Thank you CHERRY much!

Dear Abby and Elise,

Thank you for playing dress up today. I loved seeing you, Abby, in your jammies, apron, and knee-high black boots. I loved seeing you, Elise, in your flowing, flowered dress, hair in a bun, bonnet on as you pretended to be Marian (madam librarian). Thank you for dressing up your babies for a tea party - Abby, you are so strong to clear the entire work table off and drag it halfway from the workroom to the living room. Elise - it was a great idea to tie your baby into her hair chair. Falling out of a chair at a tea party is zero fun. Thank you both for covering every visible surface of our house with: books, CandyLand, building blocks, books, dress up clothes, doll clothes, books, pillows, paper, pens, markers, books, pretend food items (including pretend homemade apple crisp), and books. It was a great day and all of the above happened because you got to stay home and play ALL DAY LONG! 

Love,

Mom

And as long as I'm throwing the "thanks" around, let's give a shout out to Kay and Dylan for sharing their awesome cherry tree with us!

The girls helped pick these delicious tart cherries on Saturday, so naturally for breakfast Sunday morning something had to be baked! We settled on cherry scones and they were fabulous. 

Cherry Scones

adapted from For The Love of Scones

• 5 T organic unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 C local, organic tart cherries (pitted and halved)
• 1/2 C local whole milk
• 1/2 C organic sour cream
• 2 C organic whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 C organic coconut sugar
• 2 tsp aluminum free baking powder
• 1/2 tsp Himalayan pink salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• Combine dry ingredients
• In separate bowl, whisk sour cream and milk
• Using pastry cutter, mix cold chunks of butter into dry ingredients
• Combine wet and dry until dough forms
• See here for steps on shaping and chilling dough, as well as adding cherries
• Once scones are cut and ready for the oven, brush the tops with a bit of butter and sprinkle with coconut sugar
• Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes

Simmer down, Summer

Recently, I'm pretty sure I used the phrase "stop and smell the roses". I also, on multiple occasions, have soap-boxed the evils of the over-scheduled life. And let me tell you - after the past 3 weeks around here, I am even more solid in my belief that quality has nothing to do with quantity. 

Lake trip to Bull Shoals with Aunt Ali, Uncle Mike, and Cousins: Stella, Bret, Mia, and Max. Elise LOVED going tubing with Stella. Abby thought our "cottage" was perfect.

John's drum performance at the pool with our sweet, sweet Baby Charlie (not our pup, obviously!)

First trip to the Kansas City Zoo with the Littlejohn crew! We traveled to Africa and back with Auntie Sara, Kate, Julia, Lucy, and Anderson.

We also started piano lessons - twice a week this month. I'm teaching two Baby Sing and Sign classes a week right now. There was a week-long morning class at the Arts Center...

Please don't read what I'm NOT saying - the people and the places that have filled our days so far this summer are making memories with us! Would I be filling your screen with the these pictures if we had any regrets???? Do the faces in those pictures look anything but happy???? But that is the struggle - finding a happy medium without turning down invites or opportunities that might be too special to pass. I know that we're tired. I know that we are off-kilter. I know that we are homebodies who thrive off of the comfort of each other in our own home. 

This has been a great learning experience for me - we don't "do" over-scheduled. Abby is having night terrors this week - they'll pass, but I have no doubt that she is unsettled and exhausted. Her shrieking then wakes Elise in a terrible what-the-hell-is-wrong kind of way. All of that then wrecks me in a my-poor-baby kind of way. 

Deep breath - in and out. Calendar cleared. Summer simmering down. 

Lonely blog...

The blog is lonely. I, however, am very much NOT lonely. One husband. Two children. Two dogs. One cat. Two fish. One newt. And today I looked around and realized my cleaning lady had quit. Errr.... hold on.... wait a minute.... what cleaning lady???? Oh, right. That'd be me. Hmmmm... 

It's okay. It's actually better than okay. Because I'd take Abby in her red velvet dress, Elise in her tshirts, undies, and sparkly pink shoes, Charlie and Aura with their growling-barking-playing, monarch caterpillars on the kitchen table, and John on his drums anyday. All of that totally trumps a cleaning lady. :) 

The girls started soccer and kindermusik this Fall. We head to the library at least once, if not twice, each week. We are insanely grateful for our weekly dinner group with some amazing friends and their kids. My family's Sunday dinner tradition continues. We make breakfast together nearly every morning. And lunch. And dinner. We visit the grandparents and the great grandmothers. I am learning how they learn - how Elise figured out to count all the way to "twenty-nine-ten" (30), how Abby sounded out "Lana" on my phone to tell me a text had just come from her. They can both skip. They say things like "the fish are probably about due for some more water" and "if I spill soup on my dress I will feel very disappointed" and "you are my very best friend and I'm your very best friend" and "this has been the best day EVER". The best DAYS ever.

My first "forever" summer...

Teachers all around town returned to work today. I did not. Yet, I woke up this morning with a funny feeling. It was an urgency to do something. Did I feel the need to prepare a lesson plan? No. Were there meetings that I needed to attend? No. Was I late for some sort of annual mandatory training? Absolutely not. I felt this intense desire to DO BACK-FLIPS ACROSS THE LIVING ROOM FLOOR!!!!! I get the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be "Momma" for my girls all. day. long. And the excitement that is flowing through my veins is going to cause them to explode. In honor of, as Lana appropriately coined, my "first official day off", the girls and I went for frozen yogurt after lunch.

After that, we went to the park. And played. And played. And played. While we were there, I remembered that I'd done a "then" and "now" of pictures from this particular park the last two summers. I snapped a pic today with my phone (hence the poor quality), and after putting together this year's "then" and "now", it hit home even harder why my need to stay home with the girls has continued to grow: they are changing and growing so quickly and I cannot stand to miss a single second of it. At the end of the each day, I love knowing exactly what "characters" they pretended to be all day (today, I was "Ellen", the housekeeper from Mary Poppins while Abby was "Mary Poppins" and Elise was "Mrs. Banks"). I love seeing the pile of clothes on the floor and knowing exactly why each outfit change was necessary (Elise changed zero times today - shocking, however she was wearing a new shirt and new socks from Grammy - but Abby went through 3 skirts and 3 shirts until she found the one that was the most "cozy"). And I love when the girls are asked "What do you want to do tomorrow?" and they answer with: "Play with you, Momma!", that I can absolutely make that happen. All. day. long.

And summer begins...

This summer has been much awaited, much anticipated. This would be the beginning of my 11th "summer vacation" as a teacher. But instead, this is the beginning of my first summer as a stay-at-home mom. We have been working toward this goal for nearly 4 years and it has taken the love and dedication of both sets of grandparents and my very hard-working husband to get here. I've had a lot of people (many of which are working moms) say "you're so lucky" and "I'm so jealous". But this isn't a gift that has fallen into my lap. My beautiful birthday bouquet? Definitely a gift that fell into my lap...

But staying home? This was a well-thought out plan that involved financial components, lifestyle components, and priorities. It was a plan that involved doing what we believe is best for our family. And I just happen to be on the receiving end of this most perfect plan. Let the good times roll!