This week!! I completely jinxed myself last week when I said we didn’t have any garden pests. Both the zucchini and the pumpkin started wilting and after an inspection and a google search I realized they were lost to the squash vine borer. (Ewwww.) Supposedly they only hatch once a year, so we replanted with fingers crossed that I’ll get some zucchini and Violet will get to carve her very own garden grown jack-o-lantern. Since we were planting we put in some more fava and bush beans and carrots.

Over the weekend we went to the cabin and swam and swam and swam. Swimming off the boat is my favorite. Violet floated and took pictures. She’s responsible for the black and white one up there and I love it. She turns thirteen tomorrow. Tomorrow I will be the mother of a teenager. She’s an awesome one. I’m pretty grateful.

Knitting: I finished my first Evergreen sock on Tuesday night as promised and now I’m about half-way through the chart on the second one. I want to get that sock finished this week so I can cast on this scarf.

Watching: Unsolved Mysteries is still on my list. I’ve had next to no screen time to myself this week. Instead the kids and I have been watching Doctor Who. I started them with Christopher Eccleston because that’s where one should start when watching the Doctor for the first time.

Reading: I finished Roxane Gay’s Hunger and I’m glad I read it. It was a hard book to read. Not because of the writing, I liked her writing. Now, I feel like I want something frivolous. Honestly, I’m craving a day curled up on my gram’s davenport with a Danielle Steele novel in one hand an ice cream sandwich in the other. I can’t have my gram or her davenport, but I may just make the other two things happen this week as a treat.

Making: I have been IN the kitchen this week. We had kale and blueberries this week in the CSA so I preserved the kale for winter soups and made sour cream blueberry muffins that didn’t last 24 hours. If we get more blueberries this week I want to try a blueberry pudding cake. Tracy’s recipes are always a hit. In the land of sourdough, I made English muffins and they turned out!! Next time I make them, I’m going to try putting them in the fridge for 24 hours to get a bit more sourdough flavor. I also attempted to make the cinnamon raisin loaf I’ve made three times before to use as french toast for Violet’s birthday breakfast but it stuck in the pan and made a giant mess. I was really feeling myself until that happened.

So that’s what I’ve been up to this week! Hope you’re all staying safe and staying healthy. What are you -ing?

Summer feels never ending. Our days stretch out into one hot and humid day after another. Occasionally a big dark cloud will rumble by, dropping a smattering of rain before the sun beats out hot again. I like to visit the garden early in the morning. I look for cabbage moth eggs on the broccoli. I usually catch them but must have missed one because I had to squish my first worm this week. They seem to be only pest issue. I planted calendula as a “trap” plant and while it’s disgustingly covered with aphids, I don’t see a single one on any of my other plants. Today, we harvested the last of the lettuce, and put in more beans and carrots. It’s a bit late for the carrots, but we’ll see. Our tomatoes and Abram’s melon plant are growing all over the place. I’m surprised at how much I love this little corner of our yard. Jesse is surprised at how much I love it too.

I’m grateful for happy corners. We need them. Yesterday, Violet was playing volleyball barefoot, stepped wrong, and broke a bone in her foot. She’s okay, but in a boot and on crutches. In the grand scheme of things, I know it’s a little thing, but in 2020 it’s one more thing limiting our activities and we feel it. The universe is in cahoots with our kids against screen limits.

Knitting: I’m still almost done with the first sock of the Evergreen pair.I only have five rows and then the toe. I have no excuse not to just get it done. Tonight. I’m promising myself. Despite not actually doing any knitting, I’ve spent a lot of time daydreaming about the next projects. I put together a binder with the patterns for the next few projects I’ll be tackling.

Reading: I finished The Guest Book by Sarah Blake. I don’t have a rating for it because I don’t really know if I liked it. I find that I’m feeling that way with more and more books. I’m about three-fourths of the way through Hunger by Roxane Gay.

Watching: Hamilton. Because of course. That 70’s Show because Red and Kitty’s relationship is sweet. Violet and Abram and I are also watching old Once Upon A Time episodes. Watching them find the ways different symbols/stories work together between Storybrooke and the fairy tale world is fun. It’s also got just enough dark/dangerous to keep them interested. (Have I mentioned I love their ages, because do I ever love this stage.)

Making: Nothing. Actually, I did make cinnamon raisin bread yesterday. My plan was to make English muffins today with the discard and mix a loaf together tonight for baking tomorrow, but it’s too stinking hot. Plans for tie-dye (pillowcases) and friendship bracelets.

Hope this finds you all well and staying healthy! What are you -ing this week?

