. That said, fall is taking its sweet time this year, and we're glad about that. The weather is still in the 80s and just gorgeous. It is so very nice to sit outside in only one layer.

 

3. Perfectly gorgeous weather for one more Twins game, I'd say. We have our fingers crossed that they can pull off a Wild Card slot.

 

4. I am anxiously awaiting today's delivery of my pre-ordered The Marvels.

 

5. I am, however, only about halfway through my current read, Did You Ever Have a Family, and those who know me are aware that I can only read one book at a time. Dilemma.

 

6. Yesterday I tried a class at the local Y, an all-over weight training class that is similar if not exactly the same class I used to take pre-kiddos, and I would be lying if I said that the entire back side of me is in very much pain today. I apparently need to add weight if working muscles on the front side of me.

 

7. This weekend our neighborhood had itself a mini-block party, which if you're not familiar with the term, means bring your own dinner to our driveway and eat it. We also stayed out past dark (!) with a lovely bonfire, chatted with our neighbor friends, and only got a few mosquito bites.

 

8. Our kids wanted hot dogs for said mini block party, but it was much easier for me to put something in the oven early in the afternoon and pull it out in time for sitting outside to eat it. If your neck of the woods isn't too hot for turning on ovens (or if you had to turn your A/C back on like me), then definitely make this Oven-Braised Mexican Beef. Couldn't be easier or more delicious.

 

9. We are back into it here. Alla came home with homework yesterday. Fisher is playing fall soccer. Alla had her audition for The Wizard of Oz this morning.

 

10. I just remembered I have at least a cup's worth of coffee still in the pot! Oh happy afternoon!

First day of fifth grade/first day of kindergarten.

This is my very first time getting to post a comparison like this, first day of kindergarten and first day of fifth grade. I may have jumped the gun, and yep I'll most likely get back here and do it again in June, but I simply couldn't resist. Obviously.

First day of school: 5th and 2nd.

5th and 2nd, for the love! It's a big year here with Alla rolling out of elementary. It means that it's the last time they will be together until Alla is a senior in high school. Okay, moving right along. Do not dwell on that little statistic, I just wanted to put it out there for posterity and that is all.

I have all those hopes of the start of every school year. For them to be kind and experience kind. For deep learning and a love of learning. For very good friends. For confidence. For finding what makes them tick. For feeling like they are just rocking it. All the hopes.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Both kids had successful (if slightly chilly) days at camp last week.

2. Two weeks left of summer here, and so grateful. I know some of you have started already or will be very soon and all I can say is I'M SORRY and THAT SUCKS because August is for summer.

3. That said, Back to School events are definitely on the horizon as the kids get to meet their teachers next week.

4. Fisher's buddy just returned from a two-week vacation, and to say he was excited to see his friend is an understatement. The kid went running when their car came around the corner.

5. It's been a bit chilly here with highs only in the low 60s, but we look to be in for a beautiful stretch of 70s and 80s for the rest of August and first bit of September, which is fantastic because we are not ready for fall. Fall is lovely and there are good apples, of course, but we know it will come and summer will leave no matter what we're ready for, so our family is the type to just want to hold on to summer as long as we can.

6. We are therefore excited for one last summer hurrah, which we have kept secret from the kids. I love secrets.

7. Reading a fantastically funny book recommended by Fisher and already read by Ron: My Near-Death Adventures. I'd recommend this book to readers young and old, as there's something in it for everyone!

8. Ron and I ran a combined 19 miles this weekend, which I will break down for you: 14 him, 5 me, both numbers of which are more than either of us are used to. Go us!

9. Unbelievably, the State Fair opens this week!

10. While Alla was away at camp Ron got her sunflower garden bed together and I hauled 800 pounds of dirt to fill it up. She was very surprised and delighted when she came home Friday evening!

Ten on Tuesday.

1. So it is down to this: 1 week of camps, 1 week of vacation, and 1 week to take it all in, mourn, and then it's second and fifth grades around here. I can't even say it yet, that's it's the end of one thing and the beginning of something else. Sigh.

2. Alla is on day three of camp. We miss her. It is incredibly weird and quiet with just one kid. I wonder what she is eating, if she is sleeping, who she's made friends with, what her favorite camp activity has been, what her face looks like when she gets all our letters.

3. Fisher is on day two of diabetes camp. Wow, this is the kind of thing I never thought possible for him, take him to camp, let him have all the fun, know he is safe.

4. While Alla has been away at camp, Daddy has built her a garden bed for her sunflowers. She is going to be so happy when she gets home, and that is going to be one happy garden when they are all in bloom!

5. I am nearly finished with Goodbye Stranger, but I think I am a little bit savoring it. To all the moms of pre-teens out there, this is an important book and down the road having a parent-child discussion over the themes brought up in the book will be very important.

