Together Again in Heaven: July 2020

We started out the month of July in one of our favorite places up north. Opal is doing better and better on car rides, but we still have a little bit to go. Lots of snacks and a giant bag of suckers got us there with minimal screaming. I had to laugh when after using almost half of the wet wipe supply we had packed for the trip, the girls passed me up a doll with a questionable brown substance on her foot. I about lost it when Will ate it off of the doll's foot and said, "mmmm, a melted chocolate covered raisin" in order to save our dwindling wet wipe supply. Bold move Will, bold move.

We arrived up north in time to unpack and check out our favorite beach, which we hadn't been to since last year. Social distancing was no problem - we were often the only people at this beach, which is why we love this location so very much. We have seen bald eagles fly over the water, and the scenery is breathtaking.

We spent time at the beach every single day for the week we were up north, and found that the sweet spot for no sunburns and no other people was after 4 p.m. every day. We stayed a few hours, and then went home for a late dinner.

A few days it was even warm enough for me to get into the water. Mostly I was the snack and towel manager while I tried to read a few pages in my book. There is a certain level of calm and peace that takes over our family at the beach. It is the sweet spot, and if I could, I would spend every warm and sunny summer day at a secluded beach with my family.

In the mornings we took a hike. The kids had varying degrees of love and hate for this part of the day. I cannot say that any level of calm or peace overcomes our family on the trail. My kids are seasonal hikers - they prefer hikes in spring and fall when the mosquitoes are less and the temperatures are cooler. Will and I enjoy hikes at any time of the year and someday we hope that peace will prevail on hikes like they do at the beach.

One of our favorite trails has wild blueberries on it, and we were a few weeks too early this year to pick them. But, another trail that we enjoy had painted lady slipper wildflowers in bloom, which we have usually been a few weeks too late for.

Opal is at that awkward age where she is too big for a backpack carrier (in her opinion) and too short to manage a full hike on her own two legs. Will was a major team player and carried her for most of our hikes along with a loaded down backpack filled with water for six and of course, Opal's beloved Meow Meow. I am in awe of Will's endurance on our hikes and would you believe he complains the least!?

Lucy brought her camera and took some amazing photos. I also enjoyed the fact that I no longer am the only person documenting our family's memories. I'm showing up in more photos because Lucy is taking them!

We made a day trip to Mackinaw Island and were a bit disappointed this year. Not only was the island too crowded for our sense of safety with social distancing, but the bike path was closed only 10 minutes into our ride (of a usually two hour ride). It would have been nice if the bike rental place told us that before we rented the bikes. We headed back early, due to no bike path to ride around and too many people in the town for us to feel comfortable. We did get ice cream before we headed back though, and we are hoping next year will be better on all fronts!

We saw some gorgeous wildflowers on our hikes, and Lucy took some beautiful photos of them.

The weather was perfect all week - no rain, and warm enough to enjoy the beach, but not too warm to make being outside miserable. There was one hike where we didn't bring enough water (we didn't realize how long the hike was going to be as we had never hiked this particular trail before) and Violet started to overheat, but we made it back to the car in time to get her the water she needed before she felt too terrible. It was a good reminder though of how we need to be prepared, especially on hikes we have never done before and also how we need to vacation in cooler locations if we want to be able to enjoy being outside. On our way out of town after our week up north, we ran into a Fourth of July parade, and were impressed by the high school double decker steel drum band that ended the parade. It was hard to leave that blissful week, and Will and I are hoping to someday have property of our own up there where we can go up whenever we want, and not have to worry about booking months in advance to reserve a spot.

Not long after we got back home, Will and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary. We've had way worse anniversaries, but this one was interesting to say the least. We do not feel comfortable eating in restaurants yet, so we got take out to eat at a park, but ended up eating it in a Meijer parking lot as there was a torrential down pour right after we got our food. Due to the weather, we couldn't take our hoped for hike either, so we ended up shopping for new towels instead. I jokingly sent a text to my younger sister that terry cloth is the traditional 16th wedding anniversary gift and she responded in a shocked and sarcastic way that we were winning at the marriage game. Ha! The kids made us adorable cards, and Lucy made us strawberry rhubarb cobbler. There are some perks to each marriage anniversary, and now I can say that at 16 years, our kids are winning at the present game.

We celebrated a friend's birthday outside, as well as a get together with my side of the family. We hadn't seen most of my family since Christmas and it was so nice to be together again. One of the perks of COVID is that we are all spending more time outdoors, and I think this is wonderful. I had to laugh when at our friend's birthday party the kids came up with a dance party which was a great way to play and still be socially distanced. Another laugh came when we arrived at my parents house carrying Opal's portable potty and expected some teasing as we put it in the house. A half hour later, my brother and his family showed up and sheepishly carried the same portable potty into my parents house for their daughter! Twinsies!

Charlie doesn't care about social distancing, and seems to be warming up to our neighbor's cat. My neighbor and I will text each other when we see them hanging out together, and even though Charlie still pretends to not care about Otis, the next door cat, they seem to be spending more and more time together. I had to laugh when the girls made an elaborate blanket fort in the backyard, and Charlie spent more time in it than the kids did.

July was hot, and we spent time in our backyard with the slip and slide and one time with our kiddie pool. Only one time with the pool as it broke, and pools are sold out everywhere, another result of COVID. Unless you want to pay four times their value, which we didn't.

There is an ice cream truck that stalks our house after buying from it one time. The kids have resigned themselves to almost never getting ice cream from the ice cream truck, but they used a box or two and made their own ice cream truck which Will and I found clever and adorable.

Lucy and Violet enjoy picking bouquets for me from our yard, and this past month Will and Violet made an American Girl doll-sized guitar out of wood. The girls also enjoyed putting blankets in the shade of one of our trees and reading in the afternoons. This usually ended when Charlie became a pest and would lay on top of the page they were reading, or kept walking all over them, or when a bug too big for their liking decided to join them. No cats and no bugs allowed!

Will was home more in July and did some home improvements around the house and yard. I think Will would be perfectly content puttering around the house fixing things if we were independently wealthy and he didn't have to work a day job. Emma usually is Will's assistant, and sometimes Opal also gets involved. Shirts and pants are optional.

Lucy is really getting good at baking. Some goodies she baked included a berry cake, blueberry muffins and peach cobbler this past month. Our garden produced raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, but not many made it into the house as Opal can eat her weight in berries. I love that they can go outside and pick themselves a snack. We got a few early tomatoes this month too. I also have been treating myself to personal-sized oatmeal bakes in the morning with rhubarb and almonds or pears and apples with walnuts. Delicious! I make them in bulk, and then take one out the night before so it is thawed by morning. Much better for summer than eating my usual hot bowl of oatmeal for breakfast.

Will's extra time off in July allowed me to get some good work done on my new business and on my book. It is a bit overwhelming to look at the big picture, but I am trying to take it all one step at a time. The kids made me bead art in the phases of the moon to inspire me.

They did lots of kid-led arts and crafts this past month, and I just love seeing their creativity. Lucy made a monarch, swallowtail and blue morpho butterfly out of bead art. The kids did stencil art, and Lucy made a nest for her stenciled birds out of dried grass. The top, right hand picture below shows the pictorial directions Violet made on How to Make a Guitar Out of Wood.

These sisters drive me crazy with their fighting and melt my heart with their love for each other. At the end of the day, though, I know there is love. Here they are below, doing each other's hair, and putting on a show for Will and I in our basement.