Hardy Blooms

As much as I'm trying to deny this, autumn is coming quickly. Young geese are out for their work-outs on cool mornings. Tomatoes are ripening. The garden is (finally) producing. Even on an 85-degree day, we need sweatshirts in the evening. The tree that seems to always "turn" first at my in-law's has reportedly started to take on some color. Bowhunting season starts in a bit less than 48 hours.

It's going to happen. Summer is going to end.

For now, though, I choose to hang onto the warmth, the ease, the sweat of summer. Some of my sweet plants in our front bed, which has been bug-ridden and disease-ridden basically since we moved in four years ago, have joined me in my denial of autumn.

My thoughtful daylilies (I think that's what they are?) have sent out one more bloom. Maybe there will even be more to follow, if we can hold onto the glittery-golden weather of autumn a long time before the ice-blue winter covers us.

In the meantime, I took the chance on an evening without a breeze to experiment with my "macro" abilities (of which I have very little!). It was fun, though, to get outside, ever-so-quickly, and get the clearest macros I've gotten so far. Being too lazy to drag out our tripod very often has left me with very few clear pictures, so, while these are not superbly clear, they're my best so far! I'm excited about progress!

And even more so, I'm excited to see my yellow blooms and one little purple bloom on a perennial geranium, as well!

Here's to a long, beautiful, drawn-out, full-of-lawn-mowing-into-November autumn!

There are quite a few things that are "off" about this summer...the incredibly late start, the towering plants yet small amount of produce the garden has cranked out, the startling amount of water still lingering around our entire state....yet mixed amongst those oddities are unexpected moments of beauty, of normalcy, of routine.

The bees are busy....

...very, very busy....As a sidenote, I did not crouch to take this photo - that's the honest height of my marigolds.


These beautiful little creations still dot our yard. I've decided to give them a break and focus my attacks on the thistles and nightshade. It's hard for me to work up motivation to attack plants that aren't going to hurt me or kill my children and pet. These little guys really just brighten the green space, cause no one any harm, and provide some of the most unexpected beauty a Mommy will ever know. Our table has been adorned with them most of the summer, and they could just as well be bouquets of roses - they mean just as much as they come in scrunched tightly in excited little hands!


Really, I know each little fluff will create thousands of more little yellow annoyances for next spring; still, it's beautiful. This one caught our attention from inside the house during supper as the late summer sun's golden rays sunk low enough to hit our yard at just the right angle to make him glow. I might just eat him if I knew how.



Nearly every year at this time I think about my time as a college student. I can still smell the musty newspapers over which I poured, hour after hour, as the sun exploded into orange and pink outside the library, or as a cold rain drizzled down. I can see each room I lived in - all four of them are still fresh in my mind. I can feel my queasy stomach the day my parents dropped me off for the first time. My hands still remember shaking with first-day-of-class nerves, unsure whether I would have time to run between back-to-back classes across campus, unsure whether this would be the class where my professors realized I really wasn't a top student and had just been faking them out all along, the class in which I finally just couldn't produce quality work. There was an adrenaline rush in all of those uncertainties; it kept me pounding the books all semester long, paper to paper, test to test. As I type, some of the adrenaline rushes back. I love the smell of old books. I loved the rush of final exams. I loved the exhaustion of term papers. I love learning, exploring, writing, proving myself again and again. This time of year, especially, I look back on those years and remember how much I loved about them. I loved them so much I thought they'd be my life.



But I don't remember ever noticing a dandelion. And I know no one ever brought me one.

Red

Apparently we were having a "red" day in the yard yesterday!



We're going to have to check the library for insect identification books, I believe, because I'm finding myself needing to explain differences among dragonflies when I never knew there were any! Much to her pleasure, this little red guy made friends with Miss Mouse.

The most amazing strawberries in the world are flowering and producing again. It took them a few years to get adjusted here; they came from Sheldon via Enderlin via Hawley. They worked hard to get settled, and for awhile they didn't resemble the all-summer-producing patch I left in Enderlin much at all; they produced a very small crop last year. Now that they've recovered, though, and learned to love their new home, they're right back to sending us bright red jewels of sweetness from spring to fall. Welcome back, strawberries! Our whole family loves you, and I understand you all too well. Welcome back!




