jam(ming)

Oh, their conversations are funny sometimes, and they don't even know it half the time.

No*ah: "Look, Ollie! A cemetery! People who died!"
Oli*ver: "That's where they compost the dead people."
Noa*h: "Yeah."

But even I have trouble being amused at times. For instance, one of the benefits of 4-year-old twinhood seems to be a "right" to know what the other twin is doing in the restroom, a "right" neither boys ever questions. That's not a terribly big deal at home, but it means that in public restrooms, the other women in there get to hear some variation on this:

"Hey Ollie: what're you doin" in there?"
"Jus" a peepee. What're you doing? Are ya doin' a poopy?"
"No. I did a poopy this morning when Daddy was in the shower. But I flushed it, and I wiped."
"I always wipe, but I'm just doin' a peepee. Sometimes I forget to wash my hands."
"Yeah, me too. I'm doing a biiiiig peepee. I'm gonna fill the whole toilet, I think."
Giggle, giggle. "Yeah! Me too! I'm gonna make a flood!"

And so on, while I'm standing there red-faced, hissing "Boys! Stop right now, please - that's not a polite conversation!"
Later, I remind a boy to wash his hands, and (No*ah) says, "Mama! That's not a polite conversation!" Sigh.

This afternoon, I was really tired, and took a short rest during "Quiet Time". When I got up, both boys were still in their rooms, but someone must've gotten up, because I found this on the counter:



My mother will probably appreciate this, and who can blame her? When I was about the same age, I once spread a pound of butter over the entire top of the kitchen table. Actually, she probably thinks I got off easy. Noah later asked me if I liked his "sculpture". What, is sculpting with butter just something that happens to you when you live here?



Among other places (more pics to come soon), we went to a Whi*sle Pigs concert at the bandshell last weekend. One of the blue-grass fiddlers and singers is "Mr. Chris", the Pied Piper of our church. He leads the little kids in praise songs and hymns before Sunday School. As you can see, No*ah is quite enamored with Mr.. Chris and his many talents.



Ollie was more into the dancing.



Is that boy not the wildest dancer? I love watching their sheer joy in movement.

The boys and I did some jam-making and canning the other day.













We have 20 jars of jam prepared from the strawberries we picked on a church outing, as well as some of our own raspberries.



We took a school bus out to a lovely farm and picked 10 gallons of berries on a perfect evening.



We are, of course, enjoying the many delights of the garden. The boys have their own beans, zinneas and squash going this year, as well as their own patch of raspberries. The cukes and tomatoes have fruit, we're saying goodbye to the peas and lettuce right now, and the potatoes are almost ready. This weekend, Joel is taking the boys to a church camp with some other families, and I will have the house to myself for a couple of days. I'm not sure what I'll do with myself besides missing my family every minute and sitting around bored out of my skull.

And if you believed that last sentence, you don't know me very well!

family time

I found out today that in addition to my promotion going through, my work hours will change so I can work longer days and have all Fridays off after next week. It's about the 1st time in our 9-year marriage that Joel and I will consistently have even one entire same day off. Yeah!

camping

Jo*el and I took the boys camping nearby this past weekend. The boys were a lot more help than in years past.



Daddy made pancakes and served as marshmallow-blower-outer.







We also visited an exhibit farm. It was very well done, with lots of very hands-on examples of sustainable agriculture. The guides were all very sweet and articulate kids. We enjoyed it SO much more than the "farm" at the MN Z*oo.


The boys were pretty interested in getting to feel what the inside of a milking machine feels like on your finger. Ol*iver later called it a "nippler" - always with the made up words, that boy.









We also got an up-close view of some swallows whose parents were NOT happy with us.



The boys also picked strawberries and peas, and saw a chicken tractor (movable chicken coop), but the hay bale was probably their favorite thing of all.





Watermelon!





Grandma and grandpa, as well as as relatives Chris and Katherine from California came up for the evening on Saturday. We had a delicious meal, and a very nice time visiting.



The boys were completely wiped out by this point, but still enjoyed the marshmallows and good company.