I get up every morning late, still groggy, and make myself the promise that I will go to bed at a reasonable hour. Coffee, porch sitting, some time in the garden, walks, maybe some yoga, hollering for kids to please get off screens and get outside already, bed making, knitting, running cold hose water over my feet, reading, Catan or Skip-Bo or rummy or Sequence, music, nagging at children to pick up their rooms, put away their laundry, and not leave dishes all over the house, wondering if we’re going to homeschool next year and promising myself I’ll look into it tomorrow, laundry (always laundry) and feeding hungry children (always hungry), dishes, making phone calls, writing letters, spending too much time on my own screen, browsing real estate listings and wondering about different lives in different places, pleading with my kids (and myself) just get outside and DO SOMETHING, picking up, putting away, watching a show or listening to a podcast. Whatever promise I made myself in the morning, I do not go to bed at reasonable hour.

I cry. Some days I set a timer and sob and sob and sob and sob until it dings. And then I dry my eyes and get back to it. The tears remind me I am still soft. I am still paying attention. The timer reminds me I don’t have time to wallow – there is too much that needs to be done.

I hold to my middle name as if it is both prophecy and gift. I used to tease my mother that she probably wished she could change it – such a misnomer for the serious, stubborn thing I was (still am). Now, I see that joy is also a serious, stubborn thing. I find it in the fiercely funny retort of my daughter, or the way my son curls himself into the side of me when he needs comfort, confident it can be found there. It’s in creating or crafting or sitting on the porch with a friend. It’s in the actions after the timer dings.

Reading: I have so many books on the TBR pile but the one I’m currently reading (The Guest Book by Sarah Blake) has been slow going for me. It’s good enough that I’m invested in seeing how it ends, but I’m really struggling with one character. I just don’t like her. I think that’s intentional, but I wanted to like her. (For all my talk about not liking one dimensional characters, I don’t like the complexity of this one. At all.)

Watching: I’ve been watching Lucifer on Netflix. I mostly like it? I don’t know. I wouldn’t recommend it. I just don’t feel like watching anything substantive and it’s quippy. Artemis Fowl (Disney+) and Lenox Hill (Netflix) have been recommended. My whole family is waiting for July 3 for the cast recording of Hamilton on Disney+ (I’m so grateful for my friend who gave it to me as a lovely birthday present.)

Knitting: I finished a pair of Hermione’s Everyday Socks and am almost finished with the first of a pair of Evergreen Socks. Speaking of knitting, I’m not quite sure what to make of Ravelry’s new look? I do like the brightness of it, but it’s going to take me a bit to get used to, I think. Once the socks are done, I’m going to start on this scarf, or these socks, or this sheep. Decisions, decisions. I need to make a list of projects for Christmas and get to work.

Making: My plan is to try English muffins this week. I have all the ingredients and I want to do it, so I think I just need to be brave. LOTS of house projects – the first being a master list of house projects. AND Jesse and I came up with a new handy dandy idea about how our family is going to handle house cleaning/chore stuff so I have things to do with that as well. (I love making a new system.)

Please, please, please tell me what is new with you and what you are -ing? I hope you’re all staying safe and healthy and WEARING YOUR MASKS.

Hi. I meant to sit down on Tuesday because I have pictures and things to share. I didn’t. I meant to sit down yesterday and type up a big long list of links to share for today. I didn’t. (I was also supposed to have a much needed social distanced patio date with a friend who I miss SO SO SO much that didn’t happen either because #life.)

1. This instagram post says everything I want to say when someone brags about being “not political”.
2. Best way to wash and dry salad greens.
3. The Bookcase Flex. (Very important background for zoom meetings.)
4. The Confederacy was an antidemocratic centralized state.
5. A statue I can get behind.
6. The Athenian Plague serves as a warning.
7. What risks do you feel comfortable taking?
8. I did this today. I think I’ll do it again tomorrow.
9. Best ever pandemic bra.
10. The bread is over.
11. Netflix this week. (Umm, Unsolved Mysteries is definitely happening. LOVED that show when I was younger.)
12. This. is. my. favorite. thing. written. ever.
13. Introverts are valuable employees.
14. This.
15. I’m still learning.
16. I learn a lot from Rachel Cargle too.
17. This bread is so, so, so good. I make it with my discard every week.
18. But next week I want to try these.

Which makes me think I need to tell you a secret about my unhealthy relationship with my starter. It’s very happy. I leave it in the fridge for a week (sometimes two) and it always behaves reliably. I trust it implicitly. The problem is me. I just don’t LOVE baking. It’s fiddly. It’s hot. I keep wanting to break up, but I can’t bring myself to do so because all it has done is exactly what it is supposed to have done – help me bake tasty breads. Ridiculous.

On that note, I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Hugs.

1. This article was a huge wake up call to me.
2. What to stream on prime in June.
3. Welcome to the fold, new birders.
4. This You-Tuber made me cry. (In a good way.)
5. There are twelve on this list I haven’t seen.
6. Is it safe to travel again?
7. Quarantine sweatpants style
8. #goals.
9. The End of Minimalism?
10. Save the Tears: White Woman’s Guide
11. I’m pie.
12. Archaeologists excavate tile mosaic.
13. I miss having Barack Obama as president.
14. Sourdough baker tips.

Hope you all have a great weekend.