Anya has been out of school now for about two weeks, and we are both still alive. Yay! Her school had an awesome end-of-the-year celebration. Students, staff, and families gathered outside for parting words, thank yous, and a great song summing up the year.

After that, we had a potluck lunch (mason jars of fresh milk, ice cream sundaes, watermelon, and lots of other yummy treats), and then playtime! There were water balloons for the big kids and shower poofs dipped in water for the little kids (and for me!). Tons of paper airplanes. Frisbees, balls, running, yelling. Art projects to look at and student-authored books to read.

Leading into summer break, I was a bit nervous about being with Anya 24/7 for the first time. Silly me forgetting about my part-time job. Anya is back hanging out with her old buddies at T’s house a few hours a week while I play with numbers mostly uninterrupted in a nice, quiet place. So, my nervousness was mostly unwarranted. Still there is the wailing that fills the house at least a few times a day. (And that’s not mentioning the kid.)

Aside from hanging at T’s and at work, we’ve been going to the library and the post office and buying chicken food and swinging on swings and taking multiple baths a day and baking a cake from scratch and watching cartoons and playing with dolls and rocks and pulling chicken tails and reading so we can get prizes from the library and napping and painting and asking lots and lots of questions. We also went blueberry picking.

I’ve gone a few times in years past to pick berries with friends, but this was the first year I felt Anya was old enough to go to, and it was also the first year Andy realized his need to make blueberry wine. We got there right around opening time at 7am on a Saturday (!??!?!!?). I think we left around 9:30, 18 pounds of blueberries heavier. When we first weighed in, we only had 17, and Andy wanted 15 for his wine, so I sent him back to get another pound for pancakes and muffins and pie. Doesn’t he look sad having had to pick that one last pound? I think he was jealous that Anya and I sat around eating corn flakes and watching chickens while we waited for him.

The garden is starting to produce. I’ve picked two cucumbers so far, and there are teeny tomatoes on some of the plants. Every day for the last week or so, we’ve been getting raspberries…mostly from the wild plants but some from the berry bed. There is lettuce. (Wait, are we supposed to be eating that?) I’m very proud that the garden areas I planted are being maintained. Yeah, I didn’t get as much area cleared or as much planted as I wanted, but at least the stuff I did clear/plant is doing well. (Except for the pees. And the carrots. And the radishes. Radishes are gross anyhow.)

We bought 10 feeder goldfish and threw them in the pond. Will they survive? Who knows. We go look for them and once in a while see a flash of orange.

And finally, the summer has brought ticks. Teeny, tiny, wee, itty bitty ticks. They look like a speck of black pepper. I’ve found three (two on me, one on Anya) in the last two days. The only consolation is that they are so tiny that they aren’t quite as creepy as the bigger ticks. Still, on the other hand, because they are smaller, they are harder to notice and more likely to dig in for the long haul, which provides more possibility for Lyme’s disease. STUPID TICKS. I think I need a shower.