Unblogged Happiness: June Edition

06/01 - Clementine's recital. I was in Tennessee with Jim (who had lost his mother two days before) and missed it. That was hard, but--given that Clementine had been practicing her ballet and tap routines since September--I'm so glad she was able to participate. I'm especially grateful to my mom, who drove eight hours to stand in for me, then delivered our precious girl to us in time for the funeral. 

Seven of Clementine's loved ones showed up to watch her recital. I put Cade in charge of flowers, and his sweet stepmother put together a special arrangement just for Clementine. The other dance moms were completely supportive. April's photos, below, are a gift. You find out who your friends are.

I can hardly wait to watch the recital DVD!

Photos by April Young

06/06 - Visit to my parents'. In the photo just below (top left), my parents were planting pastel M&Ms with the little kids. The funny thing is that--after dark, when the kids were asleep--Mom crept out to the planter to replace the M&Ms with lollipops only to discover that the M&Ms had already "sprouted and bloomed." She said it messed with her for a few seconds until she realized Dad had beaten her to the task.  

06/09 - Cade (far right) and our curly-headed friend Andrew advance to the rank of Star.

We'd returned from Tennessee with our nine-year-old nephew Boone and spent a couple weeks sharing our favorite things with him.
 

06/10 - Metro Richmond Zoo

06/13 - Bear Creek Lake

06/13 - Bear Creek Lake

06/14 - Water Country USA

06/20 - Science Museum of Virginia

06/20 - Science Museum of Virginia

06/22 - Mom had been in Maryland visiting family, and we met her in Staunton so Boone could hitch a ride home to East Tennessee. Afterward, we picked cherries at Spring Valley Orchard in Afton. 

06/27 - Daddy's girl. We'd had a big week: VBS for the girls, senior-citizen luncheon with our friends from the adult home, two trips to the pediatrician with Chip (who had the croup and an ear infection), and that's just scratching the surface, really, as I'd also taken a friend to the ER and visited two other hospitals to welcome/photograph new babies. I took this photo of Clementine and Jim at the event for culmination of VBS. She was pouting because it was time to go. I love this photo because I love this moody little girl, also this man who parents with everything he has.

06/28 - Honeybee Festival at Rockwood Park. This was our first time attending this free and educational event, and I'm so glad we went. The girls made bees out of pipe cleaners and had their faces painted. Clementine was all about the bee petting; did you know that drones (boy honey bees) don't sting? 

06/29 - Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

That's Cade's friend Sam carrying Charleigh (Top R). Cade's friends fit right into our family: an answer to prayer, for sure.

06/30 - Our first trip to Swift Creek Berry Farm for blueberries, this year. (We've been a second time, by now.)

I doubt that, in almost four years, I've ever blogged so little as I did, June. It would be easy to look as these photos and assume I was too busy, but truth is: I was too sad. I was doing what I do when I'm sad, which is to say: I tear up the road even more than usual; photograph even more than usual; bake even more than usual (think cherry and blueberry pies); and make even greater efforts, than usual, to fill that seventh seat of the minivan. These are constructive (or, at least, not destructive) ways to bring myself back around.

I do feel better, now, than I did. My life is beautiful and full, and I never didn't know that. If anything, I've been sad because my life is fleeting in its beauty and fullness. I feel that and have been fighting to enjoy the moment I'm in instead of grieving its too-quick passage. 

I'll leave you, for now, with some photos of the new babies in our lives: each so perfect and precious, each such a gift from heaven.

From Top to Bottom: Babies Caleb, Kayelynn, and Haven

12 Things I Learned in July 2013

1) The Greater Richmond Area includes at least one (amazing) blueberry farm: Swift Creek Berry Farm. Blessed to be included in Margie's and Phillip's blueberry-picking adventure.

 2) Blueberry bushes don't have brambles. Laugh if you will, but I was just as surprised as I was the day (fourteen years ago) I learned that pineapples grow out of the ground and not on trees.

3) Every now and then, a 35mm lens really is just the thing. No regrets over the purchase.

