Our garden is looking like it will be a success again this year.  The edible plants are the only ones I can keep up with outside, and even there, it's hit or miss.  I was SO disappointed to wait, wait, and wait some more for my red raspberry plants to come up, only to realize they must have all died.  So, perhaps my opening sentence was a misnomer.  I kept telling Ryan that red raspberries must come up a little later than golden raspberries, because we saw them coming up.  I planted Raspberries precisely because you can't kill them.  And yet..................... I had to tell myself 10 times, "Jenn, it's ok, it was a learning experience", every times I would start thinking about how far I drove to get them, etc. 

On to happier topics.  The rest of our edible plants seem to have survived me.  Last night, we had my new favorite vegetable, beets.  Last year, I made chocolate cake with beets, and was amazed at their versatility.  Who knew, definitely not my kids.  They had not an inkling that buried within every bite of chocolate were juicy red beets.  So, I have been planting lots of beets in succession, so that I won't run out.  

Thanks to Bethany's instructions, we have been enjoying many, many salads with a simple salad dressing of salt, pepper, olive oil and fresh lemon juice.  Tonight, I made a 4th of July salad with blueberries, strawberries, feta, candied nuts, and mint leaves.  Everyone ate the salad because they were trying to discover my secret ingredient (mint).  

Our sweet peas as of a few weeks ago, now they are flowering and above the green posts.  We have enjoyed snacking on them, though I learned that Ryan doesn't like raw sweet peas.  We usually make an Asian beef and snow peas stir-fry that we all love.

Roasted beets and beet greens.  YUM!

We have all, every last one of us, enjoyed boxes of spinach for the last several months.  I feel rather like a radical acknowledging this, but I started putting spinach in fruit smoothies, took out the yogurt, and added ground flax seed.  Everyone loves the breakfast smoothies, and I am not exaggerating.  The great thing about spinach in smoothies is that it is tasteless.     My children love to drink it because the taste the yummy fruit, and we add a variety of fruits, depending on what we have:  frozen grapes, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, mango, pineapple, and so forth.  

We are excited for our harvest this summer.

What do two front teeth mean and baptism have in common?

Madeline!

We've known for awhile that both would happen, yet it seemed as the days went by that neither would happen.  She was without her front teeth for so long that when I had conferences with her 2nd grade teacher, he jokingly told Madeline that it would be good for her to work on growing her front teeth.  I told her to be patient, that "these things take time", and there was no way she would go to college without her front teeth growing in.

We've also known for awhile that her first big tradition was coming.  We spent some time (not as much as we wanted or as we planned), talking to her about baptism, the why and what of it.  We spent a lot of time thinking about exactly what it was about baptism that we wanted Madeline to learn.  It happens so often, and yet it is a wonderful symbol. 

 It seemed like her baptism would always be a year away, and that by the time it happened I would figure out exactly what I wanted her to know, succinctly and without blemish.  And yet, while some things have been clarified, the baptism came and went, and I still wonder if I taught her enough.  Also, now that she's 8, and her front teeth are growing in, I spend time thinking about the fact that she has only 10 years left at home, and all the things I need to teach her in that time, all the fun times I want to have with her, all the conversations that we will hopefully share. 

The baptism was wonderful, the water was warm, she was only dunked once, she played "I am a Child of God" beautifully.  Max did get his head stuck in the crevice of a chair, and it did take 6 people to get him out, but it was right after Madeline was baptized, I was helping her change, and Ryan was changing.  We didn't even know until afterwards.  

The real blessing of her baptism for me, of the reflection beforehand and the feelings afterwards, was the realization of how precious this time is that I have with my children, and how the teachings and ordinances that can be so commonplace in our church are what unit us as a family.  I told Ryan as we drove home that I have gotten past the point of seeing my children as hard work and sacrifice, and I now see the time that I have with them, and the relationships that I have with them as one of the greatest blessings in my life.  While I love to do some things without my children, there is nothing that I enjoy doing more than being with them.

Two noteworthy photos

I saw these after I had posted about our camping trip, and wanted to share.  I thoroughly enjoy my children when they are three.  I am entranced with the way in which they put words together.  I love to watch their imagination as they explore everything.  And I am in awe of the pure joy they are able to experience as they use their bodies to do new things.  I happened to glance over while Max and Matthew were finished with the stick play and saw them just resting.

Matthew and Max lounging around after a massive stick gun battle.  

Ella meditating.  For some reason, kids are not bored by just sitting on a beach.  I'm grateful for that. 

June Deliveries

After Madeline experienced a disappointing birthday last year, in which I put in lots of work, Ryan and gave Madeline a list of 5 ways we could celebrate her birthday.   We are trying to instill in our children a love of nature, and a connection to the earth on which they live and from which we subsist.   By virtue of these priorities, and also the logistics keeping safe Wild Man Sam and his co-conspirator, the new Chuckie Cheese was out.

I was very pleased with our solution, 5 outdoor options that included either a picnic or homemade ice cream, all of them manageable from my point of view.  She decided she wanted to go fishing and have a picnic at our near-by state park.

Sam and Max learned from our recent camping trips how to wield sticks as guns and battle each others, and they had plenty of ammunition.  Between throwing rocks in the water and yelling, they scared all the fish away.  I finally took them to the sandy swim area, and they waded in the water, while Ryan taught Madeline and Ella the basics of fishing.  Even with us gone, they managed to not hook a single fish. 

