...the living is easy

Ah, summertime. I love this time of year. Especially before the August heat waves hit! But seriously, I could practically sing the song about my own life. All except for the cotton. Not much of that growing in my garden. Not any, to be completely honest. But we do have fairly tall butterfly weed attracting all sorts of pretty things, so it's not all bad. And Daddy may not be rich financially, but rich can come in so many other forms. My family is my most precious commodity and they make me endlessly wealthy.

Speaking of butterflies in the garden, Meged (my six year old daughter) brought home some caterpillars from her after school garden class. I had to actually resort to pilfering a few leaves from the garden center to feed the little guys before they started construction on their little cottony condos. But I digress. It's so nice to see Meged enjoying these little babies of hers, checking on them every day after school, giddy with excitement about the day they'll finally emerge from their cocoons. I don't know if I should tell her that the chances of her actually standing next to the box on the day they begin to unfold their wings are pretty slim. I figure it's best to let her enjoy this while it lasts and hope for the best. Next year we'll construct a proper butterfly hutch so she can be sure to witness their first day out in the fresh air. Or I could stop putting it off and just make one now for her. I just hope it's not too late.

... pause for summer ...

Funny, I just found this draft from back in May. I guess I forgot to complete the post after I went out and made aforementioned butterfly hutch. It turned out rather rickety, but Meged didn't care or even notice as far as I know. The butterflies sprang forth from their cocoons a few weeks later and in a splendid display of anticlimax never left the box....but rather went about their business making more babies and then died. Meged was, fortunately, not too devastated by this suicidal behavior.

It's now just a blink away from September and the beginning of the school year. This was our best summer ever. Hence the utter lack of posts since May - we were too busy having fun to sit down and blog! I'll miss the kids when they go back to school. We truly had a lovely time together these past nine weeks and more than ever I feel so blessed to be mother to these four most amazing children.

Earth un-friendly flags

My tomato plants are starting to bear fruit, I've got pumpkin plants in bloom this year and we really don't have to worry about our supply of fresh herbs each weekend as we enjoy grilling outdoors and eating in the open air. I've left the artichokes to flower for the most part, not really seeing the point in harvesting one artichoke at a time. Perhaps next year, the crop will be more prolific and we'll be able to enjoy the bounty. But for now, the wild blue flowers will be reward enough. My Periwinkles are finally in the ground and starting to grow and my compost pile will soon pay me back for all of the offerings I've left it this year. Holly (my 17 month old) loves our garden just as much as her Mama and we enjoy time outside every day.

So with all of this to be thankful for, what could I possibly have to complain about? Well, not much actually. But there is one thing that's been bugging me for the past several weeks. We recently celebrated Israeli Independence Day and something about the holiday traditions irked the environmentalist in me. Each year, I'm guessing that hundreds of thousands of miniature flags are sold to be mounted on car windows for a few days and then discarded. The nylon alone in this mass of flags is worrisome enough. But the amount of plastic that gets thrown out each year in the form of flag "poles" is sickening.

On the rare occasion one sees magnetic flags that are stuck on the car door or trunk lid. But there are still far too many of these disposable plastic flags being sold every year. So, what can be done about all of this plastic? Perfectly "good" plastic that only had the misfortune of being "used" for a week on someone's car. Well, I admit that I don't know all there is to know about what the sun does to this plastic and whether or not it's possible to reuse these plastic flag mounts. But I do think that at the very least, the mounts should be collected at the end of the Independence Day festivities and recycled in one form or another in a gesture of national pride if not concern for the environment in general.

With that in mind, I've decided to try to get this organized for next year. It's too late to prevent all of those flags from being dumped in lands fills this time around, but perhaps we can change things for next year. Afterall, the holiday is celebrating a love of this land. One can only hope that people will respond favorably to efforts to keeping their country just a little bit cleaner.

Fingers crossed....

Time flies.....

It's been a long time since my last post. That's how it is with kids. You get up to get a cup of coffee and by the time you sit down to drink it, 3 months have gone by. Anyway, life is one big moving picture and trying to capture some of it's essence is tricky.

Brit and Zach are completing their first book report assignment for school. It may seem like no big deal to the casual observer. But to me it's this...thing...ominous, foreboding and resolute - telling me my little kids really aren't so little anymore. And there's just no way for me to bury my head in the sand about it any longer. I think next year will be harder when they hit the double digits.

Watching your kids grow up is a bittersweet thing. You want so desperately to hold on to them being little and cherubic and forever ready for hugs and kisses and cuddles...always saying and doing the cutest things that make you want to just nibble on them a bit. Oh, yeah, they can be pains in the ass too. No doubt about it. But when they're cute, man are they ever CUTE! But as they grow you get to watch this metamorphosis that quite often just leaves you breathless. From little pitter-pattery toddlers who think the string from an old helium balloon is the greatest thing they've ever seen to preteens having their first crushes, spending the night at friend's houses, and learning about sex. I sometimes wish we had a 24 hour video recording system making a permanent record of every moment of their lives - including the kids temper tantrums and the times I've had my own near tantrums out of frustration after a long day of bad behavior from the kids. It's all part of this magical thing called "childhood" and the good wouldn't be as good without the bad for balance. And when they're grown and off living their own lives away from us, I know I'll want to sit down and have a good cry in front of an old home movie, watching them at their most charming and irresistable.

Don't grow up too fast kids. Mommy needs you little for a while yet.