Country Life

In order to get my ankle back to normal, I took the entire week off from running and went to the chiropractor three times in five days. The lack of running left me with reserves of energy that I pumped into both cross training and yardwork. I did the elliptical machine, rode my mountain bike, hiked, lifted, walked, and even used the rowing machine for the first time ever. All of that different movement made me tired in a different way than running does! Two days on the bike gave me a bruised seat. One rowing session gave me the painful beginnings of blisters on my hands and tired shoulders. And lifting always makes me sore. The lower aerobic effort needed to do these activities left me with extra energy to pour into yardwork, so I hacked and hoed the side flowerbed with extra dedication, further developing the callouses and hotspots on my hands, while also thrashing my forearms and back from the effort. 

By Saturday, my body felt totally beat up and it had been nearly two weeks since my last run! So I did yoga on the back porch in the fresh morning air and watched Amber run a mile (four laps around the triangle lot in front of our house). Jeff ran with her and pushed her to a new PR of 7:50! Jeff took our three kids to the running shoe store in the tri cities on Friday after the team run, and they all got new running shoes for the school year. This was Amber's first ever pair of real running shoes. She chose the Brooks Ghost 17 -- a solid choice. Saturday morning was her first run in her new running shoes, and she cruised! Her finishing kick was very impressive. Amber has been running 1-2 miles per day, five days a week most weeks all summer, plus plyometrics with the cross country team, and it is showing! She was completely fine on our nine mile hike on Tuesday, and she's starting to shave seconds off of her mile time. Not too shabby for a 10 year old!

After congratulating Amber for her PR, I donned my overalls and attacked the weeds by the shed. Two hours later, my hand grip was failing and my back and legs were trembling. Those weeds were thick! I got them all! We jokingly call the west side of the shed "the dark side of the shed" because it's in shadow all morning, and no grass was planted there so weeds flourish. The dark side of the shed is also Amber's realm, where she can dig and chop and build whatever she wants with whatever scraps she finds. She has dug an impressive hole there. She was working on the weed situation for a few weeks this summer, but it got away from her and she stopped going out there. These awful Yakima Valley weeds get stems as thick as three fingers with long tap roots that grip the ground with tenacity. Originally I was planning to work more on the side flowerbed, but I got totally sidetracked by the dark side of the shed when I was getting my tools out. 

My Saturday was not done! I showered, ate lunch, and then moved on to my next project: making jam. Rose and Amber helped. We made two batches of raspberry blackberry jam. I thought one batch would make eight jars, but I read the recipe wrong--one batch made eight half-pint jars, but my jars are full pint sized. All that work for only four jars of jam? No thank you! Rose and I went out and picked a quart of blackberries to mix with the raspberries I froze earlier in the summer. This jam was my crowning glory of all jams. It set in a lovely gel, and I actually water bath canned it instead of just freezing it. (The three other batches of jam I have made this summer are taking up a ton of freezer space!) So far this summer, I have made: raspberry jam, blackberry jam, blackberry peach jam, and blackberry raspberry jam. All are delicious. And the peaches are just beginning to ripen! 

I finished cleaning up the sticky jam making mess a little after 2pm, ate a snack, and then collapsed with a k-drama for the rest of the day. 

Here are a few more tidbits from the week:

Monday morning conversation with Amber:

Me: I'm going to get groceries. I'll be back soon!

Amber: I feel like you do that a lot, like every week.

HAH! I also said I was going to the chiropractor, and technically that's what Amber was referring to with her comment, but it took me a minute to ask and sleuth that out, haha.

Since the high was 100+ on Monday, I got up early to do yardwork. It was beautiful outside at 6am. Every now and then I paused my intense hacking and hoeing to catch my breath and admire the beautiful  early morning peace. The sunrise painted our yard in gold. The birds sang. The world was waking up but still felt calm and new. The air was cool and fresh. I listened to two general conference talks while I worked, then switched to music. I worked for almost an hour before heading into the barn to lift and do a short 25 minute elliptical session during XC practice. I had serious FOMO when the team left on their run, but I was glad to have been able to get my outside nature connection time while doing yardwork early in the morning.

Monday night I finally managed to get family game night going! At dinner I asked the family what game we should play tonight. Jay went and got out Sunnyside-opoly, and we actually played it for an entire hour! It was ridiculous and we could've kept going for another hour or two, but we capped it at an hour and counted our money. Amber won, mostly because Rose gave her money to Amber at the beginning. Amber's assets cut in half were less than mine, so I may have won of Rose had stayed in the game, haha. Not that I like winning at Monopoly! It's the worst! But we had fun playing together. 

Tuesday was our hike to Colchuck Lake! 

Wednesday morning I got out my bike so I could ride along with the xc girls during their tempo workout. I pumped up one tire, and it immediately went flat again. I tried three times, but there was clearly a big hole in the tube because it wouldn't hold air. So I put my bike away and got out Jeff's bike (our mountain bikes are identical, down to the color and size). Thankfully his tires stayed firm after I pumped them, but then the chain fell off. I flipped the bike over and got my fingers all greasy putting the chain back on, while Coach Winger and a 15 year old boy on our team hovered, giving me unsolicited advice. After I got the chain on, I noticed five spider egg sacs under the pedal. So I cleared those out and crushed them. At last my [Jeff's] bike was ready! Bikes are so high maintenance! 

I bruised my poor butt riding for 45 minutes during the team tempo workout, but I didn't really get an aerobic workout at all because biking at a runners' pace is basically just gliding with a few pedals here and there. I did spin out and nearly wreck in a particularly thick swath of dust! I missed the aerobic effort of running so much though! Oh well, it was still very nice to be back out with our team even if I couldn't run with them. I rode with them again on Thursday, but my butt hurt SO BADLY I could barely think, so I took Friday off from the bike and used the rowing machine instead, which gave me budding blisters on my hands.

