Up North in September

We took one last trip up north in September and had a great mini-vacation.  I'm so glad that every member of our family loves this trip as much as I do.  I know that someday my kids will no longer want to go up north with us, but until then, I will do my best to instill in them the love that I have for the natural beauty of our great state.  Here we are on our favorite hike with breath taking views of Lake Michigan and a great climbing tree on the trail as well.

We had high hopes of hiking all four days that we were up north, but the mosquitoes had other plans.  We braved one more hike and got eaten alive, but were happy that we were able to try a new trail and two hikes is better than none at all.

We also had big dreams of a campfire every night complete with s'mores and I even brought our pie irons to make campfire pies with but again, the mosquitoes had other plans.  I realized on the second evening that the mosquitoes were making us all so grumpy that it wasn't even worth it so on the third night we made the campfire pies in the oven in the cottage.

Fortunately, there were no mosquitoes at the beach!  When we were at the cottage this past May there were no bugs at the campfire or on the hiking trails but they were infesting the beaches and so we had limited time on the beach.  It was nice to go to the beach each day and spend several peaceful hours in the serene and uncrowded beauty that makes our favorite beach there so wonderful.

 I spent most of my time on the beach as the Oldest Available (and dry) Timmerman watching Will and the older three girls play as Opal couldn't go swimming.  Opal was quite a handful as she wanted to play in the sand so badly, but each time I set her down she would eat a handful of sand.  She did love splashing her feet in the water but also was intent on eating rocks.  Not thinking it completely through, I found a large enough rock that she could chew on without choking only to be given chills when her teeth chomped on the rock.  Much to Opal's disappointment, I had to take the rock away or risk her chipping her teeth!  I'm so glad she loves the beach so much though - at this age all of her sisters hated the feel of sand and refused to let me set them down!  Look at those little chubby baby legs and adorable baby toes in the sand!

It is moments like this where it occurs to me that I have all of my favorite people in the world and there is no place I would rather be, and no one I would rather be with.  Parenting four little ladies is a lot of work, and I am grateful for these moments of peace, love and beauty.

This was our fourth trip to this cottage over the past two years and we still discovered new places to explore.  We found a farm stand that sells delicious donuts and pizza bread that will from here on out be on our bucket list each time we return.  We also finally explored the lighthouse nearby and were so excited to see that Violet met the height requirement to climb the lighthouse tower!  I took one for the team and stayed below with Opal, but I am planning on returning to that lighthouse in a few years when Opal is tall enough to climb it with me!

We had a very simple bucket list for our trip and it included our favorite hike overlooking Lake Michigan, s'mores and campfire pies, time at the beach, having a picnic lunch at a lookout point called Picnic Mountain, and finally, climbing the biggest sand dune.

It was a great trip despite the mosquitoes and a nice way to end our summer.  Here we are below enjoying some down time at the cottage.

 Until next year sweet cottage, we will be back!

September in a Nutshell (Puke, Stinky Clothes and Rabid Squirrels)

We are finally free of Hand Foot and Mouth Disease from last month, and just in time to start school, harvest our honey, take a final trip up north for the season and spend time with my sister  and my college roommate while they were in town.   

There was a small hiccup in our wellness when Emma puked in her sleep one night and not only covered herself, the top bunk where she sleeps, but also projectiled the vomit onto her sister's bed below her, and her other sister's bed below and beside her.  You know you live in a small house when... you puke and it covers three people.  When Will and I went to bed we smelled the unmistakable scent and when we went to investigate, the horror could hardly be put into words.  How do you remove a child from the top bunk without making a trail of disgustingness?  It's moments like this that I am so very grateful to have a partner on this parenting journey!  Two hours later, in which Will and I cleaned with three adult arms (the fourth arm was holding Opal who woke up in the commotion and refused to be set down without screaming) we were all finally tucked back in - one kid on an air mattress in our room as her mattress looked to be bound for the trash, another kid in our bed, and the last two kids on makeshift beds with afghans and couch pillows.   Fortunately the next day was Sunday, as we spent the entire day doing laundry, cleaning the carpet, and - salvaging Emma's mattress - turns out the entire mattress cover could come off of the mattress, leaving exposed latex foam, but a completely machine washable outer cover and in the end, it was IKEA mattress for the win!

