June Updates

The week that school got out we planted a large crop of beans and corn and various melons at my parents' house, then we spent several days frantically trying to get the watering systems working so we could safely go on vacation.

We left around 10am in the morning for a long drive across Nevada and California, to reach our family cabin in the woods, a mile or so off the coast.  


Our first item of business once we arrived (after sleeping that is), was haircuts.  The boys had really gotten shaggy.  I love this picture of A.  He was constantly brushing hair out of his eyes.  We decided that summer buzz cuts would be great (although it was tempting to leave A's as shown in the picture).  :)


Once they were all buzzed and showered, they enjoyed some hot tub time with dad.   

One day of vacation we hiked to a waterfall.  Here we are by the "smiley face tree"

We ate lunch by the water fall.

We got up early one morning to go see the tide pools.  We also took our usual trip into the town for fresh seafood lunch, and shopping at the toy store and book store.  The boys spent a huge majority of the vacation working with grandpa building their tree house.  

We were very happy to see everything alive and growing well when we got home.  Here are the green beans.

The corn in the three sister's bed is three or four inches tall now, and we planted the vining beans as well as the squash, so hopefully those things come up soon.  This picture is a good one of our new watering system that my Mister worked so hard to get operational before our vacation.  He used a length of hose to connect the tap to the pvc pipe.  He drilled holes in the pipe to correspond with the locations of the plants.  Nothing is glued together, so we can take it apart for winter storage and use it again next summer.

This section of the garden was also going to have the pvc pipe system, but we ran out of pvc pipe.  Rather than go buy more, we made due with what we had, which was a length of old hose (the one we had been cutting up to attach the pvc pipe system to the faucets in the other raised beds).  He again, drilled holes in the hose to correspond with each plant.  It will be interesting to see how it holds up compared to the pvc pipe.

After planting the beans in the three sisters bed, we realized that our experiment wasn't going to yield us very many beans, so my Mister constructed this lovely trellis for more beans to grow up.  We had a small section of raised bed with nothing growing in it, so it worked out well.

One morning I decided to break down and do some pruning.  I have a hard time cutting healthy growth off of plants, but driving through all the vineyards in northern CA, I convinced myself that it needed to be done.  I thinned out the grape vines so that there is one or two vines going to the lower wire, and one or two that we will continue to let grow so it can reach the top wire.  It looks much better now.

The strawberries that I transplanted several weeks ago have perked up, and have started to send out new runners.  By next year there ought to be another nicely established strawberry patch here.  This picture also shows one of the other irrigation types we have.  This one uses funny pipe and sprayers that direct the water exactly where you want them.  A little more pricy than our other types, but really nice to use.

We've been researching flowers to plant to attract beneficial insects and deter harmful insects.  We'd also like to attract hummingbirds.  We planted alyssum, marigolds, salvia, nasturtiums, and a couple others I can't remember now.   Most are spaced around the yard, but the extras were all planted under the hummingbird feeder.  I haven't seen any yet, but I have seen a couple of big fat bumble bees.  Usually we just see wasps, so I was excited to see more useful things.

At the nursery, while we were looking for flowers, I saw the basil, and instantly though of one of my late summer meals where we're trying to use up the prolific zucchini.  It's zucchini, tomatoes and onions sauteed in olive oil with garlic and oregano.  Fresh basil will be a really nice addition.  

We've also been trying to maintain an organized schedule this summer.  The kids have a list of jobs and homework that they have to do every day before they can play.  J's homework mostly involves practicing his multiplication tables, and A's is anything from the 1st grade section of the ABCya website.  The fourth and fifth grade sections have some fun games that J has been playing around with.  Hopefully they help him with his typing skills a little too.

Finally, at church yesterday, one of the nursery leaders came and got me out of relief society and said that CP needed help going to the bathroom.  I was confused and said, "you mean he needs his diaper changed?"  She restated, that no, he needs help getting his pants off.  I said, "do you mean A needs help?"  She must have been getting frustrated with me, because she said, "no, CP, the one with the red hair."  I was really confused, because CP isn't potty trained.  

I got to the nursery and took CP into the mini bathroom (the nursery room has it's own bathroom with a tiny sized sink and toilet.  CP wanted to use the little toilet.  I took his diaper off, which was only a little wet, and sat him on the toilet.  He went!  Then we put his slightly wet diaper back on him (the diaper bag was with dad) and washed his hands.  I'm guessing he saw the little potty, and saw other kids going into the bathroom and decided he wanted to also.  So, figuring that this week is better than any other weeks this summer, we're potty training.  He's had two minor accidents, and lots of good trips to the toilet.  I just wish we had a mini potty at home.  He's loving his big boy underpants though!

Also, as long as I'm giving updates, today CP said to me, "mom, when you do your email, it makes me irritated".  hehehe...

For My Mom

...because she doesn't look on facebook and misses the updates about what is going on in my life (nevermind that we live close and see each other at least once a week...).

I made pie with a BIL in Oregon. He actually made all the fillings, I just took care of the crust. It's not my best effort, but they tasted good.

Berry (see the 'B' on the pie in the back) and apple are the only pies we got a picture of. I was having crust issues.
At Multnomah Falls, we met a long-time-online-gardening-friend and her husband. It was nice to talk to her in person- she felt like family. Multnomah Falls was beautiful, as we got close the water hitting the pool below sounded like a freight train. We walked up to the bridge in the background, at that point the spray off the falls felt like a heavy rain.

