Opal at 17 Months

This little lady keeps us on our toes!  In many ways, Opal as the fourth sister is easier than when it was just Lucy, or even just Lucy and Emma.  Now I have three extra sets of eyes to keep Opal safe, and it makes taking a shower so much easier, as well as making dinner or really accomplishing anything.  However, because there are an extra three sets of eyes on Opal, Opal is constantly being told no.  Things that I would let slide because it just isn't worth the trouble of telling her no, the sisters do not let slide.  Things escalate quickly, and before you know it - someone is telling Opal no, Opal is screaming at the top of her lungs, and someone else is yelling "what does she want?!?!" in an attempt to just make the screaming stop.  Not to mention that Opal's own set of eyes watch her three sisters very closely, and she imitates all that they do - good and bad.  The sisters taught Opal to pant instead of saying yes when she wants something for example, and they have also taught her how to count to three - when doing risky things like jumping off of the couch.  Now, Opal pants for anything she wants, and also can be heard counting to three before doing something dangerous.  I have literally  three seconds to save her from herself when I hear "ONE!  DOOO!  VEEEEEEE!!!!"

I'm also trying to teach the older sisters not to laugh when Opal exhibits less than desirable behavior.  I swear, it is so much work keeping the sisters from being a bad influence on Opal!  Luckily, the sisters love Opal fiercely, and do enjoy making her laugh and getting her excited about different things.  Here Opal is below, after one of the sisters got the idea to show Opal how to push a baby doll in a doll stroller.

Another sister helped set Opal up with a Boppy pillow and a baby doll that opens and closes it's eyes and goes to sleep if you feed it a bottle.  

Opal may have a little more street smarts than an oldest child or an only child, but she can still be sweet too.  Granted, when she is ready to go she will tell whoever I am talking to, "BYE!" while waving or blowing them a kiss.  She really can't be bothered with drawn out goodbyes or she will start wailing.

If Opal touches something or holds it, it is now her possession.  It doesn't matter if she never touches this object again - if someone else touches this object that she touched or held first - she will scream "MINE!!!!" until the offending person sets the object down.

 Opal loves animals and especially loves dogs, which she calls "ruff ruffs" and cats which she calls "ChaaaarLeeeeee".  Charlie seems pretty laid back about Opal's advances, however I cannot leave them alone together for a second, because I can't trust either of them.

Opal has learned to pick blueberries this past month, and we have taught her to only pick the blue ones.  She has gotten much better about this, and I think it is because eating a white blueberry that isn't ripe yet doesn't taste very good.  The other day we were at church, and I was taking a turn walking Opal in the lobby since her attention span was done sitting quietly in the pew when she found a fake floral arrangement.  The next thing I know she is trying to pick the plastic berries and would not stop until I told her that she couldn't pick it because they weren't ripe yet.  What can I say, she understood and moved on to wanting to play in the baptismal font.

 Opal is constantly in motion, and loves to be independent.  She is not a snuggler, but instead prefers to sit in her own chair, or next to us instead of cuddled on our lap.  She is a picky eater, and has been known to try anything, but usually spits it out while saying "wa-wa!".  She does love popsicles, smoothies, taco meat and cheese though, as pictured below!

Opal, you definitely can hold your own as the youngest of four sisters, and we wouldn't have you any other way!

July and Team Timmerman

July, our favorite month of the year - no school, no work for Will, lots of great weather, and lots of berries from our garden. 

This year we were inspired by the book A Fine Dessert: Four Centuries, Four Families, One Delicious Treat by Emily Jenkins and so we used our berries to make the recipe at the back of the book.

It was essentially whipped cream with berry puree and we added our own finishing touch with mini chocolate chips.  Delicious!  

With Will home for the month, we do a lot of cooking in bulk to freeze for the busier months of our lives.  In clockwise order from top left: us enjoying a free meal from a coupon my brother sent us for a meal subscription program (turns out it wasn't free as now I have been receiving follow up phone calls for DAYZ to try and get me to sign up), strawberry jam that Will and Lucy canned, the girls with their evening berry pick, Charlie hiding under the rhubarb (from Opal most likely), and blueberry muffins, made from our blueberries.

