Happy Independence Day!

Because photo posts please me, here are some scenes of summertime. Hope your summer is shaping up beautifully!

Dandelion tossed into the creek, where it spirals around and around

Mountain wildflowers

Lush meadows filled with every imaginable shade of green

Sand and rescued ladybugs

Cabin’s looking pretty spiffy these days

My lilies just keep blooming like mad; they put forth such effort!

Lots of swimming pool time with Miss Brittany

Pink and green hydrangea buds

California sycamore shade and hot summer skies

Thursday was a big day for both of my children. Lucas attended his first swim meet (we had missed the first two meets of the summer due to illness) and Asher finished his second session of swimming lessons by jumping off the diving board.

Here’s Lucas (in the black shirt) doing a great backstroke. He is is becoming a stronger swimmer thanks to all this practice! This, and having fun, are our two big goals for this experience. I am also hoping that this is the right amount of team and competition for my beginning athlete.

He’s new to diving, as are many of his teammates. They are given the choice to dive from a standing or seated position.

Here’s Asher floating calmly with Miss Brittany. He has come a long way in the four weeks he’s been taking lessons. For the first time, on Tuesday, he didn’t ask my “WHY do we have to do swimming lessons?!” He just came along quietly and did the work. I think he’s finally settling into the routine of it, so I signed him up for another session! (We have to be there anyway!)

The coup de grace! Asher jumped (was helped) off the diving board with his noodle. He was cheerful until he had to walk the plank; then his face was full of grim determination. Jay was there in the water to reassure him and make sure Asher didn’t slip out of his noodle. He popped up quickly, blinked, and made his way to the ladder. We cheered like crazy!

Asher got a certificate for completing the session and a lolly. BIG treat!

Lucas reported that the swim meet was pretty cool, but there was a lot of sitting around and waiting for his turn in the water. They did a warm-up swim, then each child raced in three events, with multiple heats. In between races, they rested. During a regular practice, the kids swim for 45 minutes with only very brief rests.

Lucas’s swim meet culminated in ice cream sundays. Daddy came to see the kids swim, and so did two grandmas, so my kids had quite the cheering section.

Four more weeks to go.

Inspired by SouleMama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

It was time for some mountain love: some sunshine and pine cones, crystal-clear waters and rainbow trout, some wildflowers and ladybugs and lakeside splashing. What better way to spend a summer weekend?

Samuel Taylor Creek

Snowplant

Quaking Aspen trunks and meadow

Canada Goose on the Tahoe lakeshore at Pope Beach

Summer snack

Sandcastle beginnings

Lucas rescued a dozen or more ladybugs from Lake Tahoe. Were they blown into the water?

Asher really got into the beach play this year; it’s so much closer to come here than to drive to the seashore!

The Rainbow Trail provided peeks at marsh life and fingerling fish and nice, big rainbow trout at the Stream Profile.

I don’t know what this plant is, but I thought it had lots of drama.

This is one happy 3-year-old!

Sunlight through the Aspens near the family cabin

We hope your weekend was just as magical!

Inspired by SouleMama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Last Friday night I had a feverish dream inspired by a blog I just discovered: Twig and Toadstool (http://twigandtoadstool.blogspot.com/), where they spent a lot of time preparing for and celebrating the Summer Solstice. I was feverish because I was ill with a virus, but the inspiration worked its way into my dreams all night long. All night I wove a sun; each time I woke and fell asleep again, I slipped right back into the weaving. I could feel the yarn in my fingers, the sticks, the wool. And so, when I awoke, I knew we had to MAKE this thing I had dreamed about.

I gathered some sticks from the local schoolyard and supplies from home, and did some shopping on Monday. I fastened the center together by wrapping it with floral wire. I also wired the edges in an effort to keep the sticks from shifting during the weaving. I think it worked well.

And then before and after our Solstice dinner outdoors, Lucas and I worked on our giant sunburst, which is a lot like a Ojo de Dios (God’s eye), but has eight rays and not four.

Lucas was a big help with weaving the center, especially. Isn’t it beautiful?

We took a break to eat my yummy corn salad, spinach salad, and Daddy’s amazing tri tip.

Sunshiny squashes, organic tomatoes, and iced tea graced our table. Must be summer!

Here comes the SUN! The art project took all evening, but we finished before the sun went down. Lucas held it up high in the sky so I could photograph it. Then we hung our sunburst on our house, where we can see it from the patio. We spend a lot of time there when it’s warm, and our boring beige paint looks better with some colorful art.

We used $1 ribbon spools in red and orange, a bit of mama’s thick cotton rug yarn, raffia, yellow fabric scraps (with rocket ship pattern that you can’t see) tied into a long strip, and acrylic yarns in yellows, gold, and orange. I wish I had had an excess of yellow or gold wool roving on hand to use in our sunburst, but I didn’t. We also had on hand several colors of nylon twine (including safety orange) but elected not to use them.

Honeydew melon with mint and lemon sorbet served as a delicious dessert. I don’t know how that watermelon ball sneaked in there. Chef Daddy deserves the credit, I presume. He’s brilliant, as always.

Asher didn’t care for the art project much, but enjoyed snipping bits and pieces of yarn with scissors, and running around with sticks (guns/weapons/swords/knives. Can’t stop him despite my pacifist leanings!) Besides preparing dinner, Ian made a finger-woven chain to add to our sunburst, but for a while, it was “Action Inja” Asher’s headband.

