Summer Excursions

 
Now dad has a new bike as well. And with two kids under 35lbs, we dug out this bike trailer that we had for years in the basement. (Yet another "deal" found long ago ... this $100+ trailer was purchased for about $34). Anyway, it now frees up dad to get quite a work out on a hot summer evening.

Strawberry Fields Forever

Don't think we ever mentioned our annual trip to pick strawberries earlier this month. The kids love it. We usually go right after swim lessons since the farm's just down the road from the pool. The boys were cold (hence the sweats) but everyone was happy. We ate strawberries 3x a day for a week!


Look, ma, we've got strawberries growing out our ears!



Bon appetit!

Weather

According to today's paper, here are the stats:

By the numbers

Even the giddiest optimists and glass-is-half-full romantics are ready to punch the weatherman.

How bad has the summer been? Let us count the ways ...

-3.9
The departure in degrees from the average temperature in July. Twenty of the first 23 days this month were cooler than normal.

13.8
Inches of rainfall that has fallen since May 1. There has been at least a trace of rain on 22 of the past 28 days.

6
Days since the start of June that have been classified as “clear” by the National Weather Service.

82
The high temperature recorded this month.

A few other things to note:
-I've worn shorts a handful of times this summer, preferring my jeans probably 10:1. (They haven't been too hot and they keep the mosquitos away better...)
-On July 19th (last Sunday) we went for a family bike ride. It was relatively sunny (I think technically partly cloudy). Of the roughly 7 miles, the first half was all uphill and the 2nd half all downhill. I wore a mock turtleneck t-shirt (short sleeves) with jeans and didn't break a sweat on the way up, and was actually chilly on the way down in a patch of cool woods. Go figure! It was actually lovely biking weather, but jeans, no sweat, on a nice day in July? Our definition of "nice" is adjusting it seems!
-We're all wondering either how hot the fall will be or how cold the winter will be...
-The grass is bright green and it's been great seeding weather!
-The garden is completely overgrown, probably a testament to all the rain plus lack of initiative to go work on it due to the weather and wetness (and bugs)
-That said, we're not complaining of heat and downright enjoy the temperatures!
-And despite all the wetness, it's not been a washout and most days we can get outside if we just negotiate the clouds (and make the effort).
-Out of 15 days of morning swim lessons so far (5 more next week), it's only actually rained during one and drizzled during one other. That's not bad considering. And I have used sunscreen for 4 of those days, if that.

-Shiloh

PS Update. Today (Monday the 27th) was PERFECT for swimming. 76 degrees, sunny, and breezy. Just lovely. I could take several more days like today! They say we're going to get some nasty T-storms this afternoon (we really do need our daily rain ration it seems) but I'd LOVE it if every morning could be like this. No fans in the house, just the windows open and this lovely warm yet not at all hot breeze blowing gently through with lush green leaves rustling... :-) It sure is nice to see the sun!

Health Care

This article says well what I think:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090720/cm_csm/yakers

If there's no motivation to keep costs down, nothing will. Personally, we benefit greatly from Vermont's extensive coverage that includes our kids. But there's nothing in that to motivate us to either care for the kids better out of our medicine cabinet, or to keep costs down when we take them in. Nor is there anything to encourage us to not be wasteful as we manage Patience's diabetes - it costs us nothing out of pocket! So while we are thankful for our coverage, and while we will likely never opt to not have coverage for us or the kids, there is a downside to it.

We get top notch care probably because there still is non-government care available in our state. Those here who don't normally accept Medicaid patients, do with referral on an as-needed basis. We have been the beneficiaries of that and thank God for it. That said, if you're on Medicaid and you "no show", at least one of our doctors has a one-strike-you're-out policy (probably negotiable in case of true emergency if you have a good record for showing up). Why? Because when you're not footing the bill, you can skip the appointment at no personal expense, which inconveniences everyone and leaves the doctor with the bill. So they put their teeth where they can to be sure their patients take their appointments seriously. Universal health coverage would make this impossible. It's a no win situation for everyone.

-Shiloh

Blogging and a referral

One of the reasons we started this separate home blog last fall was because there were technical issues with the old one; another was because we wanted to blog w/o using our names, esp. our last name. But I (Mama Bear) am a little wary of using even the first names and had seen nicknames used with great success on other blogs and so have developed names for us to be able to freely write and use names (sort of!). Please read this page from Mom's blog to understand the shift and who we're talking about. We'll introduce you to the whole motley crew!

-Shiloh

Special People

 

We don't often get pictures of our kids with their beloved babysitters but here's one we got in mid June sitting with our little Vivace who just loves her to death. She's off at college a lot, but we enjoy her whenever she's home on break, and she thinks of our kids as hers. Isn't it precious to see them together?

Fireworks

The boys went to the park by our house to watch the fireworks in the drizzle this evening. Delightful really. We girls stayed home and except for Constance (who's scared of them!), we watched them from the end of our driveway along with at least a dozen neighbors. Seems like we've got the prime viewing area on our block. They were delightful and lasted a good half hour. Happy booms not scary ones or so we tried to explain to our frightened child to no avail, tho she did agree they were pretty before demanding to be allowed back in the house. The boys will be home in about 10 min. (or less depending on how fast they walk). Nice to have the celebrations so close by.

Happy 4th of July everyone! -Shiloh