We all enjoyed walking on the trails, crossing the creeks, looking through the woods for new birds to put on our bird list, and picking wildflower bouquets.

We brought cotton candy, smores and hotdogs to grill after we fished.  We also brought rocket balloons, which provided endless satisfaction for all the kids.  We hated to go home because everything was purely satisfactory:  the weather, the peace of the outdoors, the kids, the companionship. Nothing necessitated us leaving: temper tantrums, poopy underwear accidents, rain or cold, other commitments. 

We told Madeline about the famous car chase that happened to happen in Heber the one day she was born, and that happened to shut down the one road that went to the hospital, and how the Corolla almost became a windowless car, as I thought about kicking out the windows as we tried to get to the hospital.  What a pleasure it has been to have her in our lives for 8 years.  

She enjoyed her birthday celebration even though she didn't catch any fish and even though we didn't have a friends party (which she likes because she gets more birthday presents).  She really liked her yo-yo and the money that she received for her birthday, which enabled her to go to a horse camp.

We finally made it to Madeline Island with Madeline Swapp(along with all the other Swapp children).

Dotting the Wisconsin coastline of Lake Superior are 22 various sized Islands that encompass the Apostle Islands.  Madeline Island is the largest and easiest to access, with a 25 minute ferry ride from Bayfield, WI.  We mounted all insurmountable obstacles to have a mostly splendid time (vacations are for people without young children).

It was so cold, we didn't wash faces or come into contact with the water unless it was to drink.  Remnants of dinner remained with us all. We slept with gloves, hats and winter coats over two layers of clothing.  The first morning, we awoke to rain in the wee hours, and spent 3 hours entertaining each other waiting for the rain to at least slow down so we could leave the tent.  We colored, read books, wrestled, played sudoku, and ate sugar cereal.

Our friends didn't make it the first night, and we didn't tell them they should be glad they missed the coldest day and night.

Hehehe.  Sam had eyes only for the fence that lead to the sudden drop off into the lake.  We went on several hikes and bike rides, Ella on the tagalong, Max and Sam in the trailer, and Madeline on her bike.  Sam and Max appreciated the ability to roam and explore an immense amount of space, and the cliff areas were no exception.

Madeline and her friend Tessa spend time around the campsite playing Sudoku.  

Ella and Abel played with Adelaide.  We enjoyed the company of our friends again, we went camping with them more than a year ago, visiting the North shoreline of MN, and we had a system down for managing the chaos.  Our menu planning enabled us to all eat well and also happily, which doesn't always go hand in hand.  There were just enough treats and snacks to keep the complaining at bay.  

We spent a lot of time by the beach, as we had expected.  We saw kayakers come in from exploring the surrounding sea caves.  Sail boats also came near as they visited many of the surrounding islands.  The water was frigid, but it didn't stop the kids from throwing and skipping rocks, and daring the water to lap their feet.  Every time we went to the beach, several of the kids came home wet.  We exhausted our clothes supply several times.  The last day, everyone wore pajamas.

The highlight of the trip for me was the last night we were there.  We had safely committed our children to sleep with a half of a melatonin, and then Ryan build a campfire and the two of us sat by the fire for what seemed like forever.  It was blissfully quiet, just the sound of others in the near vicinity stoking their fires and quietly talking.  We likely would have stayed until late into the night, but a gigantic storm flew in and we ran for our lives into the tent.

We awoke to torrential rain, and loaded the kids in the car while we took everything down and packed it in the car.  It was a wet ride home.

On our way out of town, Madeline decided she wanted to buy a Madeline Island tee-shirt.  After doing a quick mental analysis of her financial state, she knew how much money she could spent and we ran in the gift shop, while Ryan waited in the line to get on the ferry.  The storekeepers gave her a "Madeline" discount, which she appreciated.  Then we ran to catch Ryan as he drove on the ferry.

Our trip home was delightful, we knew in a few hours we would be warm and have a roof over our heads.  Everyone peacefully listened to "Little House on the Prairie", as we drove home along the Laura Ingles Wilder highway, the very trail her family took so long ago.  We had to stop once to clean up vomit from Max (car sickness), but we are now pro's at that, it didn't faze us a bit.

The Beauty of May Birthdays

There are not many months with so much fruit in plentiful harvest.  A White Chocolate Fruit Tart is a perfect way to celebrate my birthday in May.  Lucky for me, Ryan enjoys creating this masterpiece.

Ella- Kindergarten program

The Kindergarten class invited us to come listen to as the kids sang, and then enjoy cookies and punch afterwards.  Boldly and Bravely, I arrived 5 minutes beforehand with both boys in tow.  I combed their hair and made sure they were wearing shoes and matching clothes so that they would appear to be well cared for, even if we had to walk out 3 minutes into it due to their acrobatics.

The more kids you add, the more out of control you can appear when in public, and some kids exploit this  desire to appear in control.

We found two open seats on the front row.  Max had one and Sam was on my lap.  We stayed for the whole program.  Sam tried to outdo me a number of times.  He took many videos of my skirt, and tried to kick my neighbor while he was taking pictures.  He was excited to see Ella, as you can hear in the first video.  But I persevered, and we made it through the 30 minute program. Max was polite and engaged in the songs.