Will and the girls found about ten black swallowtail caterpillars in our garden and put them in our butterfly house so that we could keep them safe until they emerged as butterflies.  About one or two hatched a day, and we made sure Charlie was either locked in the garage or eating a dish of wet cat food when we released them.  In the bottom, right hand picture below are three sisters jumping in a puddle in our driveway during a rain shower.

We try to be outside as much as possible during the month of July as the weather is just so perfect.  Here are three sisters below, blowing bubbles.  I love the excitement on Opal's face - pure magic.

It wasn't all play in July, as I had to prepare for the Lavender Festival this past month.  As soon as Will was off from work for the summer and we were back in town from our Cincinnati trip at the end of June, it was go time for me.  I had a To-Do List that counted down 14 days until the festival, with the tasks that needed to be completed each day or I wouldn't be ready in time.  I pulled it off, and promised I would never sully the month of July again with another festival.  Hopefully I remember this in March, when it's time to sign up again.  In the below pictures from top left in clockwise order: Violet and Emma making the flower pressed magnets they sold at the festival, Will helping me fill 50 DIY Seed Bomb Kits, me at the Lavender Festival giving one of my talks on pollinators, and finally, the girls magnets, drying from their coat of Mod Podge.

The Lavender Festival is a ton of work, but I wouldn't keep doing it if it wasn't a ton of fun either.  We had lots of fun, despite the heat and the high-maintenance of Opal.  In clockwise order from top left: Opal and Violet enjoying some yummy fruit salad that Will made, Will and the girls sitting in the cool shade from our tent eating a treat, four of us huddled under an umbrella to get some sun protection, and finally, us at our booth.

Because Will was pretty much on Opal duty, there were things I had to do that normally he would have taken care of for me.  I managed pretty well, and when I didn't, I made do.  For example, closing the tent for the night without Will was...interesting...but I made it work enough that everything was protected and safe when I came back each morning.  The girls had fun trying out the different food vendors and even used their own money from their earnings to buy henna for their hands and other goodies from vendors at the festival.  Lucy found some tiny toads in the parking lot there, and we all found some great friends who came to visit us.

Not long after the Lavender Festival ended, we made our way up north.  We rented a new-to-us cottage not far from where we had spent our up north trip last two summers.  This cottage could not have been more perfect for us, and we enjoyed it so very much.  Here we are below, in clockwise order from top left: the girls and Will exploring the frog pond on the cottage property, Will taking some kids back to the cottage from the frog pond, the sunset from the deck of the cottage (if you look closely you can see a freighter on Lake Michigan), me twirling on the hillside of the cottage property while singing "The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music!", and finally, Lucy holding a baby toad.

Will had bought a bunch of Legos a while back on EBay, and we decided our week up north would be the perfect time to give them to the girls.  Will and the girls had so much fun playing with them, and discovering all of the different sets in the bin.  There was also lots of coloring, snuggling and book reading which are some of our favorite things to do.  

There was no cell service and no Internet at the cottage, which we did not realize when we booked it. When we arrived and it became clear that we were really cut off from technology, a slight panic set in.  However, after a week of technology detox, it ended up being something that I would love to do again.

We brought in most of our food (including s'more ingredients!), but definitely made a point of eating our favorite cookies in downtown Harbor Springs, ice cream cones, and some yummy German donuts from a nearby General Store.

We hit the Harbor Springs Farmer's Market, which is always a good time, and the girls completed some activities to earn some free fruit.  We also were on a quest to find the perfect beach.  All of our favorite beaches from years past were almost unswimmable because the lake levels are so high this year.  In the bottom, right hand picture below, you can see our beach blanket almost touching the waves.  When the wind picked up a bit, the waves covered our blanket and we knew it was time to leave.  Unfortunately, not having sandy beaches to lay out on made for some unrelaxing beach trips.