6. Last week the kids and I finished Half Magic, a delightful read-aloud.

7. Since Alla is gone this week, we haven't started a new one, so I've been reading all of the Mercy Watsons to Fisher. My absolute favorite is when Animal Control Officer Francine Poulet shows up.

8. Today it rained all day. Cozy. Just not if you're driving 35 miles one-way, four times.

9. Kids at camp = running for me!

10. I dragged the school supplies out of the closet so I can label them because of #1. Then I'll be chucking them back in the closet as I continue in my denial.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. First Tuesday of the month, but my is this a great month, what with all thirty-one days and some camps for the kids, and a family outing to celebrate ten books read by each kid, and a family vacation and the start of the state fair. Please let August go slowly.

2. I say some camps for the kids as if they were just going to the local park program, when in fact Alla will be going to SLEEPAWAY camp and Fisher will be going to diabetes camp (just for the days in a week, thank goodness), so these are in fact really big deals.

3. Alla is in a day camp this week at Ron's work, an engineering camp from which she has brought home a light up hat and a contest-winning rocket, both of which she made. She is taking copious notes, love her, and this is making my engineer husband so very happy. She still wants to be a country vet with her own farm and animal menagerie, Babe. We have a long way to go.

4. This leaves Fisher and I with some days to fill. So far we've done bowling, a big hit, and Minnehaha Falls. I know this kid would love to do mini golf, so I'm looking for a good (shady) spot for that.

5. This is also Alla's final week of summer orchestra, and I am greatly looking forward to hearing her violin at tomorrow evening's concert, as she has really put in the time to practice this summer, what without the hours of math homework and all.

6. Fisher just today finished Harry Potter #3! I think he's hooked.

7. I am currently enjoying The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate.

8. One of my greatest responsibilities as keeper of the home is to supply my family with homemade granola, to be absolutely sure that we never ever run out.

9. Ron and I celebrated wedding anniversary Lucky Thirteen yesterday! Add to that the five years we dated before getting married, and that puts us at 18 together. Love that guy.

10. In cased you missed it, I was featured over on the Snap Maven blog, which I recommend you check out just for nostalgia's sake. Gosh I loved going through my files for favorite images!

Tamarack.

Beautiful, if a little hot at Tamarack Nature Center yesterday afternoon. Lots of space for personal agendas, whether dam building or pool forming or just redistributing buckets of sand. I'm always amazed at how peaceful and quiet it is there, unlike any other playground. Kids work together in their sand and water industries, adults are cooled by the kid-powered stream, too.

One of our must-do's every summer.

Duluth 2015.

We just returned from a lovely jaunt up to the North Shore. Yay! (Alla is showing how we all felt about being there. Nothing like dipping your toes in fifty degree water! It's refreshing!

Fisher has other faces, I think, but this is one of his best. Ha! Perhaps after an afternoon of hiking Gooseberry, this is the best he can do.

Thankfully my other child has better faces, even after the same amount of hiking.

Ah, Duluth, where you can make a whole day out of enjoying your lake view in an Adirondack chair, unless you have a kid like Alla who makes a whole day out of exploring every last rock and crevice and you're sure she'll just slip right into Superior and be lost forever.

Where no one can resist finding dozens of rocks, skipping them, collecting them, plunking them, stacking them.

Where someone used to an ocean can have that same immense feeling, of being so small next to something so big. Also, here, since I have never been in the winter, I always try to imagine what Superior looks like snow-covered. All of it.

 So thankful we got up there for a few days.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. I'm happy to report that my crockpot is ON, plugged IN, and making us chicken tacos for dinner.

2. Many of you will also be happy to hear that I have gotten up THREE times now to go for runs before the sun gets hot, and while it's not pretty or fast, I might be getting the hang of it, and at the very least I am certainly enjoying the fact that I can check that off the list before the kids are even up.

3. Kids and I went for a lovely bike ride this morning to a nearby park with big rocks to climb. Sometimes I am wondering as I hear them stirring in their beds what we are going to do today, do they want to do something from our summer list, the summer is so short! And then they rise slowly in only that way that happens in summer, with their books, curl up somewhere with them while I get breakfast going, and I hope not to rush out and do something.

4. I am super happy to report that Fisher has finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, loved it and wants to keep on with the series!

5. Last night we had one of our favorite dinners, crockpot baked sweet potatoes with bacon and cheese. Ron also added BBQ sauce and coleslaw and declared it the happiest meal ever.

6. Today we harvested the first of the beets! It's like magic putting itsy seeds into the ground and ending up with these big leaves growing red round deliciousness at the ends.

7. I had really hoped to finish All the Light We Cannot See before the end of May June, but as we are down to the last 5 or 6 hours of it that I'll be awake and I have 200 pages left to read, still, I am fairly certain that it's going to carry into July. Please don't be scared off. It's very, very good. Maybe it's one of those savor books. Maybe it's just that our May was crazy and our June was settling into summer, but the next two months I'm going to read 20 books.

