Hard to believe another summer is almost gone…

We’re ready when you are, Fall.

I recently put some of the responsibility of school in The Boy’s hands.  Inspired by The Bird’s morning list for her girls, I made a list for The Boy to check off through his school day.  It is working!

The best part is, once it’s done, it’s DONE!  Monday, we had one of our best homeschool days ever, and we were finished by 1:30!  What a good feeling it was to have the rest of the day to play in whatever way we wanted.  The Boy pulled out his Legos, The Girl drew and listened to an audiobook, and I sewed.

It was fantastic.

Our poor summer garden.  Almost a complete failure except for basil and peppers.  Everything grew, but suffered blossom drop from the heat. This ugly tomato was only one of two that we harvested.  Too much rain caused it to crack!  But it tasted good nonetheless, and I suppose that’s what matters.

I’m looking forward to slightly bigger yields this fall, although the sun’s position has shifted behind a giant cedar tree. Oh that tree, it’s the mortal enemy of my garden, and no matter how much we trim it, it is always in the way. We are contemplating a rooftop garden.  Is that crazy?  I’m not sure yet. But despite it all, I cleared out all the old plants and started some seeds.  And after reading up on beekeeping, I decided I’m not really ready to do that yet, but there’s a new feral hive right behind my house!  So that’ll be good for my garden, right?

Have I mentioned that I hate summer? Okay, maybe not hate, but I don’t love it in the way that Northerners do.  Every summer I “think” things will be one way (fun and carefree, full of the beach, running around barefoot, and making lots of jam) but the reality of summer in Florida is that we usually run from one air conditioned pod to another.  As quickly as possible.  Every summer I get cabin fever.  And when I think I can’t take being cooped up another day, I venture outside only to be carried off by mosquitos.

So yes, I have cabin fever.  I am ready.  Ready for fall.  But since it will not be arriving on my doorstep for another six weeks, I am thinking forward to how awesome it will be to finally go outside for a change.  The Boy has been asking to have school outside, and I cannot wait to say yes.  I am looking forward to: pumpkin custard, halloween costume sewing, gardening, having the windows open, and wearing my new socks.

These socks are only the second thing I have knitted for myself and I love them!  The Boy and I are reading the Harry Potter books, and I have to admit, I’m really enjoying them.  I’m gonna just let my freak-flag fly here and say I’m a superfan. Enough to knit myself (and The Boy) matching Gryffindor socks. The pattern is from Alison Hansel’s Charmed Knits, which I happily stumbled across one day at my local library.  There’s actually a few more projects I’d like to make from the book, and I found the sock pattern an easy and fun project.  These took about three weeks to make, although most of the knitting was done while we were on vacation and I had lots of spare time to knit.

Come on fall!

The Monkey Family spent the last week in Florida’s panhandle, visiting with family and recharging our batteries.  The Boy and The Girl spent several days with their grandparents, and The Daddy Monkey and I had our first ever kid-free getaway, in seven years of parenting.  It was pretty nice.  The photo from Friday’s this moment is a photo from beautiful Wakulla Springs, where we stayed.  While I would love to say that it changed my life, it did not.  It was lovely, and relaxing, and we had a fine time.  Except for being booked in a room directly next door to a loud family with lots of kids.  Oh the irony.  We switched rooms, and all was well.

I would like to say that we slept in very late, ate room service, and forgot about our children.  But the truth is that we woke early due to the thin walls of our old hotel, and that there wasn’t even room service offered.  And while I can say that I didn’t exactly miss my children, I did think of them a few times, even though I knew they were having the time of their lives being spoiled by their grandparents.

But–I can say that we enjoyed a little breathing space.  A little time in which we didn’t have to referee fights, wipe behinds, make fifty thousand snacks, and make sure everyone’s hands were washed.  We enjoyed the quiet of nature, took a wee hike and a peaceful boat ride, and enjoyed several fantastic picnics under the enormous pine trees.  The enormous wheel of brie we bought turned out to be a good investment, and the weather at the park was just cool enough to be able to sit outside. We enjoyed the song of dozens of cicadas, took the scenic route, and had fun playing tourist in a place where boiled peanuts are considered a delicacy.

The best part of a vacation?  Coming home.  Home to your own bed, where you know the sounds and smells by heart, and you can go to your own kitchen and make yourself a cup of tea whenever you like, instead of having to search the GPS for a Starbucks that is 20 miles away.  Where you know where you are going when you get in your car, and you can drive to the local organic farmer’s market and happily buy fresh, beautiful produce (even if it did cost $45).

Even though having a break from the children for a few days was nice, it wasn’t the earth-shattering experience I had expected it to be.  The effect was much more subtle.  I came home gladly.  To the home I have created for my family.  Whereas before we left, I found myself in a serious funk about motherhood and homeschooling, I came home and remembered why I’m doing this. Why I choose to live with such intention.  Feeling refreshed and ready for a new school year.  Looking forward to autumn and the cooler temperatures, a fall garden, and second grade.

It’s good to be home.