Definitely a red letter day in the yard!

Lord Make Me Brave

How often do we think to pray that as adults? When our stomach flops with butterflies, when we have to swallow back tears harder than we'd like, when we can't see where we're going past where we're at....Do we remember to ask God for the courage to trust Him and move ahead?

Maybe everyone else reading this does, but I do not. At least I don't as often as I should or as automatically as I should. Usually I skip the prayer part and go right to the figure-it-out-myself part. You'd think I'd learn...and really, I am learning.

I'm learning from this sweet face.

Miss Mouse still loves her swimming lessons, but she's started to face some challenges with them, too. Last week she was to go down the water slide, in a lifejacket, and be caught by her swimming teacher. I stared in surprise as she hesitated at the top and then slowly came out the bottom, using her feet to slow herself slightly.

We talked about it on the way home, and she acknowledged that she was nervous and a bit scared to slide down to her teacher rather than her mommy. Another blogger I read had mentioned a few weeks ago about using the story of Daniel and the lions to illustrate bravery for her own daughters in their swimming lessons, so I went ahead and shamelessly plagiarized her idea since we had just read about Daniel (and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, too - Miss Mouse loves their names!). I explained how Daniel must have been frightened and how the other three must have been scared, but they all prayed to God to help them be courageous and brave and to do what they needed to do. We talked about Miss Mouse being able to pray to be brave, too.

Later that night she told me she had thanked God during her personal bathroom time for making her brave. Hmmm...not the timing I had imagined, but, hey, I'm just going to focus on the fact she's praying.

Today Miss Mouse was encouraged to jump in to her teacher - which she has done before, but this was a different teacher since her usual was on vacation - and Miss Mouse was fairly adamant that the teacher needed to catch her. I often don't catch her anymore, so I knew she was feeling nervous again as the other parents and I all watched our kiddos and chatted.

On our way home today, I asked Miss Mouse if she had felt nervous again. She acknowledged that she had, and then she added: "But I prayed to God before I jumped in that He would make me brave, and He told me 'Go ahead and jump in. It's okay. I can always see you'."

Even her Daddy was a bit taken aback tonight when he heard that from her mouth. So often I get bogged down by all we need to get done in the day and start thinking that *I* am the teacher in the threesome of women in our family. Then my sweet four-year-old hears God tell her He can always see her, and that reassures her enough to face her fears.....And I'm humbled and remember, yet again, that I seem to be learning far more than I'm teaching these Mice.

"I can always see you". What a comforting thought if we'd really let it sink in the same way a four-year-old can.

Beautiful Weekend

What a surreal few days it has been in the air around here. We missed the pyrotechnics show, mainly because the Mice have been absolutely exhausted far too early in the evening for fireworks. Fortunately, though, we've had a front-row spot for the air show. Huber thinks the idea is fine as long as he is free to roam around the yard, and the picture shows Sunny Mouse making an impressed face. Truly, that's her impressed. Miss Mouse is on her third day of seeing the Blue Angels perform, and, although she seems nonchalant, she was still impressed by their moves.

This was the favorite of Miss Mouse, when the F-18 would start "smoking". We were at the splash pad on Thursday when they began their practice, and it truly was surreal to see them flying so very low, right above our heads, pouring smoke out the back. What an afternoon in the sun!

I was standing on a chair in the yard, shotting straight above me, attemping to show how very close they were.

Unreal.

I realize this isn't an impressive picture of the actual airplane, but I loved the clouds.

Again, I'm in love with these clouds. They're beautiful.

More of the clouds....I think it is most amazing to me to think of the pilots flying so close to those beautiful clouds. I wonder if they ever get used to it, if it ever becomes rote, everyday, to fly so closely with other pilots, in such incredible aircraft, showing off their skills to people who have no clue (i.e., me) and to others who have (i.e., Mr. T).