There are only three things that could have made the great Puke Fest of '18 worse in retrospect - first, if the ceiling fan inches from Emma's bed had been on, second if anyone else had caught the bug Emma had, and third, if we hadn't figured out just a week before the stomach bug hit Emma that the laundry detergent that we had bought in a pinch (ours is usually delivered by Amazon and so we've never actually had to search it out in a store) was in fact fabric whitener, and not soap of any kind.  For weeks prior to this discovery, Will and I kept getting wiffs of dank laundry and after so many instances of wondering where that funky smell was coming from, we were beginning to realize that it may in fact, be coming from us.  Of course this realization came slowly, and in the most awkward scenarios - at work, or talking about honey bees at a bee event.  Multiple times we asked one another to sniff various parts on our clothes to verify if that smell was coming from us.  Then one day as I was filling up the washer, I noticed that there were no soap suds in the drum.  I put the soap in again, thinking that I had maybe forgotten to put the soap in the first time and then I realized that the box I was holding was not laundry detergent but laundry whitener.  What a relief that this was figured out before all of the puke almost hit the fan!

Life is never dull here, and I suppose if it was dull, I would worry that I was missing something!  Below are the girls on their first day of school with our traditional "all of your school books for the year on the couch" photo.  All three of the older girls are in dance this year, and Violet is really enjoying it.  What a difference a year can make as last year Violet had a hard time in class and we ended up taking a break with her for the rest of the year.  Opal has plans to keep her sisters distracted from schoolwork by being cute, noisy and demanding.  Lucy and Emma would much prefer playing with Opal over doing schoolwork, and sometimes I need them to help with Opal so it is a constant balance between each member of the family getting what they need done while passing Opal between us.  Most school days I end up strapping Opal to me in a carrier so no sister is tempted to play with her, and so that Opal can take a nap.

I've implemented several new things for our school year this year which brought some resistance at first but as I type this, we are already in our eighth week of school and I can say with great relief that we have all adjusted.  I am very pleased with the new goals I have created for each child, and I think this year will result in all three of the older girls growing and learning by leaps and bounds.  Photos below in clockwise order from top left: the girls putting on a show complete with lighting, Violet having "special time" with me doing one of her favorite things - making designs with math manipulatives, our red ride on donkey caught trampling Violet's baby doll named Bonnie Bee late one night when I was up with Opal (I knew that red donkey was no good!), Will with his four little ladies, Violet showing me a drawing she made - she has been doing so much art this past month!, and Violet playing Alphabet Go Fish with me.

My sister and her boyfriend came to town for her annual end of summer visit and great memories were made by all.  We taught them to watercolor with us, and they taught us a card game or two. 

We went apple picking with my family...

 ...and had fun using human ladders to reach the best apples.

I really like the below humans in front of some real ladders.  Sisters and sisters!  Two different generations!

Which seems to lead nicely into the below photos of me and my middle sister in the left hand photo below and my daughters in the right hand photo below in the exact same gazebo about twenty-five years apart.

 We had a very small honey harvest this past month.  The weather was not ideal this past season for honey, and it was also a learning curve for Will managing the bees completely on his own now that I am officially allergic to honey bees.  I ordered way too many honey jars, and Will is about done with the work involved now that he has gone from enthusiastic supporter of something I love, to doing it all.  Some decisions will have to be made on how to move forward with (or without) honey bees for next year as things are just not the same and it has become hard for me to not be afraid of the insects that I love so much.  This is very emotional for me as I feel like I have been forced into something that I would have never chosen myself.  *me shaking my fist at my honey bee allergy* However, I have to believe that when one door closes, another one will surely open and so I am trying to keep an open mind while grieving this change.

 Besides some honey, our little suburban farm produced some great Michigan Famous Pastie Pies which we made in bulk and froze, some delicious bruschetta with basil and tomatoes from our own garden, and Lucy who helped me to make a giant tray of jello for Will who had a kidney procedure and mistakenly thought he couldn't eat the entire day prior.  Let's just say we had a lot of extra jello when he found out the day before his procedure that he could eat regular food until midnight!

 And finally, our suburban farm seemed to specialize in State Prize winning spiders - one that Will and the girls caught in our garden (and released back into the wild) and one that I found after my hand brushed across it's web when I reached my hand into my old mail box and it's new home.

