ode to summer

Ode to Summer 2012

This summer we accomplished almost everything on our summer list, all except going to the humane society to try and convince me, I'm betting, that getting a dog is something we need to do right now. I know the kids and Josh were hoping to walk in with their fingers crossed and walk out holding a dog. Everytime Urban sees a dog he says, "Dog. Cute. Kiss!" But, we never made it there. Lucky for them, the humane society is open year round and that is somewhere we can go when there is snow on the ground. Anyway, here is a summer recap. And, here's to the past (I missed a few years): 2011, 2008.

 

1. We love summer vacations. Each year we vacation with our cousins and vacation as just a family. Both are always a blast.

 

Cousins, minus 2

The little, orange paddle boat monster

Traverse City

2. It was cousin-ville around here as we were so lucky to have two Fraker girls over each Wednesday. We couldn't have been luckier to have them and to have made such great memories with them.

3. I finally have the perfect biscuit recipe! Just a little tweeking of an old recipe from Mom is all it took! It is the perfect base recipe for herbed, lemon, blueberry or ANYTHING biscuits. Or for biscuits and gravy, just omit the sugar.

 

2 cups flour

2 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking podwer

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup shortening

3/4 cup milk

Heat oven to 450 degrees.

Mix all dry ingredients. Cut in butter. Add milk and mix until just blended. Flour countertop and pat dough down until it's about 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut biscuits and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Devour.

Perfect for this.

4. This is the summer this boy could not keep his pants on. He just would not.

5. Our favorite little outtings were something we really looked forward to doing together. Sometimes we headed to town for a morning walk and fresh donut. Or to the park. Our favorite park of all time is Floyd Park. We tried many and it is hands down the very best. Occassionally we went shopping...a super human task with Urban the anti-shopper. Other times we did service together for some friends. We also hit up the library quite a bit. These types of mornings were my absolute favorite part about summer break.

6. The pool. The POOL! I think there were only a handful of days we were not in the pool. Ida learned how to swim this summer in this pool and really loves it. She's a great swimmer. And, emerson now goes under water. This pool is amazing!

7. Flea market lamp for cheap. It looks green in the picture, but it's not.

8. Blueberry-mania. We absolutely loved blueberry picking. It is a must do again for next year.

9. House project madness pushes on. Improvements of the summer include, and are not limited to (only because I probably forgot some): back yard landscaping with bushes and mulch, new air conditioner, new water system, new sump pump and pipes and things, trench treched and then untrenched, basement REMODELED (95%), garden expanded, other landscaping removed and grass grown.

10. As of now, I have put up 7 jars of pickles minus one because I already ate them and one jar of pickled beans, 24 cups of frozen blueberries, with tomatoes and pears to be announced. They aren't ready yet.

And this is how the kids were feeling about going to school before we went to open house. Now they are moderately excited. I guess we're ready.

great grandma

Urban, Me, Great Grandma Arlene Grau, Ida Arlene, Emerson

I took the kids to visit Great Grandma before school starts and we took her some peaches off our tree. She was wearing her usual summer cut-off jean shorts and sleeveless button-up outfit that she has always worn during the summer months. Urban played the entire time with a fuzzy sheep my mom made for my grandma, only getting distracted once when he found the candy dish sitting by my grandpa's chair. Grandma quickly put them on top of her china cabinet where she still has a display of everyone's senior pictures. Emerson shortly after found my senior picture and said, "Mom, that kinda looks like you, just a little different." Glad I still resemble my senior self a little. Ida actually spoke to Grandma because she "really likes Grandma because she is just so nice." Before we left, Grandma took us down to the basement because she had a blue ford tractor for Urban. Then the kids asked where Great Grandpa was. I think they were a little nervous because they said sometimes he gets "too fussy." It was funny. We drove past Granny's house on the way home. The kids really liked that.