In Amanda’s words: This Moment – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

In Amanda’s words: This Moment – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

So here it is.  Our first vegetable garden in over ten years. The plan for the raised bed is from the book The Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen.  I would like to say it was easy to put together because I am not the one who put it together, but the project seemed to go quickly and without a hitch.  Without a hitch except that it was a thousand degrees outside. The hard part was lugging all the topsoil and compost from the hardware store.  It took two trips, and over forty bags to fill this thing.  That was the hard part.  Raised beds are a must for us because about four inches below our soil is a thick layer of shell.  Oh yeah, I live in Florida.

This garden is already doing better than the one before, probably due to the fact that it is getting more sunlight and more water.  Who knew?

Even though we knew that planting in the heat of summer might be a disaster, we went ahead and threw some starts in.  Everything’s looking good, if not impressive, but pretty much everything has blossom drop due to too-high temperatures.  The tomatoes set a few fruit, but we lost one to some kind of small worm.  The peppers have been doing well, and the basil has been keeping us in pesto for the past few weeks.

I don’t want to jinx myself by saying that this garden has been really easy, but well, it has.  While I know that it will take us probably a few years to build up really good soil, most of our plants are doing well, and the only plant I’ve lost so far was a marigold.

It’s just been pure pleasure watching this stuff grow.  And I’ve learned a few things already. Like it’s important to put the cages on the tomatoes before they get too big.  And don’t leave a full bale of mulching hay in a wagon where it can get full of water and then rot in a very stinky way.  And when somethng is looking good and ripe–pick it and stick it in the fridge before it rots.

This gardening thing is seriously addictive.  We have plans to build two more boxes like this one for the fall.  It’s been so much fun poring over seed catalogs (even if it has been virtual instead of actual.) I’m looking forward to the day when my first seed catalog arrives in the mail. Perhaps then I will feel like a real gardener.

Day two of my personal retreat was just as good as day one, in its own way.  In the morning, The Daddy Monkey took the kids to his parent’s house for a swim, and I had a quiet house all to myself. Inspired by yesterday’s meditation retreat, I took the morning to clean and declutter my meditation space.  With a nice clean space to call my own, it’s much more pleasant to bring myself to practice.

After they returned, I went out yarn shopping and bought some lovely sock yarn and some jeans for myself. (Only had to try on about thirty pairs, but easy to do when you don’t have two kids with you!) I stopped for a few dinner supplies and headed home.

It felt good to come home to three smiling faces.  I really love these people that I have chosen to share my life with. What a difference it made to have some space to realize that. Taking this time for myself has made me realize how bad I am at making myself a priority.  I am committed to carving out this space a little more often, and asking for help when I need it.

We had a lovely dinner, the four of us, and decided to go for a swim.  The boys played in the waves, and The Girl and I sat on the beach after our swim.  I knitted while The Girl played in the sand.   It was really nice to reconnect with my family at the beach after taking some time alone.

And here I am in a quiet home again.  My three loves sleeping in their beds.   As my meditation teacher said yesterday, “I have everything I need.”

Having had such a difficult time lately, The Daddy Monkey suggested that I “take the weekend off.”  With that in mind, I made a commitment to recharge my own batteries and restore my sense of balance over this weekend.

I began by getting some much needed acupuncture on Thursday evening, to help soothe my over-taxed adrenals.  It felt soooo good.

I started my day today by sleeping in, then enjoying a quiet, solitary breakfast.

Afterwards, I had the great pleasure of taking a half-day retreat at my local Buddhist meditation center.  I contemplated inviting a friend or two along, but decided that being by myself was what I needed to focus.  As it turns out, I ran into a friend there.

Just being in such a beautiful place filled my heart.  Hearing the words of a wise, young, vibrant, soft-spoken Buddhist nun filled me with not only a small sense of peace, but also gave me encouragement to take better care of myself.  Today’s experience deepened my understanding of mindfulness, lovingkindness, and even the task of ordinary household chores!

I wanted desperately to take notes during the teachings, but realized that in the two (!) bags I had packed (wallet, phone, keys, knitting, zafu) I did not have a single pencil. I felt a bit twitchy that I couldn’t write anything down. I decided to focus on listening rather than writing, and letting go of my attachment to always writing everything down. During our break, I asked my friend for a pen, and took a few notes on the back of my knitting pattern.  Ironically, when I left, I left both my knitting pattern and her pen on the chair next to me.  How’s that for releasing attachment?

I purchased a book and a lovely art card, and left feeling peaceful, rested, and relaxed.   I headed out for a roll of sushi.  I enjoyed my salmon roll (alone!) and read my book (with no interruptions!) in a lovely, sunny window.

I got home, read some Curious George, and took a nap.  Then I stayed in bed and read some more of my new book.

We plan on ordering in some Thai for dinner, and I am looking forward to it!  What a great day it has been.  Thank you to the Daddy Monkey for giving me the space to work on myself this way.

One of the tasks of meditation is to allow your heart to sustain a certain feeling for an extended period of time. Now if only I could sustain this wonderful, relaxed feeling every day.