 This past month we also enjoyed time playing in the local creek by our house, time at the playground for a picnic with Will's parents, and a weekend with my college roommate where we enjoyed catching up on life, touring our farmer's market and another picnic park afternoon.  I am bummed that I didn't get any photos of my roommate in town, but I can promise you that the image of her and I standing on top of a park bench while a rabid behaving squirrel tried to jump from the ground to the bench to bite us is forever engrained in both of our minds!  It didn't help my fears when my friend told me in no uncertain terms how terrible rabies shots are and how they are administered straight into your stomach!  We ended up calling the non emergency police number after calling animal control and the park office only to hear a recording that they were each closed for the weekend.  When the officer who got the call showed up, I thought for sure Will was going to be arrested when he told the officer that the perpetrator had brown eyes and was about 8 inches long.  Fortunately the crazy squirrel showed it's true colors, distracting the highly annoyed officer from Will's poorly timed joke, but in the end, the officer ended up telling us to just get away from the squirrel as he couldn't do anything unless it actually bit someone.  What is the world coming to I ask you!?

I think the important thing to remember here is that you must maintain a sense of humor, no matter what!  Through puke, stinky clothes and rabid squirrels, I wouldn't trade this life in for any other and despite Will's brush with the law, I'm so glad my life mate is there to laugh right along with me.  Stay tuned for our up north trip in the following blog post!

Opal's Seventh Month

Opal grew so much this past month!  While I don't as of yet have her "official" seventh month photo, I did get her sixth month picture taken before she turned seven months!  As you can see below she is now able to sit up on her own!

 She has so much fun with her sisters, and her sisters have so much fun with her.  They still fight over her, which I thought would have worn off by now, but I guess at the end of the day, I am just glad they love being with her so much.  One of the best perks of being a big sister I've noticed, is getting to pick out what Opal wears for the day.  I do miss having this privilege myself, but I happily step aside so that they can have pride in their sister too.  Of course they find a way to fight over this, and if they are the first one up for the day, they usually win at dressing their baby sister.  In the bottom, right hand picture below, Lucy decided to have her and Opal match that day, and imagine my joy when I saw that Lucy dressed Opal in a dress that used to be Lucy's!  If I had a glimpse of what the future would hold over nine years ago, I may not have believed it!

 Opal loves her daddy, and loves relaxing with him too.  In the bottom, right hand picture below, the girls and I found a pet couch at a local store and had to do a photo op with Opal on it to send to Will.  What a riot, and the looks on Opal's face as she just relaxed were hilarious.

 Opal loves her mama too, and I am happy to say that I am still her favorite.

 This past month Opal started eating solid foods!  She didn't care for them at first but now will sometimes tolerate them.  She's eaten squash, sweet potatoes, rice cereal, prunes and applesauce.

Opal gives the best hugs now too, and I just love this stage that she is in.  I predict next month will bring even more changes and so I hope to savor every moment of this sweet little girl!

August Inspirations

What a difference a year makes!  One year ago we announced to the world that we were expecting our fifth baby!

Now our littlest lady is here and we are all the better for Opal Marie's arrival.  It's amazing how for all five of my pregnancies I experienced the worst of my morning sickness in the month of August.  Five out of the past eleven Augusts the smell of tomatoes and peaches ripening on my counter makes my stomach turn.  And now, even though I am not pregnant, the smells of August still make my stomach queasy.  There is something in the air that just triggers a feeling of sickness and I can't quite explain it except to say that the heat and humidity where we live hits a peak in August (combined with the one time each year that ants grow wings and fly - ugh!) that it really does make me look forward to the start of fall and the end of summer. 

As if the humidity, heat and flying ants weren't enough to ruin August, wasps hit their peak as well in August.  Will ended up helping a friend of ours rescue his lawn mower after he was attacked by ground dwelling wasps.  The white stuff on our friends arms and legs pictured below is him following my advice (he is a really good sport) and put a baking soda paste on all of the stings to reduce the swelling.

We enjoyed time with family this past month - in clockwise order from top left below: enjoying a pizza dinner with cousins, my mom with the girls, and Will's parents enjoying a backyard baseball game with the girls.

 We had lunch with a long time family friend who got to meet Opal for the first time...

 ...and played Legos with friends.  We also went to a summer party at a friends house and Will ran into one of his best friends from high school and college days at a Smashing Pumpkins concert at the end of this past month.  Will went to a Smashing Pumpkins concert with this same friend about twenty years ago and the smiles on both of their faces when they saw each other was priceless and made my heart so happy.

 We enjoyed summer evenings in the backyard with neighbors and I also came out of "maternity leave" and participated in a bee show at the local nature center.  Imagine my happiness when my brother and sister in law and their four kids came to the event!