Pickled

After many phone calls with my dad, round one is DONE and my mouth is watering.

dr. scheerer calls him the trailblazer

Munching blueberries in the garage

We paid a visit to Dr. scheerer today to discuss hives and peanut allergy action plans for the kids, seeing as school will be starting in less than two short weeks. The Dr. noticed how much more free spirited our little downtown is compared to his brother and sister. Then we talked about school. I know that I feel lonelyish about having the oldest vowels away all day, but Urban dude has no idea that very soon he will be an only child until 3:30 on weekdays. Oh, how sad for him! But, he may also like it, I guess. Urban has had the be summer playing with his older brother and sister. Here are his favorite things to do with them:

~After dinner run around time. All stripped down to his diaper, he chases the older two into complete mayhem. He loves running straight into the wall and giggling until crackers fly out his mouth. Then he chases in full giggle.

~Doing full body flops on the trampoline after being boosted by his brother or sister. He always runs to me for safety until he heads back out to do it 15 more times.

~Playing full-on sandbox games. Urban can have a jolly old time be himself in the sandbox, but when Emerson and Ida are playing "cook" or building castles or playing town it is so much more interesting.

~ I mean, stealing his older siblings toys is always daring.

~I push Urban in the laundry basket but I get tired much faster than the other two.

~Plus, somehow he can tip his little head just so and blink his little eyes and say, "Peeez" in that just right way that will convince the school-going vowels to give him anything.

the topic is blueberries

We're talking 17 pounds of delicious, sweet blueberries.

My mom would always take us blueberry picking as kids. Though my brothers weren't so much into the excitement of standing in the mosquito infested rows of bushes while being scared by a timed cannon that was shot to frighten the birds aways, I guess I was. I am not sure what my sisters thought about it. I was too chicken to leave my mom's side and walk around with them. We did throw a lot of blueberries at each other, I do remember that. I feel so happy for those memories.

We went picking last week with Granny and Em and Jack. Good times!

The kids had a super time and loved it. They each picked a whole bucket...I was shocked. I didn't know children could do that at a blueberry patch! The freezer and fridge are full.

Now let's talk about the boy who loves blueberry crack.

This child is addicted. He walks around the house asking, "Boo-bare-is"? What's more? He and I ate a whole blueberry pie made using my mom's perfect recipe. It was amazing. Lucky for the two of us, the other three Frakers have different favorite fruits. An equally amazing recipe was this blueberry-oat biscuit cobbler I found on Pinterest from Sprouted Kitchen.

Image via Sprouted Kitchen

Delicious.

garden.....the good and the bad

Our garden this year is a work in progress. But actually, that news is no different than every year. I am a master tomato grower slash preventer of tomato worm damage, if I may brag. Although, I don't think keeping tomatoes alive is really all that hard.

Ida and the beloved Brandywine forth child.

The basil plants were out of control good this year. I finally did it! I learned how to grow great basil and now I have so much it's insane! All the awesome nonsecrets I found here through Pinterest (the mother of everything good). The trick is pruning, PRUNING! My husky plants bulked overnight from simple pruning. Gosh, I love simple pruning. Our apple tree needs pruning and that won't be simple. So nervous about that one.

My four beastly basil plants.

The dill is following the herb expectation quite nicely.

But, hello, the cucumbers are NOT! I have had zero success with my cucumbers in all the years I have been gardening. It's terrible! I need to spend more time researching for next year on how to get them growing. I have so much dill waiting to be pickled while it's cucumber partners are completely absent.

And then we have the bad, bad corn...my other gardening nemesis. The yellow corn stalks tell me that something isn't right.

On a hilarious note, I pulled out this gourd vine probably 10 times before I decided that I would just let it grow. It was obviously not going to give up. Turns out it is a pumpkin plant! We have two huge pumpkins getting ready for the fall. Glad that thing has 11 lives.

 

last of the summer vacations...maybe

(all photos from iPod or cell phone. We did our best.)

It seems that lately Josh has had this way of talking me into doing things last minute. His latest was talking us into a small vacation up north as a last summer hurrah. I am so happy he does that because it always ends up being the best time.

A few weeks ago we headed to Traverse City and had a huge amount of fun. Of course we took the Honda on this five hour trip seeing as our thirteen hour trip to Myrtle Beach went so well. Urban had the hardest time but finally fell asleep and took his way over due afternoon nap.

Northern Michigan is beautiful. This was the view from a comparatively small, child friendly sand dune.

Emerson decided to run the entire way down, which was absolutely not scary for him. I was very surprised he didn't bite it or even stumble. Ida absolutely would not even attempt to run.

