feeling fancy free

We have a sweet ritual to hit up the DQ right after my midwife appointments. The kids enjoy coming to my appointments and playing with the toys in the room, and then they love getting DQ mini strawberry sundaes and eating them outside at the umbrella tables. If we're lucky, a train goes by and blows its whistle.

I think I've named this three other times this month, but I'm going to do it again. We are in a sweet spot right now. I feel like I am getting a little vacation in motherhood this summer and it's awesome. My kids can get in the car and buckle up on their own (Ivar helping Elsie) now. They can dress themselves and put on their crocs. Everyone is out of diapers and naps are rare. More than being pregnant with either of them, I am so fully aware with this pregnancy of the goodness of this pocket of time and how everything will change come October. Then we'll be back to naps, diapers, heavy infant carriers, diaper bags, scheduled feedings and a very dependent little baby. And I'll be ready for it and in some ways eager to hunker down again with a tiny baby for the winter.

But in the meantime, I am savoring this summer and all the ways we are footloose and fancy free.

morning make-over update

At the beginning of June I wrote out my summer goals, one of which was to do the e-course to make-over my mornings. I have had a few friends ask how it is going, and this morning I finally wrote the following out to a dear friend in an email. And then I thought, "I should just put that on the blog!" So here it is, first written to Julie, now to you. :)

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Funny you should ask about the morning make-over course, since I'm up right now at 6:30. That would make it seem like I'm really seizing the day! But this early email has more to do with funny sleep stuff from pregnancy and not falling back asleep too easily. The course itself was helpful for a while...I had a lot of take-aways more to do with my evening routine...things I can do to set myself up for a better morning. Like setting out my own clothes (age 34, and still drama), deciding on breakfast for everyone (a constant frustration, short order cook...) and trying to at least have the kitchen table cleared off before I go to bed. Those are my evening goals. In the morning I try to get dinner prepped (mostly just in my head...to think about what I'll need to get done before 5:00) and those few little tweaks have helped me a lot.

That said, the girl who does the videos strikes me as quite put together, and as the days passed her intensity overwhelmed me with her personal wake-up time of 5 am, morning run, daily to-do list and ambitious daily goals. I've written about how I have finally let myself off of the hook this year of motherhood, letting myself "just be a mom." Everything out there would encourage every woman to have a side job or to build a platform or have an etsy shop, and someday I very well may have something else going on the side. But right now, when they're little, I'm just tired of feeling like I should be doing something more. So while the instructors suggestions were to have a passion and goals and something you're working towards that will get you out of bed each day, I sort of let myself off the hook thinking, "just get meals on the table and enjoy the kids..."

Also, I have been reading books this summer like never before. And late night reading really wrecks any hopes for an early and productive morning! But man these books have become a highlight of my summer.

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I'll add this too: The course really ended up being more about goal setting and follow through, which are always fascinating topics to me. I even bought a new planner at one point. But in the end, I am left feeling quite fine with knowing my "big rocks" in this season are to feed my family, tend to the house and celebrate my kids. And I'd even add in, to nurture my own friendships. That's a big rock too. Building friendships and community is a huge deal to me, and a worthy goal to name.

a midsummer party

On Saturday we were invited to a friend's 5th birthday party. We met these friends at the library just weeks after we had moved to town. The mom and I bonded quickly because we had both just had a baby, both had just moved to town, and both were always twenty minutes late to library rhyme and time. We would chat in the back and congratulate each other on just getting out of the house that day. 

The mom threw this party with all of her knowledge from leading 9 years at the Swedish Concordia Language Camps. We learned a song in Swedish, collected flowers to decorate the May pole, made flower wreaths to wear on our heads and miniature May poles. And then we got strawberry cake. It was so charming and fun. 

At the party the mom explained that on Midsommer, everyone puts seven different flowers under their pillow, in hopes that they will have good dreams about the person they will marry. Ivar had been up for an hour that night before with a terrible nightmare. So when he heard that seven flowers under your pillow will bring you good dreams, he was thrilled. We saw my mom later that day and she gave him seven flowers. We told him he could set them next to his pillow on his nightstand and it would work just the same. And sure enough, Sunday morning he woke up and announced that had no bad dreams!

buttered corn and good fathers

butterhead from Becca Groves on Vimeo.

I was raised hearing a story that my sister when she was really little sat next to Great Grandma Anders at a family picnic and Great Grandma kept buttering Annika's corn, and Annika kept licking it off. They did this for the entire meal and Great Grandma was so patient sneaking in her own bites from her plate between butterings.

Last night we watched a similar storyline, one generation later. Oh we laughed so hard. I wrote on instagram that I have a dream that one day my daughter will have her head carved in butter at the Minnesota State Fair. And that this surely puts us on the right track.

We had a great Father's Day. We went to church and the dad's were asked to stand and then the church was supposed to surround the fathers and pray for them. The way it worked out (thank goodness!), I was the only one who stood by Rory and when I went to pray I just cried and cried. I married Rory because I loved him and knew he was good stuff. But I hadn't really thought through to how he'd be as a dad. I was overwhelmed yesterday with how grateful and glad I feel that I married a guy who takes fatherhood so seriously. He is fully involved, his kids adore him, he keeps behavior boundaries in check and adds so much sanity and structure to our home. He is taking this responsibility seriously, teaching, guiding, loving and leading. And I just cried a wet mess onto his shoulder as my prayer of thanksgiving for this good guy. And he liked that prayer.

My mom and dad and Annika, Jedd, Mara, Sonna and Svea came for a picnic dinner and it was lovely. It was steamy when everyone arrived at 4, but continued to cool down into the evening. That's such a nice part of the day. We had a picnic, got out the bubble machine (the kid's picked out as Rory's father's day gift... greatly encouraged by their mom), ate two homemade strawberry pies, held kittens, gave garden tours and barn tours and played a few rounds of family kick ball.

I'm so grateful for my own father. I was telling him about how I was at a kid's birthday party on Saturday and knew everyone there with just one degree of separation. Either I knew them or we quickly found mutual friends from college or bible camp or my family. Dad is a connector, always meeting people, finding things (friends, home towns, cabin locations) in common and helping introduce new acquaintances to old. That's what he did every Sunday at church. He'd find the fun fact and then tell the visiting family, "Oh, you have to meet the Johnsons, they have a cabin in Spooner too!" and then introduce the families and move on to the next family. Even on Saturday night at my sister's huge summer party in her backyard, Rory commented that Dad just worked his way around the perimeter of the yard, visiting everyone, making sure he knew how they knew Annika. It really is a gift, and so important. He's a community builder and I love that about him and how I get to reap so much relationally from all the connections he has made throughout his life.

In light of all that we see on the news and read in the paper, it seems to me our greatest hope would be for more Rory's and Paul's, leading their families with intention, creating community and building relationships wherever they go.

silkey's strawberries

This was our forth year strawberry picking at Silkey Gardens and man I love this annual tradition. I first went when I was pregnant with Elsie, then when she was almost one, then almost two and now almost three. My kids are getting increasingly helpful, putting a berries into their baskets as well as their berries. But the best part is that the Silkey family is incredibly gracious and generous encouraging "the future berry pickers" in their strawberry snacking. Ivar was on a quest to find the "winning strawberry" always looking for the biggest one. And Elsie didn't start stuffing her face until check out when I was talking for a while with the owners. I think she had 25 strawberries while she stood and waited.

Tonight we ate our first strawberry pie of the season and plan on going back tomorrow for more berries for another pie for Father's Day. Nothing beats a fresh strawberry pie.