Our peach tree was raided by squirrels but I did manage to get enough peaches for one peach cobbler.  We made refrigerator pickles with the cucumbers that I swear my neighbor dropped off by the half dozen for us each time he took his dog for a walk, and I made mini blueberry pies for the freezer from the blueberries we picked at my mom's house, as well as enjoyed the wildflower garden that we have been perfecting over the last few years.  In the bottom, left hand picture below I realized our breakfast table showcased everything from our yard and kitchen - a homegrown sunflower, eggs from our chickens, strawberry jam that we made back in June and one of the kids' favorite breakfast food that I make - homemade waffles in the shapes of farm animals.

Out tomatoes and green beans did not disappoint this year...

 ...and although our garden may be past the season for little green peas, Lucy was inspired by the children's book Little Green Peas to make little green peas to represent our family out of polymer clay.  Violet was inspired by a stringing game we have to make a "party mix" and we played lots of games this past month too.

 This past month our friend generously gave us her Legos that she had outgrown, which inspired Will and the girls to build a bigger Lego table to play on and feature all of their creations.

 Legos still seem to be the favorite pastime at our house for both the girls and Will.  Legos were my favorite as a kid too, but for now, I am content to see the girls (and sometimes Will) play with them.

 The girls played outside in the rain, picked flowers, put on shows in the garage for us, and played on their slip and slide.

We borrowed a DVD from our library on how to paint with watercolors, and all of us were inspired to create the lessons.  We painted flowers, fish, a desert scene and even a dragon so far, and it was amazing to see how each painter followed the same directions but created something entirely unique and beautiful.

It's no secret how much I love our library, and so imagine my excitement when we won a one year zoo membership from our participation in the summer reading program!

One of my favorite things about being a parent is sharing with my kids a love of reading, and not only rereading favorite books from my childhood with them but discovering new books and favorites alongside them.  And finally, I've enjoyed coming to the realization that my kids each have their own preferences in books and helping them discover titles for themselves.

Here we are below in clockwise order from top left: Violet at the dentist, Violet standing in as the O.A.T. (oldest available Timmerman - an acronym taken from one of our favorite book series, The Penderwicks) as her two older sisters were getting their teeth cleaned at the dentist and I needed someone to keep Opal happy while I finished filling out paperwork, a photo that either Lucy or Emma took of Will, myself and Violet at a follow up appointment at the local Children's Hospital genetics department, Lucy and Emma in dance camp this past month, and all of us riding the shuttle at a festival nearby and realizing that the free tractor-pulled wagon shuttle was the best part of the entire festival and so we decided to ride it around and around, back and forth from the parking lot to the festival without getting off until we all were content, and finally, Lucy, Emma and Violet spending their money on little charms at the dance apparel store.

We spent the last part of our summer with Hand Foot and Mouth Disease.  It was brutal.  Every single one of us got it, but in such a slow fashion, that it was literally three solid weeks of us with someone down and out.  I suppose looking back on it that although it would have been nice to have it go through our house much faster, it also would have been much more difficult for me to care for multiple people sick at once.  Will and I seemed to have been hit the hardest with it, and fortunately, again, we were not sick at the same time as we needed the other functioning adult to manage the rest of the household!  During our sickness, a friend of ours had a popsicle stand to benefit her girl scout troop.  Not wanting to pass our germs on to them, but also wanting to support her popsicle stand, we agreed on a drive through and a hilarious and fun time ensued which was a welcome relief to the house arrest we were feeling with our communicable disease.  One morning, before I knew that Violet was coming down with a fever, she had thrown so many tantrums that I took her outside for a time out.  As I was carrying her kicking and screaming out of the house my bachelor neighbor gave us one look and quickly ran into his house.  A few hours later, as I was lecturing a reluctant Lucy on why she should just unpack the dishwasher nicely and not exhaust me with whining and complaints, the same neighbor knocked on my kitchen window.  Embarrassed that he clearly had heard my "mom voice", I opened the window and he offered fancy chocolates and sidewalk chalk and told me to hang in there, he could tell I was having a rough day.  I can't even tell you how this small gesture turned my day around.  Not only did I have chocolate, but the chalk provided a diversion for the healthy kids who were going stir crazy and it filled me with a sense of being cared for, despite Will's late work schedule that day and my cranky and sick kids.

