July! This dear month found us out and about, my energy restored. We’ve had many wonderful adventures this month. I’m confronted frequently with how much easier my children feel each summer. Packing up and heading out somewhere fun is just a bit more doable. I welcome the (still minimal, I’m sure) ease. I don’t even have to climb into the back of the van to buckle LJ now because he just transitioned into a booster seat. We’ll start all over again in winter with our new babe, but having (even slightly) older children feels like a breeze. Like I realized last year, we just do better when we have a plan to get out of the house. Penny is along for the ride, and even generously naps in the car if we don’t quite make it home in time. She’s my only baby who has ever transferred from a car to a crib nap and laughs (not sure why) every time we say “night night.”
A few particularly memorable July adventures include:
A beautiful Art Camp with Forest School Friends
Outdoor pizza farm in Nelson, Wisconsin complete with Queen Anne’s Lace
Tamarack Nature Center with new friends
Miesville Barn sale with Cilla to celebrate Grandma’s birthday plus picnic..
This has been our picnicking summer. I found a vintage picnic basket at a thrift store last year when we signed up for Forest School. We usually eat lunch outside there, and now that it’s summer we’ve been doing picnics more often. Usually I pack stainless steel bento boxes for the kids including a sandwich, some veggies, fruit. Then I’ll pack a little charcuterie board and sometimes hard boiled eggs for all of us plus sardines for myself. It has been a game changer. I keep finding enamelware at antique stores so I can throw in a few plates and cups. It requires a little prep work, but it so much easier day of, then we’re not racing home hungry (not to mention crabby!) for lunch. Best part is: I don’t really have to clean up lunch. I just fold a blanket, unpack a basket, and we’re had a beautiful meal outside. Perhaps I am romanticizing this too much. Regardless, it has been a great addition to our summer, picnics!
Penny continues to make phenomenal progress with physical therapy. She’s just regularly taking more steps, and the other night while I was finishing up dinner Seth told me she took about ten unassisted steps towards him, he just kept holding his hand out and stepping back to encourage her, and she did it! I am always, always so proud of the strides she’s made and how she shows up to her many appointments good natured and willing to work. Summertime has given us a bit of reprieve, we do physical therapy about one or two times a week down from our nearly four (!!!) times a week that we did during the school year. I’m genuinely not sure how I’ve been able to do it, but one thing I think I absolutely know how to do is the work that’s needed to benefit my children. I have many shortcomings, and I am proud of how I (and Seth) have advocated for Penny during this journey.
The other weekend it was just my mom, Cilla, and I at the aforementioned barn sale and all of a sudden Cilla started reciting times tables. What!?! She was not exposed to multiplication at kinder this last year (obviously), and our summer homeschool math has consisted of working through numbers 0-100, addition and subtraction. I was stunned, asked her another simple multiplication table (we don’t even recite “tables” for addition at home, all our math is done with manipulatives and a slate) to see if she was really grasping the concept and not just repeating something she’d heard. Turns out she does. I just ordered a second grade math workbook to really gauge her level of understanding. I am so proud of her. Cilla has always liked numbers. When I asked her who taught her multiplication she said matter of factly, “my brain taught me.”
All in all, I’m a little sad to say goodbye to such a beautiful month. July saw me renewed with a sense of energy and purpose in summer motherhood, delicious meals planned and executed, some special moments with both my parents, visits with in-laws (another great 4th in Worthington), sewing projects, and meaningful conversations with friends. August, I welcome you with open arms– I just ask that you stay a while and not rush these summer days along.
