Siesta in Connecticut

We are finally getting to the warm, genuinely summery days, all signs point to lots of swimming, grilling and slow evening promenades around the block after dinner in the late light. The boys and I just finished reading The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate together and since its set in the boiling heat of Texas, in the day of skirts and overskirts, and the heat was so oppressive that everything stopped in the middle of the day. Even the men came in from the fields and took a break indoors with the curtains drawn.

Sometimes the wheel has to be re-invented. My mama used to always say there were some people who had to touch the stove to see if it was hot. Same kind of an idea, I guess. I just discovered siesta living.



After we finished the book, spring trailed off, then suddenly summer showed up, we had a week away, we made our first batches of ice cream and we've packed away most of the long pants and our squash patch has exploded. And suddenly, I was thinking about life in Victorian Texas and I began to have a Siesta Time during the day when outdoor work and play gave way to indoor activities.

I think it took me a while because I'm not really a napping person and siesta sounds so much like a group nap hour to me. What I discovered is that if I get up early (6 hopefully, 5:30 if I'm really on track) I can get housework begun and maybe blogging, then after breakfast we can go outside and do animal care, lawn work and garden tending while it is sunny but not hot. Right about the time that I find I am sweating heavily, and the kids are wiping out, its time for 10 o'clock snack and indoor time.

----(Siesta Begins)---- 

Then inside we have lunch, the big boys find quiet time occupations and the littles go down for a rest. I do quiet, office-type work (phone calls, paperwork, emails, card writing, maybe blogging ). Then after we get done with quiet hour, I prep dinner, clean house, and maybe work on home improvement projects (in between breaking up arguments, fixing Lego creations, hanging with my sister, and downing glasses of ice water). After that we are heading into dinner land so the boys often watch a Netflix special while I do prep and wait for Aaron...sometimes there is free-play in the yard, sometimes watercolors.

Once dinner is over the indoor time is finished and hopefully it has cooled off enough to breath outside and we all head out into the yard to play a game before bed or take a walk around the block together. Then all the boys tumble upstairs to the bath and the day is over.



The key is making sure I go to bed early enough to get a jump start on my personal work so that I can just head outdoors during the morning and get all the garden hustle out of the way.

Rugs Bloom In This Heat

When it is hotter than can be believed outside, I hide. While hiding I: read extra, drink inordinate amounts of seltzer with ice and re-discover all the little projects I wanted to accomplish in our house. I have been painting trim like mad and spackling little dings and holes and nail pokes in all the walls. I established a secure relationship with our drill (I can now drill in and reverse out all screws with straight confidence...no fear). I made and hung tissue flowers from the dining room ceiling and then got all inspired and re-organized the pantry. But sometimes the best projects come on you in a fit of random inspiration....

One very lazy day I began to doodle on a plain green carpet I'd picked up at a local tag sale and the paint and doodling just kept on creeping along. Pretty soon there was a long trailing bloom explosion expanding pinkly from one corner of the plain, faded green. I passed through several stages of terrified and exhilerated while painting...worrying by turns that I was destroying the rug or exulting over having really *made* the rug work. I love it. Sometimes you just have to take leaps and do crazy random things because the spirit moved you, urges can be genius.

Stuck In Panic Mode

Honestly, I'm really friggin' overwhelmed right now.

• The weather is hotter than the dickens. No a/c sounds kind of salt of the earth but it just stinks right now.
• The yard is overwhelming me. (too much trimming, mowing, harvesting and watering to do...not to mention fall planting!)
• I'm out of touch with friends and support. Feeling alone. Drowning. Must rectify.
• I had my phone stolen...AGAIN...and am consequently without my: calendar, timer, reading list, housework routine, alarm clock, address book and phone list, gps, wrist watch and general contactability. Feel like a modern idiot but that doesn't really fix the honest helplessness of it all.
• There are far too many boys in this house! I can't seem to get anything done.
• Have many new house repairs (hello broken windows!) and no new renovation progress since the dining room paint job of yore. Am falling behind in the scores.
• Am feeling so frustrated with my kids moral development sometimes. How do you teach niceness for crying out loud?!?

So, that's the story. Also, we went camping and pulled ticks off of every single one of us....the grand prize winner being Nib who collected 10! ARGH! SO GROSS!!!! I am tempted to run screaming away from New England tomorrow. I would like to move to Hawaii or else Seattle.