Jeff and I had a lovely date on Thursday night. We went on a leisurely 2 mile/45 minute walk along the peaceful canal road. When we got home, we picked a couple dozen peaches together. Jeff taught me how to use the rowing machine. We also played several games of Uno. It was a cozy happy together time. I feel a little silly that it has been such a revelation how much I love doing an actual date each week with Jeff. We got away from intentional dating over the years, even though we still spent time together most days, because we didn't want to go anywhere. But we don't have to go anywhere to date! It feels special to call even simple things like walks and picking fruit and playing cards a date. Our kids are getting good at staying in the basement while we have our home-dates, which helps the date feel more date-ish. 

Amber has become quite savvy at driving the lawn mower. On Thursday, we all looked out the window and saw her driving the lawn mower hands free (still at full speed) by pushing on the two steering levers with her knees while she adjusted her headphones. It was hilarious and a total Amber-innovation. 

Jay has been experimenting in the kitchen at lunch time this summer. On Thursday, he made homemade pasta and cheese sauce for lunch, mixing up the flour and egg for the noodles on the flat countertop. He made a huge mess in the kitchen, but after he ate, he said "an hour to cook, and now an hour to clean up!" And he cleaned everything up, even the sticky messy pasta-dough countertop. I suggested that he use a bowl to mix up the pasta dough next time, haha. 

On Friday morning, Jeff drove our 3 kids plus one other runner to run on the river path in the tri cities. The extra runner went home with a friend afterwards, so Jeff took Jay, Rose, and Amber to the Runner's Soul shoe store to replace their tattered running shoes. Amber was in awe at how expensive running shoes are. When they got home, I too was a bit in awe at how expensive it is to buy three kids new running shoes all at the same time! The store owner loves Jeff and our teams, so he gives Jeff a good discount, but even with a discount... cha ching, cha ching! I think running shoes will be sufficient back to school shopping for now.

On Friday afternoon I spent 45 minutes in the kitchen getting everything ready to make jam, and then ran out of energy to actually make the jam! So I put everything away and plan to try again later. It felt like a gift to myself not to push through with something unimportant that could wait. So I watched a k drama and relaxed instead. This is the luxury of summertime.

I made the jam on Saturday, and it was divine. 

Two good men, doing dishes. This sight warms my heart.

When I unfurled my creaking back from hoeing the side flowerbed on Monday morning, I took a minute to soak in the beautiful country morning. This is the view to the west.

This is the view to the east of that cursed side flowerbed. So tranquil.

Later, when I found a stopping point with my hoeing. Next step: dig out all the old landscaping rocks that keep messing up my hoe.

Family game night: Sunnysideopoly, the local cousin of Monopoly. See how only Amber is smiling?

I took this picture while biking along behind the team during the warmup at cross country practice on Thursday.

Jay, mixing up pasta dough on the countertop? He wasn't able to fully explain why he always does this without a bowl.

Our neighbors, the cows, got a delivery of apples this week. They were pretty excited about it. So much moo-ing.

Date walk shadow picture: my fave.

Date peach picking.

Friday morning palm-shredder rowing machine.

The neighbor's goats escaped on Thursday. They were scampering along the fence on the north side of our yard.

Then they took a little nap on the front corner of our grass. I think they ate some of the weeds by the fence, so I forgave them.

After the heat wave broke on Wednesday, we had a cloudy drizzly few hours! It was glorious after two days in triple digits.

Amber, ready to run in her new shoes!

Go Amber! (That yellow speed bump covers the drip line hose that we use to water the fruit trees.)

I sat in our swing and cheered for Amber while she ran laps.

Amber is such an impressive 10 year old!

My Saturday prehensile grip-busting weed management project. That whole side of the shed all the way to the wood posts was shoulder high thick weeds. I piled them all up back there by the random tire on the side of the shed. This is boring stuff, I know, and I forgot to take a before picture, but it feels like I gave the shed a haircut. It is so satisfying to see it all trimmed up.

Our freshly buzzed, weeded shed-yard. Those weeds by the left side of the door were hidden while the door was open. Weeding is never done. It is only paused.

I felt so bedraggled, sweaty, and dirty after my 2 hour battle with the dark side of the shed, but it doesn't really show up in this picture. I had to listen to one of my pump-up workout playlists to face this epic weed battle.

I harvested my first dozen cherry tomatoes of the year! That big sprawl full of yellow flowers is ONE tomato plant. If all of those flowers turn into cherry tomatoes, we will have yet another abundant harvest!

My beautiful raspberry blackberry jam. YUM. Rose says this is her favorite jam ever, and even though I apricot jam still holds my #1 spot, this jam is a very very close second.

I spent all morning outside in overalls, and all afternoon inside in an apron. I am totally embracing our country life!

Amber made herself a fluffy stack of homemade pancakes for dinner on Saturday. She put Hershey's chocolate syrup on them instead of maple syrup. I taught Amber how to test to see if the pan was hot enough to cook pancakes (flick water on it). Ten minutes later, I went into the kitchen and she was reading a book still waiting for the pan to heat up. I looked at the stove, and she had turned on the wrong burner! I laughed and switched burners. Amber is all in with her interests, but she is also very absentminded, which results in amusing oversights.

While Amber was mowing, she stopped, got off the mower, and picked a tiny bouquet of these darling wild daisies from the side of our yard bordering the canal. For a girl who won't even stop the mower to fix her headphones (driving with her knees instead), it was an extra sweet gesture. She always wants to bring flowers and weeds of all sorts into our house, but I tell her I'm allergic to them. When she brought these in, she said "Mom, you aren't allergic to these, are you?" I found her a cute vase.