K's brother took us to a Chinese garden in Portland OR, it's just under 1 acre, or one city block, right in the middle of downtown. I was fascinated by the ground. Each area of the garden had a different pattern of hand-laid stones. This was my favorite (I especially love the moss growing between the stones):

After the garden we had lunch in a park (with the homeless man peeing behind a tree) and stopped at Powells Bookstore. It was ENORMOUS, and we could have gotten lost very easily, luckily we found our way out after finding plenty of new reading material.
The day after Thanksgiving another of K's brothers took us (8 or 9 adults and nearly 20 children) to Newport to see the beach. It was cold and windy, so after looking at tidepools (and a cool mushroom growing on the cliff side (drat that I didn't take a picture of it)) we left the beach to find somewhere to eat. Walking around the harbor we stopped to watch the sea lions play King of the Mountain. A few would be up on the platform, and others would try to climb up. As soon as a new sea lion started up, the others would all start barking, we found out why when a newcomer tipped the platform in his attempt to get on and made two others fall off (he did make it on though).

I missed my family at Thanksgiving. I've been spoiled to have dinner prepared the way my mom does it, and I've had to remind myself that just because it's not the same doesn't mean it's bad. Our meal was delicious (though I missed having orange rolls and my mom's stuffing).

And lastly, a quick update on funny things the kids say and do:

J accidentally bounced a ping pong ball into the oven. The door was open because I had just taken bread out. I was able to scoop the ball out just as it started melting, using a wooden spoon. It landed on the floor and started putting off thick green smoke. I used a hot pad, which is now scorched, to pick it up and drop it into the sink, just in time for it to burst into flames. Glad that didn't happen when I was holding it two seconds prior. If you've ever wondered why the rule "no bouncing balls in the house" got started, consider our experience.

A has been really into instructing his 2-year-old brother on life lessons lately. Lesson #1: If it's alcohol, say no, but if it's not alcohol and I tell you to do it, you should do it. Life Lesson #2 "CP, I don't believe you. I don't believe it unless I can see it, unless it's Heavenly Father. Heavenly Father is the only thing we believe if we can't see it".

Modesty

I recently shopped for and purchased a new swim suit, which of course has me thinking about modesty. Nearly any swim suit you buy is going to have some areas that you wish were a little more covering, which has also made me think about why. Why do we view the body the way we do? What makes something modest or not? Why do we care? And finally, why do most "rules" associated with modesty apply only to females?

I was reading And They Were Not Ashamed by Laura Brotherson, and she talked about how we teach young women to be modest, and too often it comes across as "be modest so you don't tempt the boys". This has a couple of problems, first it tells the girls that boys are animals and are not capable of controlling themselves. Second, it teaches boys that they are animals and are not capable of controlling themselves.

Young men need to be taught that they are responsible for controlling their hormones no matter how girls around them are dressed, they also need to be taught what true beauty is, instead of society's idea of beauty. Young women need to be taught that dressing modestly means we show respect for ourselves by dressing in a way that shows we understand that our bodies are beautiful gifts given to us from loving heavenly parents.

Back to my original questions...

Why do we view the body the way we do? I think far too often, we've been conditioned to be ashamed or embarrassed by our bodies. Especially if they don't measure up to whatever made up level of perfection we see on TV or in magazines.

What makes something modest? When I was little, I remember my mom had the rule that shorts or skirts couldn't be more than three fingers above the knee. In high school, shorts had to be longer than our fingers when our arms were at our sides. I always viewed strappy tank tops as immodest, but not sleeveless shirts. I think the definitions of modesty change somewhat, obviously over the last 100 years there have been major changes in what is viewed as modest, even today, different cultures have very different standards of modesty. I think modesty is a personal thing. There may be, in each cultural group, things that are universally considered modest or immodest, which brings me to the next question, why do we care? We care because I think culturally, we've turned the most obvious things like modesty, or word of wisdom things into a litmus test for righteousness. I don't believe that most people are purposely going around judging each other, but on some level we all do it. Whether we're like my 5-year-old who likes to point out when he sees people not wearing motorcycle helmets ("they're not very safe mom!") because that's how we reinforce "rules" in our minds, or comparing how low cut your neighbor's swim suit is to make you feel better about your own, we all judge others. Should we? No. Are we going to stop anytime soon? Probably not.

Finally, why are nearly all modesty rules for females only? I've never heard anyone talk about a man's shirt being too tight, or low cut, or his shorts too short (although I've seen men's shorts that were too short). Are we conditioning boys to be more visually stimulated than girls, or is it prewired?

Hold Me Tight

On my brother's recommendation, I bought Hold Me Tight by Sue Johnson. It's relationship self-help book of sorts, centered around Emotionally Focused Therapy, EFT.

So far, I'm really enjoying it, and want to share, so here's a quote:

The message of EFT is simple: Forget about learning how to argue better, analyzing your early childhood, making grand romantic gestures, or experimenting with new sexual positions. Instead, recognize and admit that you are emotionally attached to and dependent on your partner in much the same way that a child is on a parent for nurturing, soothing, and protection... EFT focuses on creating and strengthening this emotional bond between partners by identifying and transforming the key moments that foster an adult loving relationship: being open, attuned, and responsive to each other.

(you should be impressed that I typed that paragraph while looking at the book, fairly quickly, with only two (haha, I just found two more, guess I'm not as good as I thought...) typos.)

If you want to borrow the book after I'm done with it, let me know. The book says that 70-75% of couples who go through EFT are happy in their relationships, even with couples who previously were high risk for divorce.

My take is if it can do that much for unhappy couples, what can it do for couples who are already happy? I'll let you know.

Book Recommendation

I received several new books for Christmas. My brother gave me a book titled Look Me In The Eye by John Elder Robison. John Robison grew up with aspergers before anyone knew what aspergers was. He had some amazing life experiences that he shares in the book, but weaves them together with his insights and the things he learned about acting "normal".

I couldn't put it down, and read it all day Christmas day, and finished it up this morning. If you're looking for a good book to read, I highly recommend this one.