There are however, shasta daisies in quantity....it has to be admitted. It is far too hot to bake things with them but there are berries to pick. (Maybe I will take the boys raspberry picking and we will make cheater ice cream with them?) The library is wonderful and cool and full of happy, comforting stories. I am going out to dinner with a woman friend tomorrow night for a mama date alone. (May there be memorably delicious food and conversation.) I did pick up paint chips today in reference to several projects in the house that I have buzzing around in my brain. I will not be defeated. But man, if you have tips on any of my bullet points...please feel free to chip in. 

Some Like It Hot

Two of the tomato plants fell over yesterday. They're getting so top-heavy with fruit in this steamy, blazing weather that the turgid stems can no longer do the job. They've come to depend on a diligent gardener driving in stakes thicker than a broom handle to hold them up. Next thing I need to do is make a trip out to garden with twine to lash them to their masts so they won't fall into the raucous sea of cucumbers below. Those cucumbers of ours are going like gangbusters!

I had to pull the lettuce because it had all bolted up into hopeless towers of bitter leaves but the cucumbers and the watermelons (real watermelons maybe!) and squash of all kinds are taking over the ground in a crawling, spiky, explosively fruitful tangle. Every time I walk into the backyard there are more cucumbers to harvest. I have started a jar of refrigerator pickles and am dizzy keeping up with the munching and the jar stuffing by turns.

The weather is hot but not the blazing 90's it was a week ago where all you do is sit languidly in a dark corner in the house and sweat. We're having solid high 80's temps now and the garden is very happy as long as I water and the mornings and evenings are cool enough to be pleasant walking windows.

The boys and I are even enjoying a little yard play during the day when we feel buzzy or brave. And even Nana had a stroll in the middle of the day today, sauntering off down the block with her phone on a chat with a friend. You can manage to cook but the summer dishes do sound best, just a quick saute, no oven work...and salads...always a few of those on the menu as they sound better and better in this heat.

I think we're off to the beach again tomorrow...maybe we'll go north to Rhode Island or try some other beach we've never been to. We're drifting off into the weekend with dreams of picnic hampers, sand in every crevice, the feel of the surf and the scent of the beach rose swirling through our minds. Be well friends, be well!

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Reading For The Heat

We've been spending a lot of time indoors hiding from the crazy heat lately.(Hello insane power outages just south of us!) Lots of darkened rooms, still activities and many, many giant glasses of water. The boys are pretty happy as long as they get their naptimes in, keep drinking enough, keep the playdoh in regular use and read a lot of stories. Its is wintertime in reverse....hunker down and keep cool instead of hunker down and stay warm. So we wrack our brains for new derivations on salad for dinner, and try to keep busy while largely still.

We're reading The Long Winter together with our feet propped up in front of the windows hoping to catch a passing breeze....which seems exactly right. Reading the shivery story of The Great Chill of 1880 feels like the perfect remedy for The Great Heat Wave of 2012, even if it was an accident on my part. Wondering what in the world to read next when I finish this with the boys. Anyone else have any great chilly tales that come to mind? For me or for the boys? I will also take suggestions for "take me away" warm and golden stories to stockpile for wintertime. Balance is good, even in literature!

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Poetry Friday: A Heat Wave Poem

Golden moment during our after-dinner swim the other night.

Happy Poetry Friday everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful time wherever you are in this beauitful shining world. I am listening, all day now to the rattling buzz of cicadas and thinking fondly of sunflowers. (I will plant some next year!)

I am thinking about swimming to excess because we're headed off to the beach for the weekend. My poem today is perfect for a person who is a bit fixated on shore-life. I can think of very little else. So, enjoy this little glimpse of summer in my world and have a great weekend!

I will be back, re-charged and ready to conquor the world on Monday. Cape Cod, here we come!

