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!