The next morning was Father's Day, and the boys gave daddy some cards they'd made at camp.



They've actually been kind of sick with colds, and were pretty miserable that morning. N had a fever here. It's interesting that while he usually runs to me for hugs and kisses when he has an "owie" and is more likely to miss me, he only ever lets J walk around holding him like this. N tends to get kind of overwrought and then starts acting out, but J can usually just walk around holding him and he calms down. He will not let me do that at all.



This boy, on the other hand, would sleep next to me, come to work with me, and pretty much hang out with me 24/7 if permitted. Every morning, he follows me around saying, "Mama, I don''t want you to go to work!" When I get home, he gets a huge grin and usually comes running for a cuddle.



Today was SO hot - well into the 90's and humid to boot. J got the air conditioners in, but the boys thought that a sprinkler was an even better way to cool off.

we're still here!

I know I’m behind on posting here when I start getting the “hint” here and there… I do try to come around more often than once every 6 or so weeks, so sorry about that. But at least blogs don’t care if you post an essay one day and a bunch of pictures the next, a recipe or day-in-the-life one week and a list of milestones the one after that, which is probably why this format is so suited to my style (as opposed to a neat scrapbook with the same number of entries for every few months or milestones, which has never worked for me). And as for milestones, we’ve missed a few lately. The end of school came and went. The boys had a great year at Grace, and just as at the beginning of the year, we celebrated with Grandma at the Dairy Queen.

(Jo*el isn’t thrilled about this tradition, but there are some things that we Su*ndseth women and boys just need to do on our own. I hope that when the “school boys” have cousins that are “school girls”, maybe they’ll join us too, though perhaps we’ll have to average out the actual date then.) From their school, we received a lovely booklet of photos for each boy. It was really nice to get a sneak peek of their days there. They seemed so engaged and happy, and I know they miss it now. They each made a card and gave their teacher a plant, and when she sent them a thank you note, they hung them above their beds. This week, they start a 3 week day camp at their school, each in their own group. That’s a big first for them—they’ve not been separated much at all, so 3 days a week for 4 hours at a stretch will be a huge change. They’re not at all happy about it if you ask them, but both their parents and their teacher agree that it will be good for them, and they’ll be most likely be in separate classes for school from now on as well. Their learning styles are so different, and we feel they’ll more easily make their own friends and not be so likely to be compared and to compete all the time if they’re apart for school. They're two individual boys, not just halves of a "set", and they deserve to have some of their own experiences and chances to shine in their own unique ways. And, it’s probably best to make that transition this year in their already familiar preschool than when they have kindergarten five days a week in a brand new school, which is transition enough. It’s bittersweet to watch, though. They're luck to have each other, I think.

We’ve had a strange spring, with no appreciable rain for weeks until this past weekend. It was actually the driest spring since the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s! I was SO glad for the rain yesterday, as the ground was getting downright crispy. Nonetheless, we’ve managed to enjoy some of the things the warmer weather has to offer.

Ant-watching

Daddy gave the boys a chance to pick something out from the garage sale across the street. Did they choose toys? Nope. Christmas ornaments, which they hung in our tree. They were very proud of their idea. "Now we can celebrate Christmas!", Ollie said.

A little breakfast in the backyard.

And dinner in the front yard...

Despite having to water an awful lot due to the drought, the garden is doing well. I added a flowerbed and tomato garden out by the alley. I'm growing lots of bee-and-butterfly-attracting beneficial plants there to help as pollinators. We have two dwarf apple trees back there as well.

Last weekend, I spent a little (not enough!) time over at Jo*el's sister Emil*ly's house because the Sund*seth women and friends were doing a quilting weekend over there. There were also 3 very cute little girls present with their mommies. Below is "Emmie", the daughter of good family friend Jess. I just wanted to eat her up.





And those nieces are pretty charming too.


Unfortunately, I came home to a very feverish boy. Before the ibuprofin:


After:



No*ah is very into any type of encyclopedia sort of book right now. This may be where he got the idea to start drawing anatomically correct people... I'm kind of hoping that phase passes before their very art-focused summer camp starts.

