How we plan to survive this summer

I'm sure this is probably normal for plenty of families. Right? At least, for families in which one parent works full-time and one who works part-time at home. Here's the current summer schedule for the kids.

June:

• One week at home (Monday-Wednesday) with a young babysitter from down the block.
• Thursdays with Oma.
• Two weeks at a park district camp near us, but not our actual resident one (which we didn't like last summer). This includes four visits to pools in neighboring suburbs.
• Two sessions weekly with a tutor for Nea, working on literacy and math.
• One session weekly with our private speech and language pathologist.
• Fridays, hang out with me.

July:

• One week at home (Monday-Wednesday) with a young babysitter from down the block.
• One week full-time at a YMCA. This includes at least one pool visit. I won a buy-one-week-get-one-free deal, so this is a good price.
• One week full-time at Camp Invention, a science camp the girls attended last year, too.
• Thursdays with Oma. Except when she is at knitting camp.
• Two sessions weekly with a tutor for Nea, working on literacy and math.
• One session weekly with our private speech and language pathologist.
• As time allows, Nea will go to Extended School Year classes, which are a joke, but she gets an additional 45 minutes of speech weekly there. Assuming they can work with our schedule. Right now I think she'll go 12 days out of a possible 20.
• Fridays, hang out with me.

August:

• I'm taking some time off, which I'll need after trying to figure out who I'm driving where in July.
• One week at home (Monday-Wednesday) with a young babysitter from down the block.
• Possibly some gymnastics camp and swim lessons.
• Thursdays with Oma, plus a couple extra days just before school starts.
• Two sessions weekly with a tutor for Nea, working on literacy and math.
• One session weekly with our private speech and language pathologist.
• Fridays, hang out with me.

I hope someday this will just be some confusing weird memory of how ridiculous our summers used to be.

Fourth Annual Trash Pick

This year was a little sparse in comparison to some other years, but I can't complain. It's free, after all. 

Booster seat, lemon twist type toy. Papa Skateboard, Mama Skateboard, and Baby Skateboard. Old-timey playpen that I will use with some chickenwire for our hypothetical guinea pig, should we ever acquire one. We keep talking about it, but nothing ever happens. Three pretty china plates, a "suction cup it to your window" bird feeder, and Keen shoes, new with price tag ($29.90 at Nordstrom Rack).

Seven sample upholstery fabric books (for crafts), magazines (also for crafts), a bag of board books (will give to our old preschool).

Double jogging stroller (lending to a friend), tile address sign (will take apart for trivets), plastic flamingo (score!).

Basket with decorative grapevine balls, 12 new-in-box wire baskets (probably will give to Girl Scout troop), planter, cool old three-drawer thingie, plant stand, old toolbox (cool!), three square plastic planters (maybe for Garden Club), concrete planter (already being used).

Cute wee bunny, games, toy microphone for speech therapist, snorkel gear, find-the-Santa book. In background, large glass container for terrarium I hope to make.

Candlesticks, very nice plastic storage box, another stack of magazines, frame, little silver heart-shaped boxes (with lucky pennies and a little note from Grandma. A bit sad, really.), and a treasure trove of keepsakes from my high school Alma Mater, including keychains, cheerleading trophies, etc.

Garden news thus far

This Spring has been crap. Cold and very rainy. We haven't even mowed the lawn since it hasn't grown, although it is nice and green.

Here in Zone 5, it's still at least 2 weeks until the average last frost date. I should have started a lot of seeds earlier (I finally did the pole beans, brussel sprouts, cantaloupe, and cucumbers yesterday!), but the weather didn't exactly motivate me.

I did put in the potatoes (Katahdin) and onions almost a month ago. The onions look good, but nothing is showing in the potato bed. They may have rotted from all the rain. I need to dig one up and look.

In the cold frames, the carrots, radish, and beets look really good. Almost time to eat some radishes, even. And the carrots came up! That never happens for me.

My garden guy recommended not putting out the zucchini and winter squash until the end of June. That way you miss the entire vine stem borer life cycle. I don't know if I can wait that long, but I will start them indoors soon in bigger pots and wait as long as I can.

In window boxes, the bok choi and lettuce mix look good. The Red Mountain Spinach (Orache) self-seeded and is doing well. I have peas coming up in a pot. I hope we get a good crop this year, as the kids really love eating them right off the plant.

I'll be buying tomato plants, since only 3 of my heirlooms sprouted. Sigh. My seeds are old.

