Summer lovliness, summer eeekkkk

I think one of my favorite parts of summer is the fresh food. The sweet corn. The melons. The cucumbers. I think I could eat cucumbers every day for the rest of my life.

Today I made just the tastiest corn chowder because, really, there's only so much corn on the cob one person should eat. Fresh corn and onions and garlic. Thyme and parsley from my garden.

Now I'm waiting for those giant tomatoes in my garden to turn red before I make a ratatouille with only fresh ingredients, including the eggplant and zucchini piling up on kitchen counter.

Just a lovely way to live.

And then there's Carolyn, queen girl of the tomboys.


Today while cleaning up from lunch, Carolyn called me out, yet again, to tell me she's found a slug. I went out only to see that slimy, yuckiness crawling around her arm trailing slime and ughhhh. Sort of like when she picked up that centipede we saw at the Redwood forest in California.

Ugh...I don't know where she gets that. It's not from me. I suspect it's not from her father. She just loves dirt and bugs and mud and all things icky.

Also, since I haven't mentioned it before, Carolyn's become a little passive aggressive. Instead of mentioning she'd like to do something, "Can we watch a cartoon?" "Can I eat a bowl of ice cream at 8 o'clock in the morning?" "Can I whack my sister on the head for being such a little pest?" are not questions she regularly asks anymore.

Instead, they go something like this: "I can't watch TV right now, can I?" or "We can't have ice cream for breakfast, can we?" She actually will just go ahead and whack Penny on the head without asking, so I guess that's something.

Poor, neglected second child

Sure, when Carolyn got her brand-new big girl bed, it was all I talked about. I made a big deal about the great garage sale find. I took a billion pictures. I let Fife try it out.

And sure, Penny got her very own bed yesterday. We had the headboard for — oh... I don't know — a year gathering dust and spider egg sacs in the garage. And I took this quicky picture...

... just before nap today mostly because I felt bad.

So, Penny got a new bed. And then we went to the pool where Carolyn went down the slide, like, a billion time and swam across the pool without...

Oh wait. I'm doing it again. And sure, Penny went down the big slide for the first time, but so do a lot of other kids. Sheesh.

Swimming season ends swimmingly

Carolyn had her final swim meet of the year. It's the B-Invite meet, which is basically for the slower, smaller kids. Even though Carolyn's a very slow, small swimmer, she pulled out two wins today out of three races.

It was super exciting. She really gave it her all, and was rewarded with "heat bags" or bags filled with suckers, pencils, coupons from local businesses and other promotional material. Basically, the best bag that ever existed.

We won't go to conference this year. So this was Carolyn's "conference" and she really did her best. I was so proud of her, not for winning (although that part was very exciting) but because she spent all summer working very hard on her swimming and she gave it all she had today.

She won on freestyle and butterfly. The race I posted, the fly, was the closer of the two. It's not really her strongest stroke and it's the most difficult stroke (in my very humble opinion), but she struggled her way to first place.

And now we can begin our carefree summer, as my job at ISU didn't exactly pan out according to the rejection letter I got in the mail today.

What Carolyn loves

Carolyn loves her bestest swimming pal, Nellie.


She also loves sandwiches.

Memo to the Gardner family

cc: Anybody who might come in contact with said family.

I am implementing a strict zero tolerance policy regarding toys and fighting. Toys that are the subject of a fight between children are automatically placed in toy death camp consisting of a plastic bag to be held in Storage Room A (otherwise known as the basement closet). This is a non-negotiable rule that is to begin immediately. No toy or child has any right to due process. Toy status is not to be considered.

These toys will be kept separately from other toys for two purposes. 1. These toys can never resume full-play status upstairs and 2. We will show this bounty to the girls in their pre-teen years to let them know we have no qualms about removing all their electronic devices for bad behavior.

Thanks you for your cooperation in these matters. I am sure this policy will eventually lead to household harmony and a peaceful co-existence.