Life, of late

I've taken an unexpected hiatus from the world of blogging. I'm not done with it, just a little busy living life these days and hard-pressed to find the extra time to sit down and post.


Our little home is still chugging along, presenting new challenges with the addition of an extra person. Rooms feel smaller, the cool old stove seems suddenly treacherous and the floors are forever too dirty. I've learned to ignore the pile of dishes on the counter and the spots of blueberries, mashed carrots and pureed spinach that dot the floors, kitchen chairs and most of my clothes.

Here's our summer, briefly:

We became members of the zoo. E loves the chimpanzees and giraffes. The train ride is also pretty cool.

L came for his annual summer stay. We spent a week outside of San Diego with my family. We swam every day, ate too much, played Monopoly, Sequence and Scrabble, took care of my mother and her poor sprained ankle and laughed like crazy. On the way home we stayed a night in Cayucos and a night in Cambria. We threw lots of sticks into the ocean for Elli and stopped in Big Sur for breakfast. We spoke German and English and a bunch Germanglish.

We camped, taught E the beauty of the hammock, swam in the lake while E napped in her stroller, swam in the lake with E and ate some more.

We had another round of beloved house guests from Germany. They were relegated to a blow-up mattress on the living room floor but then it popped in the middle of the night so they had only the floor. We've added "sleeper-couch" to the growing house wish-list.

The bathroom sink fell out of the wall which means that our long awaited bathroom remodel day has finally arrived. The toilet has been purchased and we're working on figuring the new shower fixtures. The floor will be retiled with gorgeous blue tiles that C found on craigslist. 

I finally caved and gave E her first haircut. It was only two little snips but I teared up while cutting her bangs. Now her hair doesn't get stuck in her runny nose and she can see again, so I suppose it was a wise move.

We've enjoyed the random summer/fall heat waves, eating garden tomatoes and passing the long afternoons in the kiddie pool in our backyard; turns out that E is a swimmer/splasher/rabble-rouser extraordinaire in the water. To say that she loves the water would be an understatement.

I've had some time to knit. E seems to outgrow each sweater faster than I can make them.

I've had some time to peruse the newly redesigned Bon Appetit. It's still not cutting it for me. For sure it's better than before, but not inspiring like my much-loved Gourmet (RIP)...

And I've had some time to start books and not finish them.

I'll be back here a bit more often. Probably posting a little bit more about random life/thoughts than exclusively about our house and garden, I hope you won't mind.