Summer vacation '09

After picking up Paulie and Elizabeth from camp, much to the delight of their siblings, we headed to a mountain cabin nearby (about 10 miles from their camp).

Being so close to the Pisgah National Forest, many activities were available to us during our week in the area. The first adventure we took advantage of, on the recommendation of Paulie and Elizabeth, who both took the fishing class at camp and went on this field trip, was the Pisgah Fish Hatchery and Center for Wildlife Education. We fed the fish and examined the different varieties.

We also picked and sampled the raspberries.

Then looked for local wildlife,

enjoyed the walking trails,

examined the cute babies (did I mention that our good friends, the Callahans, travelled with us?)

then picnicked alongside the waterfalls/river.

We also stopped to visit Dolly's, aka the camp's Big Scoop, on our way back to the cabin.

When the ice cream ran out,

we had a mini-photo shoot with the kids that went predictably awry.

We ventured out to a nearby waterfall on the 2nd day after retrieving the kids from camp. The scenery alone was amazing! (This waterfall was about 2 miles from the cabin we rented.)

The other end of the waterfall area created a mini-waterslide, which as you can imagine, thrilled the kids. Natural waterslides?! Go figure. ;)

After playing in the falls for a while,

and resting for a while,

some interesting wildlife crawled up next to us. He hung out for a while and then floated down the waterslide himself.

One last dip in the cool pooled water,

and a dip of Judah's little toes (he was less than impressed),

and we headed back in for the day.

**Part 2 tomorrow...stay tuned!

little break

We are heading out in a few minutes to stay in a cabin up in the NC mountains near the camp that Paulie and Elizabeth attended this past week. We will be picking up the campers tomorrow to join us for the majority of the week. If I can find a coffee shop with wifi, I might take a few minutes to update (with pictures, at least) mid-week, but otherwise, I will be next week for the start of school to gush about everything we were up to at the mountain house. Have a wonderful week!

::updates::

We've continued to receive updates on Paulie and Elizabeth at camp via the camp website and a couple of letters from Elizabeth. Paulie apparently decided to take the fishing class again this summer, which you can see below includes making your own pole.

Elizabeth is trying out all new activities this summer, with the exception of art, including archery (seen below, she's the archer furtherest to the left), fishing (?!), and canoeing. You go girl, is about all I have to say about that. I hope she finds enjoyment in one of her new activities.

We also saw that Paulie had the chance to visit Big Scoop, a local ice creamery near the camp.

On the homefront, we decided, since Paul was out of town visiting his mom the last two Finn-ful weekends, to take advantage of a Finn-only night and have an Indian food. Have you ever seen a 2-year-old breathing in his beloved Indian food?

As Finn would say, "Mmmm...dewishious!"

**the top 3 photos were taken by the camp staff

Balance

While I certainly don't claim to have the handle on this topic, and other mamas (ahem, Soulemama) certainly put me to shame, I've been asked a few times recently about how I manage to balance working full-time+parenting+creative outlets so I thought I'd take a few minutes to address this ever-popular topic.

I do work full-time for a national bank, but I am fortunate to have the flexibility to work from home and have the flexibility to arrange my schedule around anything at my kids' schools that might need my attention. My work also has a community service policy that includes volunteer work, and I choose to use my volunteer time at my kids' schools as well. One of the ways I use working from home to my benefit is by using my lunch hour judiciously, generally by grocery shopping (sans kids, it goes much more quickly), starting dinner (prep work like veggie chopping or setting up the bread machine), and other household tasks that might otherwise cut into my evenings. I try to reserve the hour or so between dinner and bathtime for whatever activities the kids are engaged in, lately (as you might have noticed by our pictures) they've been riding bikes and skateboards or drawing in the driveway. Although often when I'm out in the driveway with them, I'm also knitting. Some evenings though, like last night when it was raining, we just do an art project in the kitchen or something else creative, involving vehicles if the decision is Finn's.

This evening:

I tend to hone one creative outlet for myself at a time. Lately that's been knitting (no surprise for regular readers), although in the past it's been felting, crocheting, pottery, glasswork, sewing. All summer there have been a couple of projects begging for my attention, but I just can't seem to put down the knitting! The wonderful thing about knitting is that it's so transportable. I knit in the car, waiting in line, on the phone, even occasionally while cooking. I really love the outlet that knitting has given me, but hopefully as fall nears, I'll carve out a little more time for other endeavors as well.