So, welcome Summer! May it be full of frolicking, fun, fiestas, and good fortune. May it be full of right action, deep breathing, generosity, and abundance. May it be patient, low-stress, and l a z y -good. Blessed Be.

Last week, Asher and I had a little extra time after dropping off the big kids (Lucas and his classmate R) at their Junior Rangers camp, so we went on a morning nature walk at the Effie Yeaw Nature Preserve, one of our favorite places. It looks quite different now than it did in April. We didn’t walk far or stay out very long, but we saw some beautiful sites along the way.

My kiddos are enrolled in swimming team and lessons this summer. For eight weeks we will go to the American River College pool every afternoon, M–Th, so Lucas can be on a swim team. This team is noncompetitive; although they have “inner squad meets,” they are really only racing against teammates and their own times. This is good for many reasons, not the least of which is that we don’t have to give up every summer Saturday to competitive meets. Ours will take place on some Thursdays, during the normal practice time.

Lucas missed practice three days last week due to being ill, but this week he has rallied and is back at it, apparently giving it his all. He’s got new swim fins and new goggles and new shorts and a new rash guard and a new backpack to carry it all in. He’s a well-equipped boy. I think he’s enjoying it a lot, although it will be nice when he makes some friends there.

Asher, on the other hand, hates his swimming lessons. He has now gone to six of them and is no longer spending the time in the water with his instructor screaming (as he did his first two days). Nevertheless, he is not a fan of this experience. I can tell he is learning and becoming more comfortable in the water, practicing the skills (face in, dip underwater, streamline arms, kicking, etc.). I’ve even caught him smiling a time or two. Every morning, though, he wakes up and asks if we’re going to swimming lessons. And when I say yes, he asks, “Now?!” Since they are at the end of the day, I get to answer “Later” about a hundred times every day. He worries about it all day. Here’s a picture of him going underwater, which he would never choose to do.

His instructor is pretty and fun and she jollies him along through the twenty-minute lessons. And the point of all this is not to torture my child, but to teach him that he can be OK in the water and (hopefully) get to the side if he falls in. I remember Lucas didn’t care much for swimming lessons at this age either. Now he is a fish!

So, sports. Not really my thing, but I’m making an effort to be a “Swim Mom” this summer to give Lucas what I hope is a good, gentle introduction to a team sport experience. I’m doing my best to have a good attitude about the whole thing. Thank goodness the bleachers where the parents wait are in the shade!

I have this stash of fun fabric for making Asher pants, clam diggers, and shorts and today I finally had all the pieces in the same location and a little time to get started. I haven’t sewed clothing like this since last summer, so I wasn’t entirely sure I’d remember what to do, but it all worked out pretty well. We’ll call these a “proof of concept.” I’m still using the pattern that my mother bought in 2008, I just cut them a trifle bigger. Now that I’ve got them all together, I can see that they’re pretty baggy and could be skinnier in the legs. But baggy clothing is cooler on hot days, no? I may choose to hem them up another inch….

And because these clam diggers are roomy this year, they will probably fit him again next summer, too, only they will be a little shorter. (Ahser is still able to wear the pants and shorts mom and I made last summer.) These are made from “Vehicles Allover” fabric from “Oh Boy!” by David Walker for Free Spirit Westminster Fibers. Fun!

My Lucas Baby is sick today. He is actually moaning in his sleep right now, at 1:45 p.m. The fact that he is asleep during the day says a lot. He’s feverish, with chills and whimpering. No school today, or swim practice for him this afternoon. I think Mom can stay with him while I drag Asher off to his swimming lesson.

So far, the first day of ARC swim team was more than a little confusing to me, particularly because of the altered start time for the first day, and because they scheduled Asher’s lesson for an hour later than I expected. Also, since I can’t think of a single team sport experience in my life, I expect I’m just woefully unprepared. I think we have these logistical kinks worked out and I’m hopeful that this will turn out to be a good experience for all of us. Let’s hope Asher cries less today! I have chocolate chip cookies to offer him afterward.

This is the last week of school. Three more days of second grade for Lucas! This is more than a little remarkable. I just hope he recovers enough to enjoy the festivities, like the swimming party on Thursday during school hours!

I spent about 20 minutes on the phone this morning coordinating plans with my mother-in-law, who is very helpful with babysitting and whatnot. We are both trying to wrap our minds around the summertime schedule and assorted activities to figure out when she might have the boys. I swear, this is project management at its best. On deck for summer for Lucas are:

• Effie Yeaw Junior Rangers Nature Camp (two weeks of mornings, including field trips to go fishing, rock climbing, and river rafting)
• Sacramento Waldorf School summer camp (six weeks with his friends on his turf, learning about Native American arts and crafts, building a bow and arrows, learning spinning and how clothing is made, playing games, etc.)
• CSUS Aquatics camp in August (one week of water sports)
• Time with his brother and “cousins” at Ring-A-Rosies (where Asher goes to day care)
• ARC Swim Team (eight weeks M-Th; 50 minute practices)
• Piano lessons on Wednesday evenings

We decided to go with camp programs we know Lucas will really like, where he will know kids and be comfortable. Swim team is probably the most challenging thing in this list. Last summer was too bouncy and required too many adjustments to new people and new places (my fault). We are looking forward to a comfy summer of fun. Thirteen weeks. See my fingers crossing?