Charleigh and Andrea

4) Children really do grow up in the blink of an eye. Seems like just yesterday that I was celebrating my twenty-first birthday with my cousin-sister Andrea. Brandi would've been almost three years old then, but we didn't know her, yet. Andrea adopted Brandi into our family when she was five. She turned twenty-one this month.

Little Brandi, Me, and My Friend Gabby. 1998ish.

The Birthday Girl

 

5) It's possible for a baby to not only cut a tooth but also start sitting up, crawling, pulling up, and saying several new words all within the span of a week. I don't remember my other children's developing in a rush like that. (Stop the clock! Wahhhh!)

5) National Harbor, Maryland (eight miles south of D.C.) is a fascinating place to visit and offers a carousel; J. Seward Johnson's massive, heart-stopping sculpture The Awakening; and lots of fun shopping/eating possibilities. I was reading, tonight, that it offers, also, a children's museum; I look forward to returning.

Proud of this: my photo of The Awakening. I could've looked at this sculpture all day. (I wanted to marry it to the Awaking Muse  in Schaumburg, IL!)

 

Jim and His Peeps at National Harbor

6) God's timing is perfect. Including the following photo as a quiet reminder to myself. (I know what I mean.)

7) I'm a fan of the Gooch Dog. Yes. Yes, I am.

 

8) Somehow, my dad has morphed into an excellent kid wrangler. This is a puzzling--but beautiful!--development.

9) The secret to life with little kids is...big kids.

My Nephew CJ with Clementine

 

 10) I love a testifying magician. Terry Evanswood (at Wonderworks in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee) shares boldly with his audiences that all true magic is the work of Jesus Christ.

11) I read Adele Geras's Troy this month as part of what I call Cade's and my "Mommy and Me Book Club." Great book. I was reminded of so much of what I'd forgotten about Greek mythology, and let me just say: I'm thankful to believe in and serve one God: a non-fickle, non-trifling God. And I'm thankful that He reveals Himself to me in ways that stick. Can I get an amen?

12) According to the girls' National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Dinosaurs, there never was such a thing as a Brontosaurus. The "Brontosaurus" fossils paleontologists discovered belonged to a dinosaur that had already been named Apatosaurus. How did I miss this? And was Fred Flintstone eating Apatosaurus burgers, then?

Berry Pickin'

My brother was between appointments and visiting, July 4th, so we took him blueberry picking with us. I couldn't remember having ever picked blueberries before. He said we had two bushes by the pond when we were kids but teased: he wasn't surprised I don't remember; picking blueberries was probably just one more responsibility he had, growing up, that I didn't. (There may be some truth to this, but at the same time, if my brother ever scrubbed a toilet or tub at our parents', it was only after I'd left for college.)

What I remember very well, I told him, is a particular day of blackberry picking. The five of us (my parents had guardianship of another young man during these years) piled into Dad's brown Jeep and drove deep into the mountains on a dirt road in search of blackberries. We came upon a mighty patch of blackberries and, in no time, filled our buckets and even the console of the Jeep. Still, the bushes were dotted with gobs of ripe berries.

All five of us hated the thought of leaving the berries behind to rot when, instead, Mom could be folding them into bright, delectable cobblers, but what could we do? We were too far from home (or civilization, in general) to leave and return with more containers.

Just then, Dad said enthusiastically: "I have an idea! If B.R. (Thats me!) takes off and lets us fill her bra, we'll be able to take the rest of these berries with us and any others we might find, too!" Of course, my brothers hooted and hollered, and I can assure you that--while I see the humor in the situation, now--I was mortified, as a young teenager.

***

Whether you have blueberries or blackberries, I recommend baking Christina's Somethin' or Other. (She calls it a cobbler, but it's more like a crisp, in my humble opinion, because it doesn't involve dough.) I doubled her recipe, which made enough to fill one 9x13 dish and one 8x8 dish. I used blueberries/walnuts instead of blackberries/pecans. 

I made a pie, also, using Betsy Groff's recipe for basic pie dough and this recipe, from Allrecipes.com, for the filling.

 

The Pie (I didn't photograph the Somethin' or Other!)