August Critters and Comrarderie

We saw so much wildlife in our backyard this past month.  One of the most amazing was a red-spotted purple admiral butterfly that we found in our yard - see top left photo below.  We have never seen one of these in real life before!  We also raised eleven black swallow tail butterflies from caterpillars we found on the dill in our garden.  It was exciting to release them.  Will caught a vole in our garden, and Lucy found some really big grasshoppers as well.  Emma's bare foot unfortunately found a honey bee in our grass, and was promptly stung - see center photo below with her sting slathered with a baking soda paste to help draw the poison out.  

Charlie also enjoys the wildlife in our yard, and in the photo below, we found a chipmunk hiding from his advances.  We were able to rescue the chipmunk and lock Charlie up.  I continue to be so torn about Charlie's role in our local ecosystem.  He serves a useful purpose for us, as we haven't had a problem with mice since Charlie moved in, however despite the high quality food we serve Charlie, he still prefers fresh catches over kibble and wet cat food.  Here Charlie is below, sleeping on our living room window air conditioner - you better believe we sweat that nap out, as heaven forbid we turn on the air conditioner and wake him up.  

After going through all of my photos from August, I realized we spent much of our time outside, which makes me happy.  Here the girls are below, enjoying the beautiful weather in our own backyard.

August definitely reminds us of the impermanence of summer, and we became focused on achieving the last of our summer goals this past month.  Lucy and I went on a date together, clothes shopping and then we dined at Chipotle, which Lucy and I both love, but the rest of the family could take or leave.  Will took the three oldest girls to the local baseball diamond, where they enjoyed stadium food and some special daddy time.  They went back again with Will and his parents, after receiving free tickets to the ballgame from the library's summer reading program.  In the center photo below, Violet is smiling in the dentist chair.  We have finally begun Violet's dental journey, and are looking forward to watching her smile evolve.  It's a fine line, as Violet has told us that she loves her smile, but also that she wants her teeth to look like ours.  She has experienced several different occasions of curious kids hurting her feelings in regards to her teeth, and I think that the dentist that we have decided to go with understands our wishes of function first and cosmetics second.  The dentist told us that if at any time Violet decides that she wishes cosmetics to be first, that we will make the necessary adjustments.  We are trying a relatively new procedure for fixing Violet's mouth, and our hope is if this is successful, she will avoid jaw surgery down the road.  For the price of a luxury car payment, we are taking the chance.  Will and I both feel very grateful for this opportunity/advancement in dental care, and that we have the ability to invest in a person we love.  And maybe someday, medically necessary dental care will be covered by health insurance.  The National Foundation of Ectodermal Dysplasia is tirelessly working to make that dream a reality.

We celebrated my mom's birthday this past month, spent time with friends who are like family: small, inset photo on the right is of Lucy and friend, whose mom grew up with me!  And the bottom, left hand picture below are friends whose dad grew up with Will!  In the bottom right hand picture below, the girls are making memories with Will's aunt and uncle who specialize in making our kids feel special.

Will and the kids joined me for the annual Bee Fest at the Belle Isle Nature Center in Detroit this past month.  I have no photos of me, as I was mostly busy talking about bees, and Will was mostly busy keeping the girls happy.

We have decided to transform our backyard into a native ecosystem.  I have been researching native plants and their importance in saving insects and animals.  I hope to teach a class on native ecosystems once our yard is complete.  Below is the first of several projects to transform our yard to mostly native plants - Will buried our downspout and had it feed into a culvert that our sump pump already feeds into.

We then planted native plants that thrive in wet conditions.  Imagine our excitement the first time it rained after our project was complete!  It works like a charm, and area is already abuzz with insects and we've even seen a frog!  We are hoping (especially Lucy) that in time, more frogs will make their home here.

August also marks the time for Will to head back to work.  Here we are below, enjoying ice cream cones downtown on Will's last night of summer vacation.

 We had a great summer, and I wish I knew how to slow down time.  Summer goes by so fast for us, and I have to say that we are all at our happiest when Will is home.  Does happiness equal time going faster?  I had a few projects I wanted to accomplish before Will went back - organizing some things at home, as well as making a self care area in my bedroom.  In the photos below in clockwise order from top left: Lucy with a comic strip she created for the library's summer reading program, the girls dress up clothes now hanging in Opal's closet since all of Opal's clothes minus a few dresses fit in her dresser, some roller bottles of essential oil scents as part of my self care corner, and a peach blueberry coffee cake I made on Will's last morning before he went back to work.  Those dress up clothes have been the bane of my existence for several years now, so I am excited to see if this solves the problem that a clothes rack and a bin couldn't solve before.

Some of the motivation for the organizing was to have more space in our house which is starting to feel quite cramped.  Six people in a three bedroom house is totally doable, and so we need to just pare down our stuff.  Will and I have been dabbling on realtor.com, trying to decide if we need more space or if we can make it in our current house that we love so much.  All arrows are still pointing to staying, and so now the effort of paring down so that we can freely move about in the house that we love is in fully swing.  We've also looked into getting an addition put on the house, but for now, we think our money will be better spent investing in our kids than in our space.  Speaking of investing in our kids, here we are in the photos below kicking off our eighth year of homeschooling.

We started back to school a little earlier than the schools around us, which was fine by all of us as it gives us more flexibility during the school year.  So, when we went up north for our final trip this summer over Labor Day weekend, we already had a few weeks of school under our belt and it felt like a welcome break.  In the below photos - Will's aunt and uncle sent us cookies in the mail from our favorite cookie place that we visited back in July.  What a wonderful surprise that was, especially since we were going up north the very next day and got to bring them with us to be enjoyed on beaches several hours away from the shores of where these cookies were from.  It was like our two favorite up north places got together, creating the ultimate in flavor and scenery.  

Our first night up north, we caught the sunset at the beach, while nibbling on our favorite cookies.  It was the highlight of our trip.  Such peace and beauty and yumminess.

 This is the same place we have been going for three years now, twice a year.  It feels like our home away from home, and for this four day weekend, we had a bucket list of places to go and food to eat.

 Opal is now old enough to do some hiking on her own two feet.  It was a joy for me to see all four of my girls with their feet on our favorite trails.  Although Opal outgrowing her hiking carrier definitely slowed us down!

 We climbed a big sand dune and realized halfway up that we forgot to bring our waters.  We asked a dad carrying a baby back down the sand dune how much farther until the beach and he responded in a defeated kind of way, "there are hills and hills to go and once you think you climbed the last hill, there will be even more hills."  Will and I looked at each other and decided that we had climbed enough, and would travel back down as well.  There were still some spectacular views and we had hiked for over two hours.

We shopped at some of our favorite farm stands, and had the best blueberries, corn, green beans, donuts and pizza bread (that we put pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese on and toasted in the oven).

 We enjoyed some cozy campfires and tasty s'mores, snuggling with storybooks on the couch and Violet even decorated our table with flowers floating in a bowl of water.

 Memories were made, and rest, relaxation and fun was had.  It was a great way to end our summer, and I am looking forward to enjoying the next three seasons, and then going back up north again!

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!