8. A recommendation for your road trips: listen to The Wednesday Wars. I read it a few years ago so I knew it was good, but it might be even better on audio book, and the kids absolutely loved it. Funny, sad, witty, insightful, and interesting because it takes place in 1968. Highly recommend you run to your local library for it before you road trip again.

9. I've heard Harry Potter is also wonderful on audio book...

10. I can't believe it, but we've made it to the end of June and we've yet to turn on our air-conditioning.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. We are happily into our third week of summer here, and the schedules of school have pretty much been forgotten. The kids are sleeping in. Alla in particular is doing this like it's her job.

2. Last weekend Ron and I spent two nights in San Francisco! And then a night south meeting our beautiful twin nieces. They are so cute, I just cannot express the cuteness of two baby girls together.

See what I mean? I even have some great ones of them both laughing at the same time with Mama. Coming soon, as in the next time I get to sit down at the computer!

3. Father's Day, like Ron's birthday, was glorious, and by glorious I mean that the sun shone, no one had to wear a sweater, we dined outdoors. Glorious. Oh, and we celebrated what a great dad Ron is and all that. And saw Jurassic World. So fun!

4. We are headed to the [Air Force] Thunderbirds show in Mankato this weekend, which Fisher assures us is going to be so much fun.

5. The kids are also reading books like it's their job, which really sounds like a fun summer job. If only school didn't get in the way of reading. Hm. Anyway, we have finally got Fisher onto Harry Potter, and he is in the middle of the first book and seems to be enjoying it. I haven't heard yet whether he will continue with the series. Stay tuned. Alla will start a new book at breakfast (this morning it was Circus Mirandus), and by bedtime she'll have it half-read. Clearly I should have picked heavier books. As in tomes.

6. We were supposed to have delicious chicken burrito bowls for dinner, but the crockpot bandit struck again! Do you have this at your house, where you walk in expecting yummy smells but instead you smell, um, just house? Today the crockpot was mysteriously unplugged, last time it was set to 'warm' instead of 'high.' Ah, well, try again tomorrow.

7. The only downside of summer that I can see, and which is an every summer problem for me, is not finding time to run. I am not a morning runner, as in before breakfast or, gasp, coffee, and by the time the sleepyheads awaken it's often too hot. Yesterday I tried to solve this problem by running to Fisher's baseball game. Luckily the location was moved and Ron had to come pick me up mid-run. It was hot.

8. Our summer adventure yesterday was getting a Venus flytrap. Alla thinks it is the coolest ever. I'm going to have to watch her, because she wants to feed it critters all day.

9. We are very much enjoying our deck now! The chairs have been padded so as not to scratch and the pots are sitting on risers to do the same.

10. Our garden is in perhaps its best year ever since the first year or two. I attribute this to my husband building a new frame this year, higher, so there was an opportunity to put lots of new soil and compost in there, and the plants seem to be happy about it. Even the peas and beets we grew from seed are tall and full and lush! Yay summer!

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Summer is up and running!

2. Fisher - first day/last day comparison. I'm not sure about growth-wise, but I definitely see a need for a haircut and some teeth.

3. Alla - 1st day/last day comparison. She looks like the same kid from September to June, to me. Thank God.

4. So, summer. I always feel like the first two weeks are just a different animal, because we do the everyday swim lessons thing these first two weeks, which takes up our whole morning. Alla really wants to keep swimming for more of the summer, and Fisher needs to, so I may see about a private lesson for him so that we can be in and out of there in less time. Currently we have Fisher's lesson, then wait 40 minutes, then Alla's. It's a long morning.

5. Currently we are having our first 90 degree day and I am listening to the hose being turned on and off and child delight and screams and water balloons being popped and it is wonderful.

6. I think summer may be slightly more relaxed this year with only one kid playing an evening sport. Ah, baseball, the quintessential summer sport.

7. Our new deck is lovely and might soon have furniture on it for the enjoying. Ron has bought some sort of chair dealies that protect your deck. Even your plastic deck.

8. Are you looking for summer reading lists for your kiddos? Look no further! Alla started with Little House and is now almost done with the Chicken book. Fisher started with Sideways Stories, then read Endurance, and is now onto Derek Jeter. I must catch up!

9. The catch to our summer reading lists this year is that by July 31st each kid must make a recommendation to each parent and each parent must then read those [two] books before the family activity can be done!

10. Summer also means summer eating, which means that by the end of summer I have often forgotten how to cook. So I was glad to come across a few new recipes recently that have just been so easy, also approved by all family members, and also kind of cooking. One favorite: Chicken sandwiches. Put two pounds chicken in crockpot. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle 1/2 cup BBQ sauce on top. Put 15 oz. crushed pineapple on top of that. At the end shred the chicken and stir in some diced red onion. Serve on buns, or whatever. I had mine over rice and quinoa. Delish.

