Almost Summer

One thing that marked our lives in Oak Park, or my life with my little children at home, were many many rain walks.  It didn't always feel easy for me to get out with them. I didn't feel comfortable letting them out alone to play and especially during those long rainy spells it got hard. So we'd find boots and jackets and half working umbrellas and make our way out.  Sometimes it was enough just to walk around the block. Up that cul de sac and back.  We nearly always went down the alley at least once (the best puddles were there!)
It's funny the things I find I'm missing. Simple city walk rain walks are one of them.

On one particular walk we ran into a neighbor gardening.  It was nearly pouring and there she was, humming away planting annuals in her small front flower bed.  The girls were fascinated, me too. I would never think to garden in the rain.  "Aren't you getting wet?" The girls asked.  "Aren't you cold?" "Isn't the mud so slimy?"  "Why yes!" She replied. "And it's absolutely my favorite thing to do".

We're on our third day of rain here.  Three days of rain AFTER two days of all family stomach flu.  It's felt like a very long indoor haul for me.  Today finally everyone will be back at school and I can get out on my own.  I so treasure this little bit of time in a day to move at my own pace.  I'm looking forward to it.

Right now my gears are turning big time.  School ends soon and there is much to be done.  I am desperate to get my vegetable garden set up.  I calm a bit when I realize I can save some of the seeds I'd hoped to plant earlier and buy some starts instead.  It's just our first year here with this. There is time!


I am also so antsy for making and settling further into our house.  Bit by bit spaces are feeling more finished and more systems are in place.  Our Oak Park home may have been small but it was so efficient.  I miss knowing where every single thing is and having everything have it's place.

I'm diving back into sewing, making that seasonal switch from knitting.  I am loving it.  I received a new children's sewing book from my mom for my birthday and pretty much want to make everything in it. The girls have each picked a new dress and I've ordered new fabric for those and new shorts for Felix (green Octopi!). Now Ainsley has fallen in love with every dress in this new favorite book so it looks like lots of kids sewing on the docket. I love it. I'll sew for them as long as they want me to! (And after one motivated post sickness afternoon I made them each something new already so it at least feels possible!)

I've also ordered fabric for dining room valences and that new quilt for Ian and I modeled loosely (I hope!) after this Anthropologie quilt I fell in love with.  I'm going with a navy/blue and white theme and crossing my fingers I chose fabrics right.  I can't wait for that bundle to arrive!

Now that my own making is feeling a bit more underway I'm looking ahead to summer with my girls and Felix home all day and how that will look too.  Last weekend (before the evil stomach bug on Mother's Day) we had a delightful Saturday highlighted for me by a morning at the Arboretum and Lake Minnetonka picnic lunch with Ian's parents and an afternoon at Ainsley's new camp open house.

I didn't go to camp growing up but in looking at summer activities for her this jumped out at us and she's pleased as punch.  The camp looks straight out of the Haley Mills Parent Trap.  She'll be going for two weeks at the end of June, full days, one overnight each week. They'll swim and craft and do sports and archery and other classic campy things. I am so excited for my girl and so happy it's full steam ahead.

So! for three weeks in June it will just be Louise and Felix and I (as Ainsley is also doing a church drama camp for one week!) and I'm really excited for time with those two. Ainsley's camp is right over by the arboretum so that will be fun to explore, and I'm hoping to find our perfect beach too. There are so many on the lake here and I've forgotten so much since childhood I'm realizing. I'm hoping for active mornings and calm afternoons at home, gardening, playing in the yard, cooking, crafting.

Just a few short weeks until summer break. I can't wait!