When we first got Anya’s playhouse, she couldn’t swing on her own unless she was on her tummy on the swing. One day, though, she figured out a method and a little chant to get her going. She would say and do, “Step by step, SWING!” Over, and over, and over. Now at the end of the summer, she is a real pro and has worn an impressive spot in the grass. Not only does she swing but she does tricks, “Momma! Look at my trick!” She points her toes on one foot and tucks the other foot back, or she swings at an angle, or she does a little wiggle.

As summer comes to an end, the gardens are also finishing up. I remembered to get a few photos of the sunflower garden before it went kerput. (It’s now rather a mess.) This garden wasn’t quite what I (or the book I read) planned, but most of the seeds didn’t grow or were eaten, and the morning glories didn’t bloom until their weight pulled the taller plants to the ground. Still, it was fun, Anya got a kick out of it, the bees and birds were fed, and we will definitely try again next year.

The cherry tomatoes (volunteers) went nuts, and we have a few gallons in the freezer. The chickens perhaps ate more of these than we have. Anya discovered the birds’ love for the tasty treats, and I had to watch her or she’d have fed them all to the girls. I was a bit concerned about the chickens overeating, but after a while they seemed to have enough and went in search of bugs.

Alas, our bigger tomatoes didn’t do so well. We do have two vigorous plants still plugging along and toting HUGE tomatoes, but who knows if they will ripen in time. I got quite a few cucumbers, too, before the dry weather demolished them. A couple dozen tomatillos and some almost ripe Dragon Peppers round out the harvest for the summer. I wanted to plant fall crops, but I don’t think that is going to happen. We do want to plant garlic at least.

The blueberry wine Andy started at the beginning of the summer found its way into bottles this evening. I asked him if it was good and he said, “Yeah, I think so!” The blackberry wine is in the works. Or, rather, it is in a vat in the kitchen, and the place smells like sour fruit. (Or maybe that is the compost bin.)

I keep thinking of things I want to write down and not forget, but then I forget:

• Like how Anya has recently started matching words. “Grass and Green! They sound together!” Sometimes the words rhyme, sometimes they start with the same sound, and sometimes they have the same or similar meanings. “Radio and CD! They sound together!”
• When we are driving along, she’ll suddenly shout out, “HEY!” And I say, “Hm?” And she says, “HEY!” And I say, “Yes?” And she says, “LOOK! HAY!” I love how hey and hay sound together.
• Babies. Anya is all about the babies. She has half a dozen or more dolls/stuffed animals that she carries around the house, lines up in bed, takes in the car. Yesterday we ran errands, and not only did she bring a baby, but she also needed the baby’s stoller. And her pink poodle handbag (Anya’s, not the baby’s). Anya’s love of babies does not stop with toys; she talks often of her baby cousin. Last week, she got to talk to her cousin on Skype or a Skype-like product, and likes to tell about how “…and then my baby cousin barfed!”
• When you ask her to do something (that she wants to do) she may say, “Of course!” Or perhaps, “My pleasure!”
• Anya is a top class chicken wrangler. Once she learned to pick them up and carry them, they didn’t have a chance. She loves to chase them and pick them up and move them around and herd them into their house at night. She’s even been pooped on once; sort of surprising it hasn’t happened more often.
• She picks out all her clothes and loves to ask, “Who made this?” (See picture below for awesome Anya outfit.)
• And she is a great problem solver. She couldn’t fit all her babies into her stroller, so check out the picture below to see how she worked that one out. (Yes, those are her rain boots.)

Summer is good, but it is almost over.

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.