Lake Michigan was freezing. The kids swam and enjoyed it anyway. Emerson learned how to skip rocks this trip.

Urban and I enjoyed the beach.

Our collective favorite family activity, besides swimming in the pool, was driving and stopping where we liked. There were so many beautiful sites and beach front homes to see and admire. Plus, daddy bought the best road snacks ever.

 

dinner and a game

Our anniversary date night was fun.

We had great seats and were so close to catching a foul ball. The grandpa sitting in the seats directly behind us caught it for his grandson. And, both teams rushed the field almost getting in a huge brawl. Loved all the excitement!

Plus, dinner and uninterrupted conversation with Josh were both fantastic. Woot!

(Don't know what's up with my frizzy hair.)

love you 1000 more

Our FedEX man stopping by to bring me pro-Flowers this morning while Josh napped in the basement after working the midnight shift. I was so surprised. The kids helped me pick out a vase and snip the ends of the flowers while they oohed and aahed at how nice it was for daddy to get me flowers on our "special anniversary," as they called it.

After dinner, Josh showed me something he had made. Not one of the oldest Frakers Four was dried eyed when the video ended. I have probably watched it 95 times since and have cried happy tears each time.

Tomorrow is date night: dinner and a baseball game, it should be super just like the last 10 years of my life. Thank you for a great life, Josh!

 

starting more projects

Once upon a time he liked to burn things with a blow torch, but that is so "last summer" (money that the blow torch will appear again this fall though). Nowadays, he likes to dig up dirt with a loud, gnarly machine, and manly stuff like that. (I very enthusiastically emphasized to keep it away from my precious air conditioner.). This time around the camouflage hat was replaced with protective eye goggles. The kids called him Bob the Builder! I was impressed that he thought of his safety over his outdoorsy gear.

These house projects are getting SCARY!

me and Youngjun Byun

I was over reading at A Cup Of Jo, one of my very most favorite blogs. She is completely a real person, an honest writer and very good hearted. She finds super interesting things to share with her readers and last week she found a doozy! Have you ever wondered which Olympic sport your body is best suited for? I've thought about this so many times it's embarrassing. Hands down I would want to be an indoor volleyball player. No question.

This quiz told me otherwise. According to my height and weight, I should compete in the Men's 20km WALK! I pretty much took offense immediately. I also laughed until I drooled. How's that for athleticism? Take the quiz, you'll love it!

picnics with real silverware

I randomly selected a picture for this post from the files already uploaded to the computer. Our good point-and-shoot camera won't open so I haven't been taking many picture lately, and I won't be able to snap anything somewhat in focus until that is back from the shop. We didn't have it back before leaving on vacation last week. That post is going to be nice, mainly iPod and phone shots will document that trip, and few at that. bummer.

I took this picture of the kids picnicking on the trampoline. We usually picnic under my favorite tree in the front yard or under Josh's favorite birch tree in the back. We have learned that the location doesn't really matter. We have fun no matter where our blanket falls. The food doesn't matter much either. Making it the best picnic ever is what matters, and somehow in doing that we usually end up packing jars and tubs and silverware and plates and scissors for our "way better than packed lunches for school" meals, which is something I learned from one of my favorite coworkers when we were living in Texas and I was teaching first grade. Paige did everything with so much purpose and spunk. A early 40's mother of two ex-librarian turned first grade teacher. She wore tablecloth skirts for cinco de mayo and grabbed ornaments from her Christmas tree as she was heading out the door to school because she thought they would make perfect holiday earrings. She never used plastic tupperware, no, no, but instead carried her muffin breakfasts or sweet and sour chicken lunches to school on glass plates. She said it made her "feel human." LOVE! I shouldn't even get started on her remodeled brick farmhouse. The six burner gas range! The outdoor shower! The party pavilion with lanterns! Her homemade art duplicating the huge fish her husband caught on his first fishing trip in the ocean! She was the perfect example to me of finding and embracing and cultivating the things in life, even those things that are most simple, that bring joy.

A simple, joyous picnic on the trampoline brought all of my Paige memories rushing back. Love memories! I hereby declare this mama to be relentlessly perusing and recognizing and laughing about the simple joys of life, and amen.