summer days

i seem to have lost a little momentum on the blogging lately. mama has been busy! the boys and i have been having a nice, quiet summer. our days at home have been full and productive, which is a very good thing. as i watch my friends depart for one journey after another, i realized there are different types of "busy". while it can be quite exhausting at times, i've really been enjoying being busy at home. when bedtime comes, there is a contented sigh of accomplishment. a day's work done well. some may see this lifestyle as mundane, full of drudgery. for me it can be like the zen of domesticity. "before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. after enlightenment, chop wood, carry water." the boys seem to be thriving with this slow pace and actually getting along really well! since yesterday was wash wednesday, i snapped these first 2 pics while enjoying a yogurt pop in the sun after lunch.

dillon has been practicing jumping off the swing nearly everyday, higher and higher with fancy twists and dramatic landings.

~micah in his own little periwinkle dream world. lazy summer days :-)~

~sweet big brother love~

~redwoods~

elijah has discovered the delight in walking all the way down the driveway to the bridge. once he gets there, he likes to find a rock or pine cone to play ball with.

of course, always with a stick in hand (whittled by dillon;-).

stopping every now and then to bang the stick on the driveway and listen to the cool sound it makes as it echos through the valley.

dillon has been teaching micah how to play monopoly (star wars monopoly, that is) or as micah says, "monokoly". they've had an ongoing game for about 3 days now, disappearing up to dillon's loft bed and playing for a while til they get bored and scurry off to the next activity. dillon has been so patient and micah is just thrilled to the bone to be invited up onto dillon's bed!

i've even found micah sleeping up there with dillon for the past 3 nights. so sweet!
my neighbor gave me some kefir grains today so i'm excited to try my hand at that. she also makes kombucha and will be harvesting a mother in a couple weeks, so we can try that out, too, which is pretty awesome considering that i can no longer get the yummy kombucha at the health food store. apparently the fda has banned all raw kombucha!
in other news, i thought i'd share a little frugal diapering tip. when dillon was a baby, i started out using prefolds with a snappi enduring many messy blowouts. then i was turned on to mother-ease one-size fitted diapers by multiple friends who swore by them for their no leak fit. so when he was 9 months old i invested in a nice stash of mother-ease, and i love them, still. after making that purchase i heard about fuzzy buns and loved the concept, but didn't like the price tag or the need to buy multiple sizes. by the time micah came along, i had the idea to make fleece liners to fit inside his mother-ease and still get that moisture wicking effect. so, i cut up an old fleece jacket (as in polar fleece, polyester) from the thrift store, tracing the mother-ease liners. it worked like a charm! the other day i refreshed my fleece liner stash with a jacket i got for free and was able to make 11 new liners!
we're looking forward to having dada home this weekend and celebrating the 4th with some old friends and then scouting out some fireworks. cheers!