 If you want to know what life with four girls looks like, the below collage is a pretty good picture - starting in the top left below in clockwise order:  me, accidentally taking a selfie and realizing later that the look on my face must be the look I make when I'm attending to my crazy children, Violet showing me that her potato chips at lunch look like butt cheeks (at the same moment my heart was melting thinking she found hearts - nope!), pancakes for humans and baby dolls lined up on my griddle one morning, a poem we had up on the chalkboard over the summer that I love so much, Emma telling me, "don't you hate it when your hair gets stuck in your band aid mama?", and Will, trying to comfort a crying Violet while holding Opal who will cry if he sets her down.

For me, my first decade of motherhood has been both predictable and surprising.  I expected there to be a lot of work and a lot of love with motherhood.  I am surprised however by the way I get to live the best parts of my childhood over again through my kids eyes - from my favorite books that I get to share with them for the first time to the toys, games, food and places that I loved as a child and now as well.  I am also surprised by the number of times I am asked to "watch this" or "how do you spell..." and how it is very hard to function when multiple voices are talking to you at the same time, each voice completely clueless that anyone else is also trying to talk to me.  But mostly I have been taken by surprise on how healing motherhood would be to the parts of me that were broken or lost.  My kids have been the catalyst for me to do the hard work of growing and I am forever grateful and evolving with starts and stops and tears and joy to be the best, most whole version of myself.

P.S. Feel free to send chocolate and sidewalk chalk for the stops and tears!

Opal at 6 Months

As I type this, Opal is already half way through her sixth month, and I have yet to take a picture of her next to her six month sticker!  Below is the photo I took late of her fifth month.  I remember when Lucy was a baby and we took her to a photography studio for some baby photos.  There was a woman in front of us who was getting photos taken of her baby boy.  When it came time for her to order the photos at the end of the photo shoot, she said "this is my fourth kid.  Just give me your most basic package.  He's lucky I'm even together enough to have brought him here."  I now completely understand.

I'm hopeful that for Opal's sake, whatever her overextended parents may be lacking in time, the love of having three older sisters more than makes up for it.

And of course it goes without saying how much Will and I love our littlest lady - we find her just as delightful and beautiful as we find each of her three older sisters.  They are all unique in their own ways, and we definitely couldn't imagine our life without a single one of them.

I know that someday Opal will give me grief about my inability to call her by her real first name, but for now, my brain is having trouble and for the most part, her name comes out as "Vi-Opal."  Lucy, Emma and Violet are lucky if I call them by their proper names but for my youngest, a true hybrid name is taking place.  Probably if she complains, I will blame the fact that she sleeps so badly, and my brain is tired.  We are still trying to find a natural solution for her acid reflux.  Here she is below being held by me for almost all of her naps this past month, and our chiropractor giving her an adjustment to see if that helps her tummy issues.  You better believe I got an adjustment next, for the back pain that comes with carrying a 15 pound baby for all of her naps is no joke.

Some of her sleeplessness can be attributed to her new teeth - she has had the bottom two for a month now, but is slowly working on the top two teeth.  She was so proud to brush her teeth with her sisters for the very first time this past month.

She just loves her sisters, and wants to play with them so much!  In the photos below in clockwise order from top left: the girls surrounded Opal with love and excitement the first time she was put in the baby swing in our backyard (she finally reached the age to do it - 6 months), Lucy helping Opal discover Charlie, the sisters giggle and give Opal the feedback she loves when Opal plays peek-a-boo with her blanket, Opal loves playing on the floor near them, and finally, the girls got the idea to do a photo shoot with Opal and three, life-size dolls that our cousin gave them for their birthday. Will has taken this game to the next level, and loves to freak out unsuspecting guests when he carries a baby doll around in less than safe ways.  It gives my heart a start when I see one of the dolls laying limply on the floor or strewn across the couch too.  Fortunately, Opal will be outgrowing them soon. 

Opal has started to have stranger danger this past month, and has cried big, heart-breaking tears any time someone other than her parents or sisters try to hold her.  If the person trying to hold her sticks it out long enough, they have discovered that as long as Opal cannot see their face, Opal will be content.

 Oh Vi-Opal, we love you so much!  I'll sign off now in the hopes of grabbing a spare moment to get a picture of you next to a six-month sticker before you turn seven months old!  Oh wait, the blanket we take your photo on is in the wash because you peed on it this morning!  See, mama tries but life sure gets in the way!  I better go put the comforter in the dryer...