Weekends are such a luxury here since Paul and I both work full-time. We also have a unique situation in that we have 4 kids every other weekend, and the alternate weekends belong to just Finn. On our kid-ful weekends, I tend to plan lots of projects, activities, and slow food meals, and we really concentrate on creating and learning together. On the Finn-ful weekends, Paul and I tend to spend one on one time with him or special time as the three of us, but we also plan more house projects and personal creativity projects during this time. We also have cultivated a love of Indian food in Finn so these are our Indian food weekends. :)

Last but not least, I decided a few years ago that a clean house was important, but a completely picked-up, laundry-always-done, kitchen-always-spotless house was not, especially if it cost me the experiences that I wanted to give my kids and that I wanted to have with my kids. We all help keep things tidy, but we focus much time on simple rituals like weekly farmer's market outings, nightly reading, new art projects, and nature walks...which is what they'll remember of their childhood anyway.

WIP Wednesday from the whole crew

I've had several mini projects going on in between my big project of Elizabeth's blanket. I think that I forgot to show the finished Soulemama hat, which was my second go-round of this hat and I made it a little bit larger since the last one seemed a bit small to me. I ended up stuck right after the last picture because I ran out of yarn, but fortunately Linda had an extra ball of this lovely merino for me.

I also found this adorable pattern for some yarn, also from Linda, that I bought to make a set of hats for some very special little girls. I'm not entirely happy with the flowers in the contrasting yarn. I might try to find some lighter, bulkier yarn for the flowers instead.

I also wanted to make a hat out of this organic cotton yarn for a friend's very special little boy. I thought this striped hat, which I kind of winged without a pattern, came out really cute. Finn wasn't exactly a willing model, but I convinced him by promising an extra book at bedtime.

Elizabeth's blanket is coming along quite nicely. I'm working on it in every spare minute this week, it seems like, so that I can get as far as possible while she's away at camp.

::love the texture here::

Finn and Philip has some special WIP-ing of their own today--making art to send their camper siblings. Finn decided to draw with a white crayon on paper, then water color over the whole thing.

And Philip drew them each a comic. I'm sure Paulie and Elizabeth will be thrilled to receive such special mail at camp!

Summer camp

In addition to everything else that's been going on in the last week, I was packing trunks for Paulie's and Elizabeth's second summer at Eagle's Nest Camp. (If you look back at last summer's photos, I can't believe how much older they both seem in just one year!)

The camp session began on Sunday for an 8-day adventure in the NC mountains. I was very disappointed not to be able to drop the kids off at camp myself, but I was extremely grateful, with everything we've had going on, that Paulie and Philip's mom volunteered to drive them out to camp (3 hours away). They were thrilled to be heading back to their beloved camp to spend a week swimming in the lake, improving archery skills (after crafting one's own bow, of course), fishing for Big Lex (legendary mammoth fish who inhabits the fishing lake), hiking through waterfalls, identifying herbs and plants, baking bread for the entire camp, harvesting organic veggies from the garden, tie-dyeing t-shirts, weaving baskets, and the list could go on and on. I seriously cannot say enough good things about this camp. We are fortunate to know many families in our area (many from Elizabeth's school) who send their kids to Eagle's Nest and the camp community is beyond wonderful.

Elizabeth was thrilled to be placed in the same cabin and chose the same bunk that she had last year.

Paulie was in a different cabin and wonders why moms always want to take photos like this.

Elizabeth's first mission was to open the package I sent in her trunk with the instructions: "Do NOT open until you get to Eagle's Nest Camp!"

And then they were off with their friends, old and new, getting settled into camp life.

Elizabeth's with a group of girls getting ready to take the swim test in the lake.

Paul is with his tribe following a very muddy tribe initiation on the first evening.

Elizabeth's making new friends...

and reconnecting with old ones too (at the first morning's flag raising).

**Since I have not made it over to camp yet this year, these photos were obviously not taken by me. Paulie's mom took the first 4 photos when she dropped them off at camp, and the last 4 were taken by EN staffers and posted on the camp's website today.

Happy camping to Elizabeth and Paulie!