Cherry season

This morning Josiah and I went to Cherry Hill Orchards. I figured we'd pick for 20 minutes before he'd called it quits, acquiring enough fruit for a day or two's snacking. Not at all the case. He loved it! We (mostly he) picked about 5 pounds across 2 hours, and he became quite a discriminating picker in that time as I showed him how to avoid brown ones, soft ones, cherries with holes, and ones that were moldy. The red cherries in our particular area of the orchard didn't look too great, so we picked almost exclusively beautiful golden cherries, which of course had the bonus of not dripping permanent dark red juice everywhere. What a great morning! 

We concluded by visiting the orchard shops, where among other things we bought some delicious blueberries and home-baked molasses cookies for a tasty if not well-balanced lunch before heading home. Daddy returned home later in the day – making a lovely day even better – and he enjoyed the bounty of our little outing. Josiah was proud to show off and share his big bag of cherries. 

(By the way, if anyone has any favorite sweet cherry recipes to share, I'm all ears! Right now I'm thinking mostly golden cherry preserves, canned, to be stirred into plain yogurt and granola or spooned onto vanilla ice cream...?)

A little update a week later: Here are the preserves. Delicious! I think I've had this for part of my lunch every day this week. 

Growing

I love the fact that still, several years into his little life, we get to observe Josiah's discernible development week by week. Two new things: (1) Josiah has begun dabbling in photography. This morning he said he should take a picture of me "for Daddy," so Daddy, here you go. He's starting to hold the camera pretty still, isn't he? 

(2) We began working on a new skill this afternoon: scissors. With great concentration (and a hovering mother) he made a beautifully fringed paper for you, Jesse, which he's excited to give to you when you return home!

Banana boy

Jesse is away for a few days, so for the first time since March we're officially blogging for him once again. We miss you, Jesse! When I told Josiah that we needed to take a picture for you this evening, he voted for eating a banana and showing it to you. Naturally. So with apologies, here you go. :)

As for a general report: We had a good, busy day as usual. Three items of note: 

1) The basement is coming along great, which is to say, you'll be delighted by the change when you get home! Amazing what a difference hanging some doors and framing / trimming some windows can make. 

2) I gave Josiah a proper haircut tonight. He demurred initially ("No Mommy, I want crazy hair, no scissors") but once engrossed in a Thomas video on YouTube, he barely noticed me snipping away. The banana pics are post-trim, obviously.

3) Baby has moved to a very new position and can now be seen and felt by third parties as he wriggles about. Josiah felt him kicking for the first time this evening. It was absolutely magical; Josiah's face was wreathed in wide-eyed awe with a slowly spreading smile as he felt the kicks and wiggles. "Mommy!" he said. "I feel him. He's in there! He's kicking me!" He was so delighted, and of course so was I. 

A new friend

This evening a man named Sam came by to take a look at our never-ending basement project. We're at the point of wanting it to be done once and for all (before Baby comes). I really don't want to hit the 2-year mark of having a bright yellow building permit in my entry window, and Jesse and I work too many hours per week to see the end in sight without calling in some professional (i.e., speedy) help. So Sam, an Amish man who was recommended to us, came to give a quote on doing some of the woodwork over the next week or two. He arrived with his little 1-year-old daughter, Ruthie. She was very solemn, very adorable, and Josiah enjoyed showing her his toys while her daddy measured in the basement. Here Josiah is trying to get her to dance with him! Alas, his efforts were unsuccessful, but I think both children had fun in the end even so.

Josiah's New Cousin!!!

Could there be a more beautiful picture?? Really??

Shortly before lunch time today, Kara and Matt welcomed Micah Richard Prahl into the world. I so desperately wish I could be up in New England with my sister and new nephew! 

Micah, at nearly a week overdue, was an impressive 9 pounds 3 ounces and 22 inches long with a huge head circumference, and Kara looks hands-down amazing despite over 24 hours in pretty arduous and unpleasant labor getting this big little man out. For my part, I've been beside myself since getting the first "we think this is it!" call yesterday. Hooray for new babies!!!!!

A few weeks in review

In the midst of a full month, we've still been managing to enjoy family time and the warm weather. A few recent photographs...

Telling stories and eating homemade ice cream at Lapp Valley Farm... 

This is one of our favorite summer destinations living here in Lancaster County. Amazing, delicious, fresh ice cream; lots of great animals wandering about (this particular evening we saw a calf just born that morning); and a horse and buggy drive-up window!