Can you find four? They're all right behind our evergreen branch in the backyard.

More plane pictures taken from my perch in the backyard.

And more...these were greeted usually with shouts of "Here they COME!" from my Mice as well as all the neighbor kids (and, to be honest, I was saying the same thing.....)

We could really see the writing on them - much more clearly than my pictures can show.

I cropped off my roof, but those are the trees in the front of our house that they're flying over.

While I was shooting pictures of the Blue Angels showing off the beauty that our intelligence and skill can allow us to create and enjoying the heavenly clouds in the sky that day, we all noticed this monarch land on one of our marigolds. More beauty.

I feel sort of proud thinking that there is bokeh in the back of that photo, but I'm guessing that lilac leaves don't really count.

But, hey, as an aside, I'm shooting from my own eye level. The marigold is five feet tall this summer and was started from seed that Miss Mouse, Sunny Mouse, and I planted in June. Not bad, in my book!

Part of why I wanted this camera so badly was to force me, ahem, encourage me to concentrate on the beauty that does appear simply in my backyard. I love my purple basil plants this year. We've been nearly saturated with pesto, and I'm looking forward to freezing some with my helpers this year! Miss Mouse brushed against one of my ten plants (yes, ten) the other day and pranced around, explaining that "I smell like basil now!".

So, in many ways we've had a beautiful weekend. It capped a beautiful week spent with Grammy and Great Auntie Linda. I have zoo pictures and butterfly hunting pictures to post, as well, but for tonight, I'm turning in and looking forward to dreams filled with puffy white clouds, strong monarch butterflies, and the fresh smell of basil.

Independent Lessons or Lessons in Independence

Miss Mouse and I took parent-child swimming lessons together when she was seven months old. It was a fun and lovely experience except for the dunking. I honestly don't care if others want to dunk their babies and see it as an important way for them to get accustomed to the water and to grow up not fearing submersion. That's fine. But I didn't....so that meant that I also wouldn't send my seven-month old down the water slide. That was the first time I ever disobeyed a direct command in a classroom setting. Ever.


Fast forward four years, and we were enrolled in parent-child lessons again during the month of July this year. I wanted to be sure Miss Mouse was familiar with the pool setup, the routine, the setting. She does better all around when she feels the comfort of familiarity. It's one of the many things I've learned about her in the past four years.

We had a great time together this time. We practiced our new "skills" with our pool membership in the public pools, too. Mr. T even got to join us a few evenings, so all four of us enjoyed swimming in the "big pool" then. When I fly solo in the afternoons, we stay in the splash pad area or the kiddie pools because I'm not quick enough to keep up to two little Mice...and I have two few arms. Somewhere I had heard that it was a good idea to teach children to swim without water wings, life jackets, or other floatation devices. That made sense to me as I remembered how adamant my Grandpa Don was that my sister and I would be comfortable(ish) on a horse bareback before we were allowed to ride on a saddled one. If we hopped on a saddled horse and thought we knew how one moved, at some point we'd come crashing down to earth with the knowledge that we really didn't know the real feel of the horse. Well, it made sense to me that if children think they can swim, and with the confidence Miss Mouse has in herself these days, she definitely would have had that line of thinking in her head, that then they get overconfident and end up in more danger because they don't know the bounds of their own limited knowledge. They just don't recognize their own true limits. Obviously, most children are currently learning to swim in floatation devices, so this probably is overanalytical and not helpful for most people. It made sense to me, but in no way do I see it as the "only" or "best" way to think or to pursue fish-dom for one's kiddos. Everyone's got to make their own calls on how, when, where, etc., and I can respect differences in opinions as much as I hope others respect my own crazy-ness!!!

