Our summer

We are having one of those summers where every weekend is penciled in with an event. Zoo, retirement party, wedding, arts festival, wedding, farmers market, wedding. Yeah, there are a lot of weddings around these parts.

PS when is the right time to bring children to a wedding? I hate bringing kids. I forgot that I hated it so much so we ended up bringing them to a wedding last weekend and I nearly stabbed myself in the eye with a wooden spork at our table. They are just such a handful! That's putting it mildly. The spork stabbing feeling is much more accurate.

And now photos of non-spork stabbing inducing moments from our summer.

^^Visited our zoo. Fed a llama. Kind of a big deal.

^^Went to Farmer's Market. The mini donuts continue to be a hit with the Thiessen children.

^^Arts Festival snocones. Mix your own is a very clever idea and a thrill for a four year old. Hit up the Tiger's Blood, obviously.

^^Had a small sampling of fireworks for 4th of July and Dex loved it. He's using a lot of adjectives these days so everything was "really coool" and "awesome".

^^Oh, Evy. You're hot, then you're cold. You're yes, then you're no. We fight, we break up. We kiss, we make up.

Tidbits about our new old house

I love our new old house. We have a large list of projects to get through but I'm kind of in love with that list. I am all about flipping the entire house into something new and making it ours. I'm obsessed with HGTV and events like Junk Jubilee and family trips to Home Depot.  Paint swatches are my jam and pinning on Saturday morning with a cup of coffee is my idea of a great time. I'm in. I'm all in.

You should know a few things about our new old house. Quirky things. Examples:

The previous owner was a horticulturist, something is always in bloom in our yard. It's kind of a jungle though.

The washing machine makes a train whistle noise twice during its run. I kid you not, it is exactly like a train whistle. We went for a family walk once and could hear it from half a block down.

The ceiling fans in this house operate under a non-standard number of blades design. Our bedroom fan has four, Dexter's has three and Evy's has two.

The window treatments throughout the house are a combination of lace curtains and vinyl roller shades...from 20 years ago.

The walls in Evy's room are covered in what one could only describe as ripped up papier-mached brown paper bags.

We have our work cut out for us but then there's the butler staircase, the finished attic, and the reading nook in Dexter's closet. Those are pretty good things. And then there's that lovely front porch with a swing. The porch that lends itself so well to morning coffee, afternoon snacks and blowing bubbles for this family. And that might be the best tidbit of all.

Little boys, baby girls and the mama who loves them

I spent three days traveling for work last week. It seemed quite short and too long at the same time. I was up at 3 am for my flight on Wednesday and returned home shortly before midnight on Friday. By my flight home, I started looking at photos and videos of those two chickens and feeling a twinge of heartache.

On my flight out of town, I had made the mistake of dashing out of the house without a book or podcast downloaded for my flight from Des Moines to Orange County. I spent that journey trying to sleep on the plane and staring blankly ahead in silence. So in an effort to correct this amateur move, the night before my flight back home, I downloaded two episodes of The Moth. Have you listened to The Moth? It's really quite good. A series of five minute true stories that share a common theme told to a live audience. I didn't read the descriptions of the episodes that I chose but they ended up being about moms and dads. Some of the stories were about moms and dads either being ill or dying. Sigh, another amateur mistake. Read the description before you download if you do not want to be the girl pretending she has something in her eye as they prepare for landing. The stories were authentic and funny and heartbreaking and perfect.

I haven't been sure if I want to continue this blog thing. Even the bi-monthly posts I muster up are exhausting. However, one thought that has crossed my mind in the past and was again propped up in front of me after hearing these stories, was the idea of my kids and I missing the opportunity to know each other. What if history repeats itself and I leave this world when they are 17? I have photos and my own memories of my mom. It isn't enough.

And so, I am forging on. In addition to photos and memories, I think I'll give these kids my words. My stories of our long and short time together.

A few snapshots

Right now our lives are full of:

6 am wake up calls from a little boy asking if today is a school day.

6 pm fits from a baby girl who just wants to be held by her mom all.the.time.

playing on the front porch

Brother and sister starting to really play together

paint brushes and Pinterest and projects for the house

laptops and tip tapping on keyboards after the kids are in bed

date nights with dinner and errands