Our little drummer boy, singing happily and (sort of) keeping time... 

Snacking at the park...

Climbing trees at a local library...

And nothing starts a morning right like wearing dust masks before breakfast!

Laundry line

Here's what's been making me happy this weekend: 

With the robins flown, on Thursday Jesse made my day by hanging our new laundry line. It's pulley-style, really high off the ground. I load it up by standing at our back kitchen door (which is one story up), and it's connected to a tree about 30 feet away. Silly how rarely we line-dry our clothes in this country...and sillier how long it's taken me to finally get things together to have my own line! 

A few details, if anyone's considering their own:

- The gear cost about $10 all told: pulleys, rope, eyelet screws, line tightener.

- It took Jesse barely over an hour to do the entire job, and that included maneuvering a 17' ladder and pruning a tree to get a clear line. 

- Clothes are drying in about 2 hours midday. 

- No problem with either wrinkles or "crunchiness." I hung most of our shirts directly on hangers and they've come out beautifully, i.e., I think I'll actually be ironing less, not more. (That alone makes it worthwhile!)

- It definitely takes more time than shoving everything into the dryer and hitting the button, but for now it seems more soothing than onerous.

- "Unmentionables" are being hung on our little indoor drying rack for the sake of the neighbors. :) Well, not Josiah's, since Elmo, Thomas, and dinosaur undies are super-cute! 

Josiah's Robins

We had robins build a nest just outside of our kitchen back door this spring. Josiah called them "his" robins and loved keeping track of their progress.

Indigestion

I have a problem:

Everything looks oh-(oh-OH!)-so-attractive to me. No matter what I clean them with, my glasses always end up in some shade of rosy.

This really is a problem.

It's seen most graphically and horrifically at pot-luck dinners, for instance, when I precariously and triumphantly make it to my seat with a plate toppling with a bit of every item on the smorgasbord. Sadly, in fact, it happens at pretty much every meal, when I repeatedly sample what I'm creating in the kitchen throughout meal prep, followed by sitting down and rapidly consuming a full plate, and then continued as I pick away at leftovers in order to have something polite to do with my time at the table whilst Jesse and Josiah slowly complete their first course. It all looks so good!

Symptoms are seen in household projects too. It's a good thing I have a more than full-time job, or our home would be so overridden with crafts, organizational projects, and DIY activities that it probably wouldn't be functional. It's pretty bad as it is, when these activities are crammed into rare minutes stolen from much-needed sleep. I devour how-to and crafting websites. (And please don't ask or get Jesse started on the garden. I'm under a unilateral hold on acquiring new plants, no matter who's giving them out for free.)

My work life is by no means immune and at present is the biggest illustration of my eyes being dramatically bigger and rosier than my little stomach can digest. Somehow this month I ended up agreeing to teach three classes, am doing research, have a lab budget to finish spending down by June 30, and am taking a faculty course as well. It's working out to 14-15 hours of work per day at absolute minimum. I'm going insane. (And we just sold our beloved 1997 Corolla on an incredibly sensible and logical whim last weekend, in the midst of all this, so until it's replaced, Jesse, Josiah and I are juggling carpooling to boot.) 

I think I recall cheerfully extending a dinner invitation to a couple from our church for this Friday evening.

Everything seems like such a good idea in the moment! Every opportunity and idea glows with possibilities! And really, creating is life-giving to me. Nothing gives me more pleasure than generating an idea and actually making it happen, whether that involves making up daily new recipes in the kitchen, shaping a research project or a student's understanding, rehabbing an old piece of furniture, or (a current sewing project as illustration) devising how to chop up and convert old trousers, jeans, and shorts that never fit anyway after my last pregnancy into perfect – and free – maternity clothes. 

Thriftiness also plays a role, I think. Just last week Jesse mercifully convinced me to buy a slightly more expensive IKEA chair cover – for Josiah's in progress "big boy room" – as I was waxing eloquent on how I surely could drown the cheaper, not-really-the-right-color one in strong tea to darken the shade, or else just recover it with my own fabric if all else failed.

Life-giving, yes. But also a bit of a poison, no? I'd *love* to tea-stain some cushions, after all (doesn't it sound fun??!), but do I really have the time? No. 

At 31 I'm still trying to learn that even the most wonderful chocolate cake can give you indigestion. 

And I'm stuck: Which solution is better, skipping the cake or just taking Tums to treat and mask one's disease? 

I don't see myself passing up a fudgy slice of chocolate cake, metaphorically or literally, any time soon...