even Pippa was being silly

Our last morning at the beach… I’m so glad we trekked onto the sand to get this photo!

beach

I am beginning to love our annual vacation down to Cape May, NJ. Sun. Sand. Crabs. Ice cream. Salt air. Relax.

This was the early-morning scene on the day we left.

new

• back from our annual beach vacation!
• getting ready for sending Maja off to kindergarten in a few weeks
• dealing with Richard’s imminent/looming transfer to New York

Seriously.

Also, can someone please send me a house elf? Must be able to clean-up constantly. Involves much stooping over, sweeping, wiping, tidying, organizing. No sitting involved. Must be handy with a mop and vacuum cleaner. Must clean toilets.

standing baby

um, see, this is what happens when you wait a month to announce the crawling… as of yesterday she can now pull herself to a standing position.

People have been telling me that Little Pips just wants to keep up with her big sisters. I disagree. She wants to get away. Far. Far. Away.

crawling baby

I took this little video clip on July 3 as we were hanging out at the Narberth 4th of July festival. Pippa is 6 months and 4 days old here.

Pippa, I believe, was inspired by the background commentary for the foot races!

Go Pippa Go!

canning: from the bush to the jar

You get some hard workers:

And have them pick some of these:

Take them home, give ‘em a rinse, pick them over, remove the stems:

Throw them in a pot with the requisite sugar, honey, nutmeg and lemon juice:

Drop it all in a canning bath:

And voila. From bush to jam jar in 11 hours. Talk about fresh!

Really

Sorry I’m not around more often. It’s just that by the time all the kids are in bed it’s going on 9pm and the idea of hauling out the laptop and blogging is just not that appealing. I do think about it practically every night, but truth be told I’m actually afraid to switch on the laptop. I haven’t switched it on in months and I’m guessing that it would take at least an hour before it would run properly. And I can’t take that kind of stress.

I’d much rather go to bed or do some sewing. But it’s not like I do those things. 9pm usually finds me sweeping and mopping the floor. I HATE grit under my bare feet – it drives me absolutely insane. Stepping on dried up cheerios or bits of construction paper, crumbs from lunch, an escaped blueberry.

I don’t like to go to bed angry.

I wish I had more energy.

I wish I could blog about all the fun and fantastic things I do every day.

I wish my house would just clean itself. I have found myself wondering lately if I had a bigger house if things would improve? The dirt would just be dispersed over a larger area. End of that idea.

I think, though, that walking through the house with a garbage bag in one hand and a box in the other tonight would be a good idea. The bag for things to toss. The box for things to give away. But, it’s Friday and I’m tired and I didn’t sweep yesterday and I would really like to do something else. Like paint the bedroom a brighter color then bluish-grey. I feel my mood would improve if I didn’t wake up in a grey cloud-coloured room every morning. And perhaps some shades that actually cover the windows properly would be nice.

Sometimes I think I ask too much.

Indulge me

Excuse me, please, while I put a few pictures up of my beautiful girls?

bikini dinner

We get a lot of bikinis in our CSA — well, that’s what Maja calls them. You know, those long green squash vegetables? ZUCCHINI.

I think, though, what’s really funny is that according to Maja people then wear zucchinis on the beach.

I say bikini, you say zucchini… what’s not to love about 5 y.o.s as the muddle their way through the English language?

But seriously, I suppose that if you eat enough zucchinis then you could easily wear a bikini. So maybe she’s on to something? As I have about 8 zucchinis on my kitchen counter that are not getting any younger AND are taking up valuable real estate something needed to be done. Normally I would shred them and freeze them, but since I don’t have any plastic freezer bags because we haven’t gone to the grocery store in a billion days… the zucchinis are just sitting around making me feel guilty.

Damn zucchinis. I have issues when squash makes me feel guilty for not eating it.

I pulled out my copy of The Unplugged Kitchen by Viana La Place and flipped to the zucchini section to find this recipe: zucchini carpaccio.

I have to say I was hesitant: raw zucchini? really? Richard’s NEVER going to eat this.

But it was so simple. Thinly sliced zucchini sprinkled with some salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon juice, shaved parmesan, and chopped almonds.

I set it out on the table and said nothing. This is the best approach when presenting new foods in my house: the less said the better. Let the food speak for itself. No commentary needed to sway decisions…

It was wonderful and the plate was emptied. Now I not only have another dish to add to my zucchini aresenal but if I keep it up I may just fit into my bikini.

tipping the scale in my favour?

Something about today has put me in a good mood. This is a nice change considering I’ve been in FOUL HUMOUR for several weeks now. Weeks I tell you.

What is it about today though? Can I quantify what has made me actually feel optimistic about what lies ahead (”what” = life in general)?

1. it’s no longer fucking hot. Sorry, that deserved a swear. For the next two days the temperatures will be “reasonable” — and by reasonable I mean under 30C. Thank God. I actually switched off the a/c and opened the windows this morning!

2. my baby turns 6 months old today. We have moved through the infant stage and are now entering (what I call) the baby stage. A baby who in the next several months will become mobile and will no longer be nursing (i.e. attached to me). More on that in a later post.  Oh shit (again!), now I’ve started crying.

3. The door to any future children coming from my marriage has been permanently, um, severed, if I may say so. Oddly enough I am not as sad about this as I thought I might be. I’m actually greatly relieved. I have 3 beautiful wonderful smart funny quirky awesome daughters and I want to enjoy them without fearing that another may come along and throw my universe into a tailspin again.

4. the childcare situation seems to be levelling out and proceeding on an even keel for now. As of next Tuesday and lasting until September I no longer have to cart the kids to daycare. Friday will be Maja’s LAST day of daycare. I may cry. Oh who am I kidding, I WILL cry. As a matter of fact, I’m crying now. Still.

5. some fabric and a pattern I’ve been eyeing for months now finally arrived. Mostly because I took the plunge and actually ordered it last week instead of just seizing it up online — so the delay was totally my doing. I’m optimistic that I will be able to start sewing some more now in the evenings. Not that anything has changed much, except my optimism. I even ordered the accompanying zippers. Wonder of wonders.

6. I got some new sandals which I love and they have a heel and they’re strappy and they’re cute and they make me feel cute. Which goes to say that these sandals have some kind of magic to them.