Whether the recommendation about floaties is true or not, I don't know, but we went with it. So, Miss Mouse has spent her summer in the water, within arms reach of an adult and without external supportive devices...probably because her mommy analyzes decisions and rationales too much, I suppose! She's danced around the pools, jumped around the pools, played ring-around-the-rosies with me, dunking herself at the end, and jumped in to me or her Daddy exhuberantly. At our last parent-child lesson, she was allowed to wear water wings and go down the water slide. Several other children went down multiple times, but none did it as many times as she did. The minute her head popped up out of the water, she was swimming for the side to climb out and do it again, and this was no 'imitation waterslide'. Although it was short, she was flying down into the five-foot end of the pool into her five-foot-two mother's arms, so each time she did end up dunking under the water before I could manage to grab her up! She did love those water wings, and since she has spent so much time learning her own comfort zone and knowledge limits this summer, I didn't mind her wearing them for a fun evening at all! Unlike four years ago, I didn't feel that I had to say "no" to the slide, either, which was really fun! I did notice, though, that no longer did the teachers push the parents of six- and seven-month olds to put their kids down the slide, and none of them did; in fact, one of the teachers told one parent to wait until their child was older and had stronger neck muscles. Perhaps I'm not the rebel I thought I was.

At our second of four parent-child lessons, I pointed out the children in the independent swimming lessons. I asked Miss Mouse if she thought she'd like to take those with a teacher and other children instead of having Mommy in the water with her because, after all, that's what I was intending to get her ready for by doing the parent-child lessons. She hesitated and told me she'd like to get "user" to the water before I left her with a teacher.

It took her one week to get "user", apparently. On our third week, she told me she was ready to have me sit in "the little room" and watch her have a lesson with the teacher. I mentioned that I could stay by the pool and watch like some of the other mommies were doing, but she was clear that I should go into the little "watching area" and leave her with her teacher.

Honestly, that level of independence is what I've been raising her for....but it still tugs on my heart that it is happening so seemingly quickly. She loves, loves, LOVES her swimming lessons. She's made friends with another little girl in the class (she's six), and she asks everyday if it is a "swimming lesson day". The hesitation and caution that she displayed in skating lessons last year has disappeared, and she spends her "free time" in class, while the teacher is with one of the other three children, following the rules by hanging onto the sides of her little platform area but also "practicing" by dunking herself and then waving at me!

I can still see in her eyes the little girl I held and rocked and sang to, even as I see her scamper off happily behind her swimming teacher, tie her own shoes, order her own food at restaurants, introduce herself to other children, ride her own bike (with training wheels, of course), and pedal behind me on our trail-a-bike (you'll have to google it...I don't have pictures yet...which will make sense if you take a look at the setup).

She's turning out to be sweeter, more kind, more sensitive, more independent, and more confident than I could ever have imagined when I held that tiny girl in my arms. Sometimes it seems as if this is in spite of me, but I'm amazingly, crazily, unbelievably blessed to have witnessed her development and growth these past four years. I'm so proud of who she has always been, who she's becoming, and who she will be. To be able to spend my days helping her learn new things, try new experiences, heal from emotional and physical hurts, learn how to treat others, learn how to get along with others.....What a gift.

Even if I wasn't quite ready to go sit in the "little room".

Zoo

We had a lovely, ridiculous, and truly enjoyable weekend.

We started by taking the girls swimming at our splash pad on Friday night. It's a treat for Mr. T to be with because then we all get to be in the "big pool".

Saturday morning we packed up and started the trip to the "big city". The girls did marvelously well travelling, especially with the promise of swimming once we arrived at the hotel. Upon arrival the ridiculous nature of the weekend's events began because the hotel had no pool. Our flexible little Mice adjusted just fine, though, and played in a small green space near the hotel with some of the punch balloons that my well-prepared mother-in-law had packed along. They thought playing in the "park" was a grand time. I'm wishing I had the two pictures that my sister-in-law has - one shows Miss Mouse tossing a green punch balloon in the air, lifting her little arms toward the sky - the other shows Grandma Kathy doing the same thing. Priceless and very sweet!