 We did finally find a beach with some suitable sandy shores, but it was a twenty minute hike to get there.  This was our best option though, so we did end up going there a few times.  The only downside to this beach, besides having to carry all of our beach equipment and a squirmy toddler for twenty minutes before we got to the water, was the terrible swarms of mosquitoes in the parking lot.  It got to the point where we prepared everything we needed to bring and gathered it all into our arms while still in our car.  Then we counted to three, shouted TEAM TIMMERMAN and we all got out of the vehicle at the same exact time and made a run for it.  This worked pretty well, and goes to show how we can all work together as a team when mosquitoes and the promise of a beautiful beach are in the mix.

Team Timmerman also pulled off an 8 mile bike ride around Mackinaw Island.  Will and I haven't done this since before we had kids, and we used to love riding our bikes together and have great memories of biking this island.  Well, our cottage was only a half hour away from the island and so we decided it was now or never.  Once we got to the island, we hemmed and hawed about if we could pull off biking it.  We finally decided to go for it, and at least five of us all agree that it was the best moment of our entire week up north.  We rented a single, a double and a triple scoop.  Or at least that is what I am calling it.  Lucy rode her own rented mountain bike, Violet and I shared a mountain bike with a tag-along on the back, and Will did a triple with a two-seater bike for him and Emma, with a bike trailer on the back for Opal.  Opal screamed for the first twenty minutes of the ride and Will and I totally started doubting our decision and financial investment.  BUT, we did plan this ride for her nap time, and thankfully she fell asleep after twenty minutes of rage.  Phew!  The rest of the ride was easy after that, and the wildflowers, the butterflies, and the rolling waves made up the scenery and we can't wait to go back and do it again!

After the bike ride we treated the kids to ice cream cones.  In the bottom, left hand picture above we took a selfie of us enjoying our cones.  After looking at the photo, we realized that Opal was stealing licks of Emma's cone while the rest of us posed for the selfie!  She saw her chance and went for it!

We discovered some wonderful nature hikes last year when we were up north, and this year we wanted to revisit them.  Below is our hike through what we have called Forget Me Not Forest.  There is a great beach along this path, as well as beautiful Forget Me Nots, a boardwalk and as luck would have it, some frog sightings as well.

We also went back to Fern Forest and Blueberry Bog, which was another great trail we discovered last year.  This time we knew to bring a bucket for the wild blueberries that we sincerely hoped would be there again this year.  They were there, although not as plentiful as before, and this time we had a wily toddler whose attention span limited the amount of time we could pick berries.  We got a decent amount of blueberries still, and enjoyed the gorgeous ferns along the path to the berries.

The cottage that we rented was on 65 gorgeous acres of white pine and oak as well as beautiful, rolling hills of wildflower meadows with a view of Lake Michigan.  I couldn't have imagined better scenery.  Early on in the week, we came back to the cottage from a morning out and Opal had fallen asleep in the car.  Will and I decided to open the car doors, and sit outside the car while Opal finished her nap.  I ran inside to use the bathroom and when I came outside, Will had laid a blanket out under a big white pine tree.  Feeling a little guilty from stealing his spot, I took over that empty blanket and from then on, this was my favorite place to be that week.  Sometimes Will joined me, sometimes one or all of the kids came, and sometimes it was just me, a good book, a cold drink, the sound of birds and crickets, and amazing scenery while the smell of sun-warmed pine needles filled the air.  Paradise.  Later on, I apologized to Will for taking over his spot and he told me that he had laid out that blanket for me.  This is most likely the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me.  The fact that Will knew before I did, just what my soul needed, is why he is most definitely my soul mate.

In the below pictures, we are walking the half mile private driveway to the cottage, and then the girls and I collected wildflowers and used them on special sun print paper to make designs.

The one week up north was exactly what our family needed.  We laughed (who knew that a week of listening to the cottage's music selection could make us laugh so hard when Lucy requested the "Butt Hole" song by James Taylor.  Now you need to go listen to the song "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight"), we cried, we tried to sleep, and we most definitely enjoyed the quiet and solitude that came from being up in Northern Michigan.

When we came home, we still had a few weeks left of Will being home with us.  Here the kids are below, enjoying a tea party with Will, playing with clay, and watching something on Will's phone with him.

