Happy Bday, America

In the last 5 years since we moved away, only once have we been able to spend the 4th of July back in my little Utah home town- Huntsville, where it is well known that the earth's best Independence Day celebration is held each year. It is small town Americana freedom day perfection, and we have pined for it every time the 4th has rolled around without us there.

Well this year we'd had enough pining. After making fruitless online searches for anything similar within driving distance of Memphis, we decided we'd create our own small town celebration complete with parade, breakfast in the park, face painting, and old fashioned games and booths. 

Well, it was a near perfect day. (Perfect in the usual tired kids, scraped knees, sticky faces, slightly stressful but still lovely sort of way). We had over 80 friends come to join in the fun (and help in planning and running everything!) and I'm hoping this will become a yearly tradition.

Some (many) photos from our day:

Sadie, Max the clown, and Stephanie rolling by.

Lady Liberty Lucy, Miss Maryanne and Dani.

All the Wilson Women (Caleb was still rounding at the hospital, but he arrived in time for breakfast).
(I borrowed this picture from Katie. Thanks Katie!)

A pouting Amelia Earhart in her plane and some of our fantastic breakfast crew Sarah, Alicia and Ben.

My friend Sheri led the kids in a patriotic mini land-grab in the form of musical chairs and then a limbo line.  (Jane elbowed her way to victory in musical chairs and I sadly did not capture that moment of awesomeness on camera.)

The big race.

Olivia and Charlotte ready to race, and Emme sharing licks with Lucy.

America, I love ya so much. So grateful for all it means to be a part of you. Happy Birthday.

Friends, I sure hope you had a wonderful, patriotic day spent with people you really like. Happy 4th of July.

The Garden

In the little Utah town where I grew up we had a garden. Down a long, stony, weedy path from the house we planted a large rectangular plot with peas, corn, potatoes, squash, and a few other goodies. The soil there had been tilled and de-rocked by my dad for 2 decades and the composts of years of bygone gardens had turned the ground into a miniature fertile plain. My summer slumbers were cut short by the daily early morning call to wake up and weed the garden. The peas were plentiful and the corn was tall and thick enough to play hide and seek in.

Caleb and I kept a garden in that same spot during our first four years of marriage. Our two oldest girls learned to love picking fresh peas from the vine and shelling and eating them right there in the garden with their bare toes squishing into the dark dirt.

When we moved away, I had plans for a new garden plot of our own, but the Pittsburgh soil, soaked by constant rains, was clay-like and unforgiving. I didn't know how to begin to make it ready for planting, so I left it alone, and felt not a little guilty.

But sun-baked, moist Memphis air has given me courage and this year we finally have a dainty but happy garden once again. The last couple of weeks have given us our first small harvests: itty bitty but sweet peaches! Late strawberries, basil (we made pesto!), cucumbers and tomatoes, one yellow squash (plucked just as I discovered some horrible little vine borers destroying my squash plants) and a few early handfuls of blackberries. 

I am always a little (pleasantly) surprised when I bite into something grown right out of our backyard soil and it doesn't taste like dirt. 

It tastes like heaven.

Also along the lines of food and the afterlife: we made some strawberry jam the other day and I overheard Jane singing this catchy little tune over and over as she ate her roll with jam atop:

"Jam, jam, dammity-damn. I love jam!"

 You'll be singing it too next time you pull out the smucker's. You're welcome.

Back

Well hi! Computer is finally fixed (I hope) and I'm so happy. I've missed this space. There's certainly lots of catching up to do, so today I'm sharing some summery good times from the last month. Mostly just a photo recap. Grandma W. came to visit and we explored Mud Island River Park, we hit the zoo, we made our own Chinese restaurant, and Jane pulled out her own tooth, then went ahead and pulled out another one later that day. We've been swimming and sunscreening a whole lot, and filling our days with silly summer funstuffs. I wish summer could go on forever. 

June 2013:

Summer, B & W

Just us christening summer with some back yard camping and a trip to the nature center to investigate bugs and other vermin.

Last Day

Thanks so much for all the well thought-out comments and emails re: my last post. They really gave me a lot to think about and offered some great perspectives. I'll be sticking around here for some time yet, I think.

And joy of joys! My girls are home for the summer. I am always surprised by how happy this makes me every year. Everything just feels so much better when our time is unscripted and we get to go wherever and do whatever we want. Our creativity blossoms, the good times roll, and ironically, we all get along so much better when it's just us all day every day. (Gah! Home schooling is so tempting sometimes!) Not that we don't still have our moments, but our own pace does seem to help everyone chill out a little.

Here are my school girls on their last day of school:

Bunny ears. So sisterly. (And a random scooter in the pics. Very nice.)   

Here they are on their first day of the school year. My but they do grow quickly.

So very happy to have them back all to myselfishy-self. Do you love summer break as much as I do? Or can you just not wait for school to start again? Do you ever think about homeschooling? Do tell.

Emme Finally Got to Bust Out The Goggles Appropriately

First day in the kiddie pool and a couple little people I know were pretty pumped.

 Little do they know Hell's fiery inferno is about to unleash on Memphis for the next 3 months.  

Oh, the sweet bliss of ignorance.

And tonight while I sit in my well air-conditioned bedroom I am pondering this blogging thing. It sure feels like a dying art. Is anyone out there? Do any of us really have time to read more than a hashtagged quip on a filtered phone photo? Is that why social media has gone the way of twitter/instagram/facebook? 

I've struggled to find any meaningful interaction with those sites. (I even posted on facebook last week. Then felt so awkward about it. Did my college roommate's ex-boyfriend really "like" that my daughter brought me breakfast in bed? Well that's kind of weird. Which I think makes me kind of weird too for posting it. But then a lot of people I like "liked" that, and that was nice. I'm over thinking this, right?)

But I admit I also feel archaic when I blog. Maybe I just don't know when to say uncle. I've been known to keep my pillow cases far past their prime. I hesitate to stop, though! It's quite deeply satisfying for me to know I have at least one source of history of our little lives here. Don't know what I'd replace that with. And I really enjoy reading more about your lives, what you're really thinking and going through. Some sweet folks I've really only gotten to know well through your blogs, but I feel connected to you, and inspired in my mothering and marriage to do and be better. That's certainly meaningful to me.

I would really love to hear your thoughts about this! Have you moved on from blogging? What do you use to stay connected with those you care about? How have you made it meaningful? Have you moved away from social media altogether for the most part? Am I missing something that makes those other outlets awesome? What floats your boat?

Much thanks for your input.