Basil -- one tiny spring coming up. Pathetic. The parsley came back.

New this year: salsify. I started it outside today. I was supposed to start it with the radishes, but I couldn't find any seed locally. Luckily my brother got me some for my birthday! Hurrah!

Almost ready to harvest: rhubarb and asparagus! Very late this year, but thems the breaks. As always, the chives, oregano, and sage all look good.

In other garden news, we found another old well! We filled in one when we moved in. The idiots we bought the house from had just put a piece of plywood over the top. Can you imagine? Total morons. It was 30 feet deep, with maybe 8 feet of water at the bottom. Sure, that's safe! Anyway, we've always wondered why we have this little sinkhole in the lawn. Every year we throw a little extra dirt on it and scratch our heads. The other week Boo tripped on it, and it's two feet deep, and you can see the bricks along the sides. Yup. She's lucky she didn't break a fetlock and have to be put down.

Lastly, I know I've posted this before, but if you missed it, use this planting guide! It's so helpful.

Apraxia stories

Part 1: This never gets easier
Nea (coming up on 7 years old) has made a lot of progress in the last 7 months with our new SLP. You would think this would mean that she's easier to understand, but as she improves, the number of possibilities for what she's talking about also increases, so it's actually harder to follow her in conversation at times.

We were hanging out in bed the other morning and she said, "Keemo weet." I thought she said. "Three more weeks" so I said, "Three more weeks of what?" Finally figured out she was talking about Cream of Wheat. As her breakfast choice.

Trust me. Her "Three more weeks" and "Cream of Wheat" sound exactly the same. However, she can say "oatmeal" very well.

Part 2: You'd think I'd be better at this by now

Setting: birthday party at a park, chatting with two moms I don't know. They are very nice, and we are enjoying the crazy warm sunny day.

Nea comes up and tells a story in her usual blabber. She sounds like a slightly delayed two-year-old. "Me … go … dere … bad guy … up!" etc. Her words and phrases are improving, but when she tells a longer story it all falls apart. I don't concentrate fully on what she's saying, as I feel very self-conscious on her behalf, which is distracting. I repeat back some of it ("Oh, you ran fast? To the tree?") to help the other listeners, who I know can understand nothing.

One of the moms: Oh, is she speaking German?

Me: No, she has apraxia.

Other mom: What's that?

Me: It's an oral motor coordination … thing.

Long silence.

Me: But she's making a lot of progress!

Nea doesn't say anything. Then she runs off to play.

Book club picks

Apparently I did it again, with the forgetting. April was Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. The evening ended very late, with my pregnant friend dropping me off around 2 am. Her water broke an hour later, and she had her bouncing baby boy at 8 am! Exciting! May's pick is Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon. No babies are expected to arrive that evening. Although I am expecting a new niece in a few months. It's baby season!

Fun with thrifting

Well, it's not trashpicking, but going to thrift stores is also a lot of fun while waiting for garage sales to start up again. I hit two today: one that benefits the local hospital, and a new Goodwill. I've had some success at the Goodwill before, including a great stained glass lamp for $5, but had only longingly looked at the other store every time the train goes by it when I'm coming home from my Big Important Corporate Job that I rarely leave home for. Some of these will be Easter gifts (like the purse) and some will be Rainy Day prezzies. So don't tell my kids, please, ok?

4 Kids Discovery magazines, 25 cents each and 11 Model Railroader magazines, 25 cents each. You can tell that model railroads are not a geeky hobby after all, because Rod Stewart is on the cover of the one on top. I don't know why. Ask N next time you see him.

2 games, Slide 5 and Mancala, $1 each

Stationery, $3

Metal sign, $2. Children's Place purse, $3, pretending to be made out of some corduroy pants with extra pockets, which Boo will love for the (fake) recycling aspect. Bonus: just found a pair of cute tiny tweezers in a pocket. Free!

Circo brand supersoft hoodie for Nea ($3), LA Conduct skirt ($4) for whichever of my kids is COOL enough to ROCK IT, and Gap brand jeans ($3) with embellishments for Boo.

Nordic Track brand yoga pants for me, $4.

New home improvements, part 1

I bought this leaded glass window at a garage sale two years ago. It was $10. Finally N hung it up in the downstairs bathroom window for privacy. I drew on the glass around it with a window marker to make it extra fancy. Isn't it? Isn't it fancy?