Thankfully, Noah perked up after a couple of days, just in time for Ollie to get sick.


The one blessing in all the staggered sickness is that we sometimes get a lot of time with the boys individually that way. In this case, N slept lots for 2 days, and then O did, so there was lots of quiet time with each boy.



No*ah is so focused on drawing that he sometimes falls asleep with the drawing or coloring book in his bed. If you go upstairs in the morning, he's usually sitting up in bed drawing or reading. He likes a good amount of alone time, that boy. He and I are an awful lot alike.



No*ah and Mabel.





We still get lots of pretty eggs, and right now we also have lots of lettuce, what's left of the spinach, herbs, kale, radishes, and collards. Peas will be next, along with the first onions and carrots, then broccoli, beans, cukes, tomatoes, cabbage, potatoes, and squash. Good thing we're one of the many Americans planning a "staycation" this year!

There have been some (very positive) changes in my job, and I have more responsibility than I did, and lots of interesting and engaging projects to work on. We're launching a philanthropic foundation within the medical center that will hopefully garner more resources to help our most vulnerable patients with crucial needs. I'm in a revenue-producing department, which should theoretically give me a bit of job security. On the other hand, the hospital itself is really hurting from statewide budget cuts that run so deep that some essential programs will have to be cut, potentially leaving some of Minnesota's poorest patients with nowhere to go if they are uninsured and need treatment for chronic conditions like diabetes, HIV, or even cancer. I was supposed to go to 3/4 time on July 1st, but that's been postponed until at least October because it's just not pallatable to increase anyone's hours after a round of layoffs. It is very sad to see the layoffs, because there's just no fat left to cut, and I am angry that this was allowed to happen.

It's going to be a hectic summer, with little time off, because if I can't get paid for the extra time, I definately can't be taking time off when the foundation launch is happening, as I'm very needed at the moment. Because I can't get away from work, we won't be going out to New York this summer, unfortunately. We do plan a couple of short camping trips, though, and some daytime adventures as well, and my mom was kind enough to agree to come here in August instead.

The boys were both supposed to go to an overnight at Grandma and Grandpa's house last night, but No*ah decided he wasn't quite ready to sleep away from home without mama and daddy.


Ollie sure was, though. He was so excited, and it was so cute to watch him excitedly go off with Grandma, trailing his little suitcase behind him.

Today at church, he told everyone all about how he got to "go in the same bath as where grandma goes in", and cuddle between his grandparents this morning, and eat lots of french toast. No*ah had a friend to play with after Ollie left yesterday evening, but when I tucked him in that night, he asked whether I was going to call Grandma and see if Ollie was OK. I told him I would, and he said, "You should tell her to make sure she gives Ollie some breakfast in the morning". I told him I thought she's have it covered. When I picked Ollie up this morning and drove the boys to church, I looked in the rear-view mirror, and the boys were grinning at each other. "I missed you a little bit, " said Ollie. "I missed you a lot", said No*ah. They held hands and giggled for a minute, and then started to try and top each others' tall tales like they always do.

We hope you're having a relaxing summer. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know you're reading!

inside

Just a few pictures. No*ah got into the box of photos from the bookshelf in the guest room. This is the scene we came upon when Quiet Time was over. He had some splainin' to do, but so did we. Turns out, there was life before he was born!


Every time we go to the park, No*ah gets himself spinning too fast on a tire swing or something and freaks out, and Ollie spends as much time as he can upside down. After the long winter, I'd kind of forgotten about Oli*ver's fearlessness.


There is a thin line between cuddling and wrestling in our house.


This bed, now in our guest room, belonged to Jo*el's grandmother Eloise. We're attempting to see that it survives another generation, but can make no guarantees.



No*ah clearly hasn't inherited my (Mink*ke's) marginal fine motor skills; I'm amazed at how neatly he prints.




Dancing to the Music Tog*ether CD:


Olive*r is kind of a couch lizard sometimes. He loves to cuddle on the couch under a blanket watching everyone else in the house do their thing. I join him whenever I can.