Scandinavian Midsummer Festival

The Maypole has been raised with 3 great cheers! and we welcomed Summer with a day of sun, flowers, and music to dance to in a great line around the Maypole.

My sister, Marita, Evelyn, and I celebrated, in great Scandinavian style, the Midsummer this weekend. We made fresh flower garlands out of birch branches to wear in our hair and welcomed Summer with dancing and Swedish pancakes, meatballs, and lingonberry sauce. We had such fun, it was a beautiful day with plenty of sun and shade, music and dancing.

Pretending it's Summer

We had summer weather for 2 whole days in a row! Summer for the whole day too, not just half a day. We didn't waste any time getting down to business and soaking up the sun. Our friend Carrie invited us over for a day poolside at her Mom's house and we played in water all day and relaxed in the sun. We played and played! We felt like we had been transported out of the grey and the cool into a vibrant, light, bright world of warmth where we could take deep breaths and we found our inner joy.

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The next morning we woke up to another day of sunshine. Another day in full color, splashed against the bright blue canvas of the sky. There were white popcorn clouds in the sky and Mt. Hood stood glowing white surrounded by blue. We acted as true Oregonians and went for the strawberry fields. I took our cousins out to the same farm we have been going to since we were kids. Evelyn and Kelvin each had buckets and picked and picked warm, fresh strawberries. Evelyn's bucket was used only to collect the stems of all the berries she had eaten. Not one berry was left behind, and all were delicious.

They were still delicious the next morning in our smoothies. The true taste of summer. We enjoy it while it lasts, even if it is only for a few days. We can say we made the best of it, and if Summer decides to linger a while longer, she's more than welcome to stay!

Father's Day

Here is a link to Evelyn and Andy practicing for the song they sang during service on Father's Day. What a lucky girl Evelyn is to have such a wonderful Daddy. See the video by clicking HERE.

28 Weeks Along, One Berry Down

I'm 28 weeks pregnant today. I'm officially in my third trimester already!


I'm also on a break from work until after the 4th of July. I have plans. I want to move this baby into our reality, for Evelyn's sake. I want to have Evelyn help set up a space for the baby with a crib and move the bassinet into our room so she can start to wrap her brain around the fact that she really is coming.
It's such a hard concept for a 4 year old, to say the baby is coming. When you don't grasp time beyond tomorrow, that can be very stressful news. She is more curious about my round belly and tries to put her ear to my belly to hear the baby kick. One time Evelyn did feel the baby kick but she was more offended that the baby kicked her, then excited that she felt something. I had to tell Evelyn that she she wasn't allowed to have an argument with her baby sister until she was out of my womb!
So to make this tangable, we've been talking berries. Berries, of all kinds. Any berry happens to be Evelyn's favorite thing to eat in the world. So we tie the baby to berries.

We tell Evelyn, " The baby will come when the berries are almost done. Your baby sister will come...

after the strawberries have turned red and ripe in our garden... (Done!)


after the Tayberries(pictured below in our yard) and raspberries are picked....

after the cherries have turned bright red on our tree....

and when the blue berries are almost done on our bushes....

Then your baby sister will be here!"

Forgetting

For the last two months and for at least 28 days straight we've been living with this...

Cold, wet, dark and grey. It feels like it will never end; that the sun has been snuffed out, and we trudge through the days, heavy with the rain and the dark.

But then we get a day like this.

The most brilliant blue sky, with vibrant green all around us and the perfect temperature with a slight breeze. And we race to the front doors and throw open the windows and just sit and soak it all up. We drink coffee on the porch and we walk to the park.

We check in our garden to see what has survived the past two weeks of torrential down pours and find that we have strawberries! Real, red, strawberries splattered in mud, but edible.

And we call our friends and we sit outside, and marvel at seeing the blue sky and feeling actual warmth from the sun. We congratulate each other on mild sunburns and we laugh again because of the light, and the sun and the colors.

And we eat amazing food, cooked outside, and suddenly we forget the weight of the rain and clouds and we are totally happy from the inside out.

Mommy's Little Girl

When I was 4 we moved from Omaha, NB to Portland, OR. With our moving truck we drove North to Minnesota to visit with my Grandparents and then out to Oregon. I was introduced to Mary and Laura on that trip and Mom sewed me a "real" pioneer dress with a pinafore. She even made one for my doll.
Now, Evelyn is wearing the same dress and her baby doll has a matching dress. The doll is even a cherished doll from when I was little who has been now been placed in Evelyn's care. Evelyn has been reading about Laura in her Little House in the Big Woods and can now tell you exactly how to make maple syrup. She's a true pioneer girl out here in Oregon Territory.