August Remedy

When I was small we would end unbearably hot days
With boisterous runs to the perfect coolness of Lake Michigan.
I sit here this morning, sweating while sitting still and think
Of those childhood runs for the water, all of us flailing joyfully.
The sun is blazing through the open window, no breeze in sight,
I listen to the voices of our three boys, playing in the sprinkler
And I remember how I sat like this when I was nine or ten
Squinting in the sun, waiting for Papa's truck to crunch in the drive
How the house became a buzzing whirl of swimsuit searching
And six children slap, slap, slapped up the path to the minivan.
We are having a heat wave here in Connecticut and I watch
The wiggles radiating off the sidewalk and think of the big, wet ocean
Only minutes away from our house (if you have a minivan).
Almost Lake Michigan.
I miss the solace of knowing that when the car rolls in the drive
I'm headed for that cool, silver feeling when your head first slips under.
Survival sometimes depends on these notions
Our three sons slog into the house, tired of hose-play and too hot for tag.
We drip popsicles on the front stoop, and re-fill the ice-cube tray until
We peter out and sit languidly in front of the box fan.
I slowly fold a tower of clothes, they poke each other.
And so I dial, waiting for you to answer from your cool office, far away
And I tell you that tonight we need to stage a re-enactment,
A certain re-dancing of the steps I have been taught for these dog-days.
When you come home, we munch sandwiches standing up,
Dripping pickle juice down our wrists and on our bathing suits
Then our boys run: slap, slap, slap to the minivan, elbowing into seats
Even the baby jigging along behind, talking to himself as he goes.
And that is how I find myself, taking this flying run across the sand
Splashing into the water and drinking in that first shimmering plunk.
I pull the glittering cool into my very veins, sipping potent heat-remedy
And float like an otter, my grin lifting me skyward, along with my pink, boyant toes.

If you get the chance, stop on over at, A Year of Literacy Coaching, today's Poetry Friday host-blog and read through the other offerings, a summery smattering of everything.

The Part of Summer That Tastes Good

We are to the part of summer that begins to taste really good. I picked up our first CSA share this afternoon and walked back to the car with my arms full of more delicious meal prospects. The bounty overfloweth! The lettuce has started to really tumble out of our garden, there are broccoli spears to snip and the tomatoes are blossoming!

I noticed that the Lutheran church on the corner is having a Strawberry Festival this weekend. We may all have to walk down and stuff ourselves with shortcake and meet more neighbors. Somebody pinch me, I can't believe I live here!

It's a good thing summer tastes good. We're gonna need a few large and icy slices of watermelon to ease us through tomorrow's 100 degree temps. I plan to spend the day doing nothing but eating Popsicles, playing in the sprinkler and organizing the basement. You think I'm kidding? I am so deadly serious. This Northern girl does not cope well with extreme heat. I am lettuce. I wilt.

Adventures In Zero Oil

We have been running, running, running....wildly, panickedly...our lists fluttering from our back pockets while we stamp out fires and buzz in a labyrinth of manic circles. And then sometime this weekend we remembered to check our oil tank and ordered another round for delivery on Monday morning and then wondered aloud to each other, "Just exactly how serious is that ominous 0 where the needle is hovering?"

Heh. Heh. Heh. And again I say, heh.

Late last night, after dinner was over and the washing up in full swing we began to notice it was oddly chill in the house suddenly. And by the time we were ready for bed we were huddled in blankets in the living room, crammed as tightly together as possible for body heat and I had drunk two full mugs of tea, not bothering with the sugar or cream but just gulping quickly.

We set the space heater up in the boy's room, put an extra layer on the baby, unrolled another quilt for our bed and tucked in. And I swear that there was starting to be frost hovering in the air over our pillows as we switched out the light.

When you wake up in the morning and there is no heat in your house and it is January and you're having a cold snap with a foot of snow on the ground...you have to find a warm place so that the kids can flow from pajamas to clothing to breakfast in relative calm. I lit a fire in the fireplace, dressed kids in front of the bedroom space heater (sweaters, jeans, t-shirts, turtlenecks, sweatshirts, hats etc.) and then plopped the big boys in front of the crackly blaze with blankets while I strapped the baby to my back in a carrier and whipped up breakfast and another mug of tea.

Later as we all ate our breakfast together and we watched the coals settling and snapping as the logs burnt away I thought of my mother as a new bride, watching her dishes shatter from freezing suddenly in her new house without a furnace, or proper doors and walls, just an inefficient woodstove and a lot of hope. Made our pink fingertips and noses seem  quite bear-able. I like to think I would have made a good pioneer woman but truly, I am so kidding myself. I'm soft. I am so glad that the oil man came this afternoon and that right now,  the radiator next to me is kicking it out for all it's worth. I really like automatic heat.