After our time in the park, we headed off in search of food. We gathered at an Applebees near the hotel (in the hotel, actually) but apparently had not begun our search as soon as we should have. We left our name and began the wait for a table for six adults and two children. Not long thereafter, one of those children needed a restroom. Sunny Mouse happily ran to the nearest bathroom which was back in the hotel (strangely enough, the restaurant did not have one), so off we went. Unfortunately, I was not a great bathroom assistant, and, due to no mistake of her own, little Sunny needed to travel back up to the hotel room for clean pants. In the meantime, Miss Mouse was amusing herself and Grandma Kathy by riding the escalator - repeatedly. These Mice really do have a special place in their hearts for machinery of all sorts.

Well, nearly an hour after we had initially left our name for a table, we four adults who were needing to leave for the U2 concert decided to bow out of the restaurant plan. The grandparents and Mice were able, then, to get immediate seating in the stuffy, overcrowded Applebees. We heard that even after they were seated and goodbyes were said, they waited 30 more minutes before actually seeing any food. Thankfully, I know the evening improved for the Mice since I saw evidence of some serious marker use! Miss Mouse told me they colored costumes on their bodies. Washable markers are lovely things, as are Mice who, though they may color on themselves, do not often think of coloring anything else other than paper. The sweet girls were sound asleep by the time their Daddy and I returned (thank goodness! It was late).

For our part, Mr. T and I had a marvelous time at the concert. He and his sister were definitely the reason for the concert attendance, since I grew up listening to Merle Haggard, Charlie Pride, Alabama, etc. rather than U2. My excitement about the event came mainly from how excited Mr. T was and also from the work that I know Bono has done to address injustice, poverty, and pain in parts of the world known and unknown to most of us. Although the concert was supposed to start "promptly" at 7 p.m., the opening band didn't get going until well after that time. They finished around 8, and U2 didn't walk out until around 9. Even so, it was definitely a concert worth waiting for! It was even a concert worth standing in the rain for 2.5 hours to enjoy! Yes, I honestly said "enjoy"! I told my mother-in-law that it was probably some of the most uncomfortable two hours I've ever spent, but it was likely the most spectacular concert I will ever have the opportunity to attend, as well! The only reason we got to attend this one is that they graciously gave us tickets for Mr. T's birthday gift!

As if an amazing group of amazing performers playing in pouring rain with an incredible screen show going at the same time was not enough entertainment, we also were "treated" to a soap opera two rows down from us. A young couple in rain ponchos were sitting next to two groups of two guys. As the concert continued, Mr. T observed that one of the four single men was smoking, ahem, something illegal. My observant husband pointed out that the man was using his left hand and being fairly inconspicuous about the whole deal. The young couple, on the other hand, were not so shy about their activities and were lighting up under the woman's plastic rain poncho. It was a very small, very fitted poncho, so the flame they were working with was very close to her body and to the plastic. It really was not such a brilliant setup they had going. Somewhere during the evening the young woman attached herself to one of the other men, irritating the man she came with to no end. We had an even better view of this whole saga when an unfortunate pregnant woman and her husband finally left, likely to get their unborn baby away from secondhand marijuana!

As we made our soggy way back to the hotel, ears ringing, shoes squishing, clothes dripping, I looked forward to a hot shower, knowing that the discomfort I endured for the sake of being entertained for two hours would end once I walked the very short distance to our hotel room. My sister-in-law may not have booked a hotel with a pool, but she certainly booked the absolute best one we could have had at midnight that wet night! Unquestioningly the best hotel! Being privileged enough not only to attend such a concert but also to walk a short distance to what I knew would be a hot shower....I was humbled with appreciation for the privileges I have in life. With that privilege comes a great responsibility, which is, I believe, one of the biggest ideas that the band we enjoyed hopes people take away from their concerts.

We began the next morning with a search for breakfast. This search culminated in a delicious way with an egg white, cheddar, and sundried tomato spred on a sesame bagel for me. Auntie Steph and Grandma Kathy each had the same yummy sandwich. Unfortunately, this sandwich started a tough day for Grandma's white capris. I know I could not have done any better in white pants than she did that day. I'm still in awe that she had had them for several years - white pants in my closet don't last through one season! Anyway, white pants don't care for sundried tomato spread (nor pizza, nor strawberry popsicle, nor cocktail sauce....).