TWENTY on Tuesday.

Twenty, because was your May as busy as ours? These twenty are all from the day before Labor Day through today.

1. Ron turned 38.

2. I potted a jillion flowers.

3. Ron ripped up our deck.

4. Ron replaced all the boards on our deck.

5. Ron doesn't want furniture to scratch our new deck.

6. Fisher found a smallish toad.

7. Ron found a smallish toad, as well as a very large one that is currently residing under one of our hostas.

8. A mama duck crossed our street in the rain with her twelve little ducklings. Twelve!

9. Fisher took me on a 3 mile run. That kid ran the whole time.

10. Fisher ran a 7:45 1.1 mile at our school's Fun Run. He was the 5th finisher of the entire school.

11. The baby robins left.

12. I am still reading All the Light We Cannot See. It is very good. I am not reading lots lately.

13. Alla and I started clearing rocks for a new flower bed. We are now in search of native perennials to attract butterflies.

14. A lot of baseball has been played.

15. Train track-building remains a great rainy day activity.

16. We finally put the winter clothes away.

17. Alla and I went to see The Weepies in concert. So amazing!

18. I went to about seven hundred different school events.

19. I gave the kids their summer reading lists!

20. Two more days of school. Cannot wrap my head around that.

Mother's Day.

My biggest priority on Mother's Day is always, always getting in the picture. I maybe get in one shot a month all year long, so I figure Mother's Day is my May photo op! I make sure to leave that camera close by before I go to bed on Saturday night so that my loving husband can snap a few after he brings me breakfast in bed. He really does. Every year. I am so lucky.

And I leave it out so that when I get together with my own mom later that day, I get a picture of she and I together too!

I did take one photo myself on Mother's Day, because we woke up to find that three of the four robin eggs had hatched overnight, just as Alla predicted. I wish I could just cut away those deck boards for a better view! Happy Mother's Day, Mama Robin!

Ten on Tuesday.

1. I had quite a nice Mother's Day that began with breakfast in bed. Any day that starts like that is going to be a good one. Thank you family!

2. We woke up on Mother's Day to find that Mama Robin had three (of four) babies! Yesterday the fourth hatched, and now it should be about two weeks til they start hopping out of the nest.

3. Two weeks too long for Ron, who is waiting so patiently for these robins to do their thing so he can re-deck our deck.

4. The next two weeks at school are the busiest of the year, as in every evening I will congratulate myself if we get to all events on time, have some semblance of a healthy meal eaten mostly together, and return home with all members of our family.

5. We are, however, in our very last full week of the school year, a fact I had to double check when a teacher said it, but, yes, it's true, the rest of the weeks all have only four school days in them. Holy Bagumba!

6. Fisher goes to the doctor for a re-check on his broken pinky tomorrow. Fingers crossed everyone, because it is really hard to be seven and decked out in your baseball uniform and have to sit on the bench.

7. I heard we lost The Mindy Project, but in fantastic fall TV news, The Muppets! The Muppets!

8. Because of #4, reading has slowed down a bit, however I did finish the book the kids and I were reading (A Year Down Yonder), plus my own book (The Honest Truth), and on Sunday I read Roller Girl. So, finished two and enjoyed a graphic novel. Very satisfying.

9. I had to return Echo, however, because my slowed-down reading pace couldn't get it finished before it was due. Instead, I'm starting All the Light We Cannot See, which has been sitting on my nightstand since my birthday. Treasure!

10. And with that I'm off for a short run, volunteering in Fisher's class, picking them up at separate times, trying to do some of the things in #4, and heading off to Reading Hall of Fame ceremonies tonight!

Ten on Tuesday.

1. We got through Annie weekend, and Alla did beautifully. She had fun, she shined.

2. The official photographer wanted to get through all of the pictures by today, but sadly that looks unlikely.

3. Tonight we're back at it with the National Anthem at the Twins game!

4. Due to this singing, we will not be fiesta-ing tonight, but perhaps we can make it up on the weekend.

5. I am reading The Honest Truth.

6. I am reading A Year Down Yonder to the kids.

7. With Ron off doing Air Force Academy duties last night, the kids and I went out after dinner for a lovely spring walk. Goodness the blossoms have the air everywhere smelling so sweet!

8. We had Asian Meatballs last night, thanks to my friend Jennifer, and they were divine.

9. Last week we made Quick + Easy Lentil Quesadillas, and I'm so glad I froze half of the filling so we can pull that deliciousness out in a week or so.

10. There are four beautiful eggs in our robin's nest and we are thinking that baby number one make make his or her debut on Mother's Day!