mish-mash post

1. matt gets four weeks of vacation, and so for the last 5 or 6 years we have taken all four weeks off at once in the month of august. we recognize that this amount of vacation is in many jobs a luxury. as m said to me the other day, "mom, it's really nice that we can go on vacation, because a lot of people don't have enough money to go on vacation, and maybe they want to. right?" i swear i never know what is going to come out of that girl's mouth, but bless her sweet empathetic heart.

we've discovered that in doing it this way that there is something really nice about having a chunk of time to decompress from the daily grind, to ease into vacation and then to prepare to head back into life.  this summer we have spread out the fun- a week in june, a week in july, and now this week and next week in august. in some ways it has been nice to get different chunks of rest, but i also kind of miss the leisure of an entire month with no plans. the fact that we are staycationing this week and next is fun (and cheaper!) 

but we are also here. at our house.

 granted, with lots of fun out of town visitors, but same address as the rest of the year. and somehow washing your dishes and cleaning the house at your own house feels more chore-like and regular life than doing it at another location. so, with over a week to go of staycation, any tips on savoring the moments and not just trying to check off my to do list? any seasoned staycationers out there? 

2. alas, we said goodbye to my brother aaron & his wife sarah as they head on a super fun 4 month trip across the u.s.! they are adventuring far and wide, and started a blog to chronicle their voyage if you want to follow along on their trip! (ahem, finally saaron (sarah + aaron...have you ever spotted saaron in the comments section? they like to joint comment) have joined the blogging world!) a bit of trivia: that makes 4/4 kids in my family who have blogs!

 aaron showing off their ship shape camper with a place for everything and everything in its place.

selfishly i am sad they are galavanting about - mostly because they are really fun neighbors (they lived partway between our house and my mom's house...yep, we were all on the same street!) but i love road trips, and i love driving through this country, so i am so excited for their journey. when matt and i criss-crossed the country 7 years ago we had so many memorable moments, and were able to soak up the diversity of landscapes across the states. i loved it. they would love to hear of places people recommend so if you have a spot somewhere in the u.s. you think they should go, from a hole in the wall restaurant to a national park to a scenic drive to a wacky local experience tell them here!

3. guess what's fun? babies! 

(no, i am not having one.) and guess what else is fun? 

new babies in the family! 

come the end of january, my sister is having a baby! 

that means there is going to be another cousin in the mix. 

so these girls will have to make some room for another little one. 

thrilled for my sister & her husband, and thrilled for us all!

3. this year, august equals visitors for us! "grandma" shelly (to my girls) and mamabear #2 to me and her husband john, both whom i've known for 30(!) years, came to visit for almost two weeks and stayed down the street at my mom's house. it was fun to hang out in person instead of just texting & facebooking with mamabear #2.

other visitors to come? our dear friends kim & jeremy and their boys who we usually vacation in san diego with every summer for the last four years (remember this and this for example?), and our other dear friends , daphne, trevor and their two boys (that is my friend daphne's awesome blog) who now live in michigan.

4. you guys. chickens. we gave my mom her three chickens we'd been caretaking since birth, since she finally got a coop to house hers in! bye, cute girls. our five remaining girls (sweet rose cake, jacob, bathing suit, watermelon, and lolly) are hours of entertainment, especially for ruby our urban farmer:

 aunt becca came to say hi to the girls

 ruby=brave

m=cautious & won't hold them

then???? 

in exciting news around fairfax farm (as i've dubbed our house),

we got our first eggs this weekend!

we should get up to five a day,

but it was pretty fun

to open the nesting boxes and find these: 

here's to many more!