After breakfast, we drove to the zoo. As we were checking in, Grandma Kathy asked how long it takes most people to get through all the exhibits. The girl at the counter replied that it could take around 3 hours. At that point, I guessed that we would be there 4-5. Both of our girls are sort of like my sister in that they want to look and see and study each different display.

We stopped first at the penguins which tied with the monkeys for being Miss Mouse's favorite animals to see.

I think this is a lemur. Before we had children, Mr. T and I used to watch a PBS show featuring a lemur, I think. Now that we have children, we don't watch television, so I have no idea if it is still on or not!

The crowds at the zoo were fairly heavy (to a prairie girl, anyway!), and the debate around this exhibit was whether they were alive or not. One little boy studied the reptiles and finally announced that they were, indeed, alive because he saw this one's throat moving with breath. Grandma Kathy and I confirmed it; this creature is alive.

More of Miss Mouse's and Grandma Kathy's and Grammy's favorite exhibit.

I happen to love flamingos. They're pink. Enough said.

Auntie Steph let Miss Mouse practice her photography skills at the zoo. I won't ever push my interests on my children, but even as I attempt to scratch my way up the photographic learning curve, secretly I really do hope that Miss Mouse will far surpass me in knowledge and skill! And bravo to Auntie Steph for letting her try...she doesn't get to touch mine!

This is how I felt on the way home after four stops for Sunny to use the bathroom, an air conditioner that wasn't working in a stuffy car, a "people overload" from the zoo and traffic, and a sad tummy from a Chinese buffet. I, too, had a sort of smile on my face, but, like this guy, I was not pretty!

There's not much to say about this. I just think these zoo creatures showcase an amazingly creative God.

I know my color is off here, but I love the expression. It's the exact way one would hope her child's eyes would look at a zoo aquarium.

A snake phobia I have....a frog phobia, no so much. This colorful little guy is poisonous and could kill me. Am I afraid of him? Not really. Show me a garter snake in the yard, and I'll have a panic attack.

Sunny Mouse was pretty serious for the first minutes at the zoo. She's not a big crowd fan, either, I don't think. At least she's not when the crowd isn't focused on her. She did, though, get into the fun after awhile. Then we had a little time where she didn't have so much fun again, but after falling asleep on my shoulder for about 30 minutes, she was back up and ready for more fun!

Auntie Steph found Fancy Nancy-type zoo tiaras. Not much can be more exciting than combining two such
favorites as Fancy Nancy and the zoo!

Sunny, of course, had to put hers on herself, which is why it is on in front of her ears.

There was some sort of Dr. Seuss theme going on this summer at the zoo, and the girls found Sam-I-Am from Green Eggs and Ham.

Admittedly, this is a terrible picture as far as anything technical goes. But it does what I wanted it to do in that it shows my sweet Miss Mouse separated by only a glass window from the largest cat on earth. She says she liked the tigers fine, but she sure couldn't get out of there fast enough. Sunny picks the "tigers" as her favorites because they say "roar". To get the full effect of that statement, you have to hear it in sweet little girl voice and know that she can't say her "r"s.

Here she is again, standing right by the tiger's head.

More evidence of an incredibly creative Creator. This seahorse was so amazingly delciate and intricate.

That was Sunny's expression to begin the day. Thankfully she enjoyed the experience just as much as her big sister. We were there for six hours, and leaving was still difficult.

To prove that we were all, in fact, on vacation at the same time doing some fun playing together!

My favorite picture of the entire weekend (much more favorite than the silly one my loving hubby took of me after being soaked for two hours...and then posted on Facebook).

Really, though, this is my favorite because it shows what life is like for us at this point, what life is like for a Daddy of two little Mice. They're always going, always talking, always squealing, always questioning, and their sweet Dad who is naturally quiet, thoughtful, quiet, contemplative, and, most of all, quiet - just hangs onto his three girls and tries to decide whose question needs answering first! And, even though the amount of "talk" in this household has to be overwhelming for a man, and especially for a naturally quiet one, he loves us, enjoys us, and does his best to figure us out!