I utilized Will's time home to have special time with each of my three older girls.  Violet got to go first, and I took her on a date of her choice.  First we went out to lunch at one of her favorite places, and then we went to the library, just her and I, and played games and colored together.  It was so wonderful, and I want to make a point to do this more often with my girls.  To have their individual personalities shine through without the chaos and competition of having three sisters was priceless.

Emma's turn was the following week, and her pick was a bike ride around a local metro park, followed by lunch at one of her favorite restaurants.  Emma biked 6 miles without a complaint, and her and I are excited to do it again.  Here we are below, sitting on my favorite bench at the park I grew up biking around with my family, but especially my brother Joe.  I text him this picture, and he knew exactly what bench we were sitting on.  It was so fun to share these stories with Emma!

 My parents live near by, and are quite often the host to out of town family, from siblings of mine, to siblings of theirs, and cousins and aunts and uncles too.  This past month we got to visit all of the above at their house, including my aunt, uncle and cousin who is almost exactly Lucy's age from Washington, and my uncle from Africa.  I love the photos of all of the cousins together, and the selfie of extended family when my uncle was in town.

 We also attended a friend's birthday party, a family Fourth of July party, and had friends over which ended in Lucy pulling out our friend's daughter's tooth!  I'm not sure if this was a parenting win or a parenting fail, but we all had fun watching Lucy and the kids "play" dentist.  Our friend was scheduled to have her tooth pulled the following Tuesday at her dentist's office, so Lucy essentially saved her a trip.  It was a trip in itself though, watching Lucy prepare a tray for the operation, complete with dental floss, tissues, latex gloves and even a clip on bib.

 Our own mini meadow was in full bloom this past month, and Will got some gorgeous photos of some monarch butterflies on our flowers.

 The girls played together inside...

 ...and outside.  The below photos in clockwise order from top left: Violet waiting to see if the lightning bug in her pocket will make her pants glow (it did), Will organizing the garage, the three oldest girls on a bike ride, Violet's backyard art, Emma's backyard art, and all three of the oldest girls plein air painting.

There was a lot of togetherness this past month, and we proved that when the motivation is right, we can work great as a team.  It was a great month, and I am sad that it is over!

Opal at 16 Months

Opal doesn't sit still for a moment.  She is constantly on the go, and has started to climb now too.  She can get half way up the slide and if you leave a chair pushed out just enough, she can climb to the top of the table.  She loves doing whatever her sisters are doing, and doesn't want to be babied by them.  She will push off their helping hands while saying "OFF!"

 She was so excited to join her sisters in the sprinkler for the first time and now she even joins them in the shower as well.  She loves water, and says "wa-wa!"

 Here she is below painting alongside Violet.

She does not like to be restrained in her carseat, in her stroller, or in a carrier - she wants to be on her own two feet.

She enjoyed her first concert, and even left the noise canceling headphones on for most of the concert.  She loves to dance to music with a beat, and she loves to say "CHEESE" when we take her picture.  In the middle photo to the right below, I caught her with a lollipop that she must have found in one of her sister's things.  She knew she was doing something illegal, as she refused to look at me when I kept asking her what she had.  You better believe she had an iron grip on that lollipop stick when I tried to remove it from her hand!

Our little lady has also learned the word "owie" and "boo boo" as sadly, it is summer time and she keeps falling on our driveway and scraping her knees.  It is hard not to hold my breath when she is running on the concrete.  She is getting better, but boo boos and owies are a daily occurrence right now for her.

Opal also knows the sounds animals makes now, and when we went to a traveling petting farm this past month at the Lavender Festival, she was beside herself with excitement, yelling and pointing "moo moo!!!" "oink oink!!!" and "baa baa!!!"  She also will say "ruff ruff" when she sees a dog, and loves dogs of any kind.  When she sees a cat she just yells, "Charlie!!!" which is hilarious to us, as that is what we are usually saying to our own cat.

Oh Opal, you don't hold still for long, but when you do, I just love to soak up your snuggles!

