EKjourney Backup

Wednesday:  back to back dentist appointments in the morning so we did school in the car and waiting room, stocked up on fresh sourdough bread from the local bakery, a surprise for the children with a visit to the u-pick strawberry fields, home for lunch, back to town for tutoring and finishing school in the car (clocked 5 hours in the car and waiting room), home for clean up and dinner, and Phil home at 10:00 (16 hour day for him). Strawberry picking is always nostalgic for me.  I did a lot of u-picking when the children were little.  I remember picking with little ones in strollers, on my back in the ergo carrier, crawling babies, being pregnant, and coming home with loads of strawberries and other fruit that I froze, made into jam, canned, or dried.  U-picking always reminds me of those days of little ones and urban farming growing our veggies in our garden and canning.  I haven't had a real vegetable garden since 2014 (traveling 2015, 2016, and moving 2017)....

 Birthday reflections... These preteen/teen birthdays (and years) are so very different than the ones for the first 5 years or so.  I think in some ways, they are so much less dramatic...so much change from helpless newborns who turn into toddlers who turn into these learners and thinkers and step into independence.  Maybe the 5 years leading up to those teens are more subtle somehow because they need parents in such different ways.  They go from independence to more independence, to the physical needs and comfort to the character training and emotional needs.   From a 2 year old sitting on your lap to open gifts and eating their birthday treat in their highchair to a day of shopping in place of presents and running off to play with cousins during the family birthday party and only seen during dinner and gift opening. I admit that I have really struggled to find my stride in these latter years.  I was physically exhausted by the years of morning sickne...

I took the children on a "quick" trip to the iris gardens (Schreiner's Iris Gardens) this morning.  We took our sketchbooks and spent a good 2+ hours sketching and walking around the display garden.  I never knew how much I loved Irises!!   I think perhaps they are not as appreciated as they should be.  They don't have the vibrance that tulips do, or the early color burst of the daffodil, or the showiness of the rhododendrons and azaleas.  But they have something very very special...they are the flower that breaks the color rules, combining colors that don't really "go" together and colors not normally found in flowers.  They have tans, browns, muddied purples, and grays; lights mixed with darks; veiny contrasts; and delicate ruffled petals.  They are a flower to appreciate up close with their earthy spicy scent and their strange color combinations.  I found myself seeing irises in an entirely new way and I recorded (in photograph and writing...