Update!

So, it’s mid-August!

Summer has flown by with travels, hot weather, random minor-but-inconvenient illness, and just general life.

F is a sassy kid, and she’s completely hilarious and often extremely trying. C is mobile and huge – I’m actually having some lower back pain from carrying her. We just put up baby gates in the sun room so she has a safe place to explore. Too bad the air conditioner in the sun room doesn’t really work.

The garden is… well let’s just say we’re planning to rent a weed-whacker. I have saved some tomato and ground cherry seeds, as well as seeds from our sunflowers, borage, and diablo cosmos. And I’m already tossing around ideas for next summer. Just think how impressed the neighbors will be with anything we do in the future, given how awful it looked this summer! (Our neighbors are awesome, btw, and not out to judge us.)

More posts to follow! Though I suppose that’s what I thought on June 12th, too. 🙂

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Um, Hello Friday!

I’m not sure how the long weekend translated into this week feeling much more than one day shorter.

We did a great job of going out and about this week. We went to a barbecue/birthday party. We bought meat for dinner, we went to the library, we bought a couple of packages of underwear (no, Amazon.com, I don’t really want little girl panties to arrive at my door that may or may not say “diva” on them), we put gas in the car. We watered the plants when it was still early and cool enough to not burn them. And we watered the seeds in the front yard with the hose. And while we were at it, we watered F and her friend. New favorite summer activity!

I’m also on a Pride and Prejudice bender. Which means: read the last few scenes, starting a little before Lady Catherine’s arrival. Then read the book from the beginning. Then fire up the A&E miniseries after F is in bed. Two words: Colin Firth.

Enjoy your weekend!

Easter

This pretty much sums up Easter 2015: dyed eggs, and the makings for tea with honey and lemon for our sore throats.

Lola in a sunbeam, F in her customary layers with an Easter dress on top.

Stairs

Back in the condo, there was no “upstairs,” nor was there a basement.

It’s been a surprising adjustment!

At first, I would go to near-extraordinary lengths to not take extra trips up or down a staircase. The goal was to make stairs less annoying, but the effect was the opposite. I think there was just such a mental load involved with maximizing every trip up or down that a very simple thing became overwhelming.

So I stopped trying to be efficient, and furthermore embraced the exercise, and it’s been fantastic.

Another problem is cleaning. I just don’t seem to get to the upstairs. Or the basement. But here we are at the beginning of Spring, and it’s time to seriously clean. I might as well embrace all of it, including a good many trips up and down stairs with donations, recycling, the vacuum, seasonal laundry, and so on.

A Day at the End of March

Somehow several days this week got by me, and here we are the evening of March 26th.

The day started with warm on-and-off rain, and ended with a warm, gorgeous, sun-soaked afternoon and evening. We spent most of the day with friends we met at F’s swim class, inside at first and then outside at a playground. I forgot my camera, but I didn’t miss it.

We came home and had delicious leftovers (Chicken Posole Stew found on the 100 Slow Cooker Recipes page that I can basically no longer live without) for dinner, and are preparing to wind down.

Tonight is J’s online game night (an MMORPG), so I’ll put F to bed and then see where I stand. I’m sleepy, but still might play another solo game of Agricola – my new evening hobby as of a couple of days ago.

The Family

Our little family here at Terse House includes me, my husband, our two daughters, and our two cats.

My husband is J. It’s amazingly difficult to describe the love of my life in just a few words. He doesn’t get annoyed when he comes home from work and is instantly roped into dinner prep. He voluntarily scoops the kitty litter every day. He’s patient and caring when I’m cranky, and is rarely cranky himself. And his sense of humor meshes perfectly with mine (though his out-of-control puns are met with groans <3). None of that does him justice, but maybe it gives an idea?

My older daughter is F. She’s three. She’s very friendly and talkative, and loves to tell stories (tonight at dinner, it was something about “When I was ten, I babysat my auntie, because ten is a good number for that”). Her mannerisms are hilarious – gesticulating hands, head tilted, very serious. And then, a huge, bright smile.

My younger daughter is C. She’s almost three months old. She’s a very relaxed baby, and is quite the interactive, smiley chit-chatter.

Our cats are Chani, an extremely loving fluffy tortie, and Lozhka, a slightly cantankerous black short-hair.

Real, Short

I like writing, but I tend to get wordy.

I like blogging, but I tend to compulsively edit.

With both of these habits, it’s often hard to find time to write a blog.

Also, wordy blogs can be a bit much for readers, unless you’re Deb.

I recently moved with my young family from a two-bedroom, second floor condo into a three-bedroom single-family house. There are so many things I’d like to say and share.

So here’s the plan: short posts, which might have typos and/or awkward wording, about life here.