June, One Step at a Time

We finally did finish our school year just days before the end of June, despite Opal's best intentions and even despite me taking a tumble down our stairs.  I missed the last three steps of our stairs one morning, while carrying Opal and texting on my phone.  We all know you should never text and drive, but I am also preaching that you should never walk down stairs while texting and holding a baby.  Maybe you shouldn't even walk down stairs while texting even if you aren't holding a baby.  Thankfully, Opal was not hurt, just scared and my leg, although I thought for sure broken, was just badly bruised.  I called Will home from work, and employed all of my natural remedies while waiting to go to the doctor.  I just kept thinking that I had ruined our summer, as Will only had a few days left of work and we look forward to his time off all year.  I am so very grateful that it was minor compared to what it could have been and I am trying to be more mindful and take the steps one at a time.

For our last day of school, I made strawberry shortcake for breakfast, complete with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  The kids could not believe that I was allowing them to have ice cream for breakfast, and I enjoyed wowing them with this celebratory indulgence.  We also ended the school year with a play at the local university, based on the book James and the Giant Peach, which we had finished reading just a day before attending the well-done performance.  Will took one for the team and stayed home with Opal, who would not have sat through the entire performance.

Lucy, Emma and Violet had their dance recitals this past month.  Violet's was first, and took place in her classroom, which is one of the many things I love about the dance studio we go to.  Next year she will perform on the big stage like Lucy and Emma, but this year, she performed in the comfort of her classroom which I believe is just right developmentally.  It was a fun experience, and Violet did great.

Afterward, we had the grandparents back at our house for a picnic lunch and playtime.  The top, left hand photo below is of Violet and her beloved ballet teacher.

Lucy and Emma's recital was the following weekend, and we did a photo shoot in the front yard so that I could have all of my dancers together in their costumes.  I love that Opal and even Charlie knew to get in on the photos.

Lucy and Emma are always so excited to put their own makeup on for their performances.  I hope that someday they will be so skilled that they can put my makeup on too.  I never felt like I had any skills with makeup, and so don't really wear it unless I'm going out for a special occasion.

The girls did an excellent job dancing to An American in Paris.

We also celebrated Father's Day this past month, and the girls and I made homemade cards for Will and bought him one of his favorite snacks - chocolate covered peanuts.  That same weekend we went to Costco to do our bi-monthly stock up, and I couldn't help but have a flashback of our early Costco shopping days when we only had two kids and how Will told me he couldn't wait until the day that we had a full cart in kids and groceries.  Well, it looks like he made it because on that shopping trip, we seriously thought that we may not be able to fit all of the groceries and all of the kids into one car. What we didn't realize back then was the price tag attached to a cart full of groceries and kids!

We took a long-awaited trip to Cincinnati this past month, and visited with Will's brother and his partner, and my college roommate.  We hadn't been to Cincinnati in about six years, and it was so nice to finally visit with family and friends on their home turf, after years of them faithfully coming to see us.  Will's brother is on a radio station morning show, and so the kids got a huge kick out of visiting him while he was on the air.  Opal enjoyed meeting her Uncles' dog Captain Steve for the first time, and Captain Steve took her in cautious stride, but I don't think cared for Opal's interest in his food dish.

We visited an aquarium with Uncle Tim, and enjoyed some gourmet southern food with him as well. While we waited for Will's brother to get off work one day, we explored one of the bridges connecting Cincinnati with Kentucky.

Unfortunately, Opal came down with a super high fever while we were in Ohio, and gave us a bit of a scare when it didn't break after 24 hours.  We ended up cutting the visit with my friend a bit short so that we could take her into the emergency room.  Turns out she just had a virus, but she was definitely not herself for a few days.  The brief time with my friend and her friends and family left me wanting more, and I will not allow another six years to go by without multiple visits back to see them.  They are like family to me.  In the top, left hand picture below is a small water snake the girls spotted in a creek we had been planning on playing in.  The snake put a stop to that idea!

It was extremely hot by Michigan standards while we visited Ohio, and that left our adventure options a bit more limited so that we could ensure Violet was comfortable and safe.  We ended up visiting the Cincinnati Art Museum which was an excellent experience, and also had the kids play all of the video games that Will and I grew up playing when we visited my friend's house.  She and her boyfriend had gotten a retro game console and that was a fun way to spend an air conditioned afternoon.

Our final excitement on our Cincinnati trip was a Kidz Bop concert.  It was crazy hot, but the excitement of the kids attending their first live concert was enough to make it worth it.

I was surprised how well Opal kept the noise cancelling headphones on.  I think she realized it was better that way, as the concert was loud for a one year old.

 When we came home from our Ohio trip, I had exactly two weeks until I would have a booth at the Lavender Festival.  It was go time for me, and I had a to-do list that pretty much took up every free second until the Festival.  I'm thinking of videoing myself right now, as a reminder for next year when I try to decide if I will participate in the festival again.  Liz right now would tell future Liz to not do it, as it is just too much work at a point in my life right now where four kids is about all I can handle, not to mention running the online business selling my products and the classes that I teach.  Here Will is below, taking care of our honeybees - they lived through the winter, and we were able to split them into three hives.  Even splitting them wasn't enough though, and they decided to swarm into a fourth hive that despite my friend and her fiancé who is an arborist best efforts, we could not reach the swarm that had settled about forty feet up in one of our oak trees.  I am considering this my donation to nature, and I hope that the bees found a comfortable new home.

I also met with a woman in my hometown this past month who is doing amazing things for pollinators, and I am super excited to align resources with her.  They say if you want to create change in the world, start where you are.  This woman is doing this with an efficiency and vision that I hope to join and I am excited to see how it plays out in my hometown.  Meadows, bees and butterflies everywhere I hope!  Below is Will's assistance for everything Harding Honey - he organized my workroom for me, and faithfully wraps signs for shipping.

We did have time with friends and family this past month, despite it's busyness.  Below is a vision I came home to one afternoon of my girls snuggling with our beloved babysitter who is home from college for the summer and we are trying to see as much as possible.

We also got to see our neighbor friend dressed up for Eid, which the girls were so impressed by they thought she looked like a real-life princess.  The kids were excited to babysit another friend's hamster while she as on vacation.  To me, pet sitting is the best of all worlds - the pet arrives here in a freshly cleaned cage to be enjoyed for a short time, and then goes back to it's family just a few days later.

We celebrated Will's mom's birthday, and my family had a joint birthday party for myself, my brother and my dad.

We made trips to the chiropractor and even happened upon the bookmobile for an impromptu, but very excited experience.  Violet perfected riding her bike on our walks and for a while, ended them with skinned knees and Will carrying her home while I pushed Opal in the stroller while towing Violet's bike.  In the bottom, left hand picture below is a gorgeous blue bird's egg we found on one of our walks.

 We had park playdates with friends...

...and we also just played in our own backyard.  In the bottom, right hand pictures below is Violet learning to ride her bike without training wheels.

We played together at home and I just loved seeing how Opal is starting to at least play beside her sisters.

We ate chicken basil pesto tomato and fresh mozzarella grilled sandwiches almost every day this past month as they were that good, and enjoyed harvesting strawberries from our garden as well.  Charlie enjoyed our increased time outdoors as well.

Life is never dull, and it seems every month brings more reasons to celebrate and milestones to accomplish.  I was pretty overwhelmed this past month, and to be honest, I had a hard time seeing the blessings while I was just trying to focus on the very next thing that needed to be done.  Writing this blog, and compiling the photos continues to provide such great focus for me - to give me a moment's pause to reflect on all of the great things that are happening, and give me such gratitude for the life that I lead.  I will continue to try and achieve a more healthy balance of doing and resting though, and I'm hoping after the Lavender Festival next month, I can have some rest before Will goes back to work.  In the meantime, here is a small glimpse into the humor that surrounds me every day - I mentioned above that Will organized my workroom for me - complete with a fake mouse in a little drainage hole (that looks so much like a cartoon mouse hole).  It gives me an adrenaline rush each time I startle upon it, but I wouldn't move it for the world as it is just a small reminder of the creativity and humor that is my other half.  For sure I couldn't pull of this life without him and his humor!

Here's to rest and mindfulness, and taking life one step at a time!