hump day nuggets: little bits of the season in photos and words about the last week
I love nights like tonight. The eve of hump day and I am on fire. It was a good week, this last one. I’m looking back and feeling inspired and moved. Things are fitting snugly into my life like a perfectly placed bobby pin. Oh yes there are loose hairs but don’t you know messy buns are SO IN?
August is a wild card in western Montana. It can be so effing hot that your thighs rub together like two greased jello-o molds and it can be so smokey that you taste ash with each inhale. Or, it can be as it is this summer. Fifties at night, occasional thunderstorm, 70s-80s during the day, dry and clear as a good martini.
It’s good to be home.
nuggets.
:: The boulevard garden is bursting. And I haven’t been ticketed or arrested yet. Really, how could one not love squash vines more than dead grass and knapweed?
The girls and I hang out there all the time. Margot chases butterflies and Ruby attempts to eat pine cones, lavender, box elder bugs and anything that is three-dimensional and within reach of her chubby hands.
Oh the joy at Margot’s discovery that the itty seeds she planted are now “carrecks.”
:: We ventured downtown last Friday for a sleepy art walk. Missoulians tend to race to the lakes, rivers and mountains come weekend. This was the first in a while that we were home with minimal plans and so we ambled.
Looked at art and exchanged stories with old friends.
Sat on the steps of the museum that is partly responsible for raising Margot.
Ate burritos on the sidewalk and watched Margot dance.
And, of course, finished it off with ice cream.
:: With all our travels we’ve missed our Sunday family walks. We made up for it last weekend with a stroll long enough for us to talk about end of summer goals, taxes (yep. still haven’t gotten around to it), preschools, haircuts and canning pears inbetween hunting for ducks, counting yellow flowers and explaining how much longer it would take to reach the big, giant blue slide and the little, tiny brown swing.
:: And, I’d like to interrupt these nuggets to talk about sleep. As in, I am getting some! Funny, most people say that last sentence when referring to something else but I am very confident in saying sleep is hotter than sex. I am still up a few times a night but it is only to sing to my sweet potato because Ruby isn’t nursing at night anymore (HOLY SHIT I KNOW). See, last month, Ruby has been sleeping while nursing. As in, all the time. She woke if she came off the boob. This was killing me. It was amazingly hard to break the habit and our method was, for those interested, this: I nursed her to sleep. We moved her out of our bed and into Margot’s room across the hall. When she woke at exactly 12:30, one of us (usually me because my husband lacks opposable thumbs when woken in the middle of the night) would go to her, pick her up and rock her and sing until she fell back to sleep. The first night was horrendous and I channeled every mama in the universe to get me through it. I stood in our living room and swayed and hummed for hours. And, since then, she wakes, I go and say hi leapshin, time to go to sleep and pat her bum for about 10 minutes and that’s it. So my sleep is still interrupted but oh sweet liberation. I get several hours at a time.
If only the world slept like Margot (bug has slept 10 hours a night since day one. no joke.)
:: We met up with friends at Missoula’s water park for adult-only night and holy hell we had the most fun.
:: My work has been very busy in the best way. I hired a seamstress and am looking forward to some exciting growth this next year with both sewing and writing. I will share it all here, of course! On that note, I am currently planning my 2011 blog sponsor schedule. Click here for my readership stats and other info. My rates are affordable and I love to work with small businesses….ideas? E mail me at digthischick@gmail.com.
:: There’s been a lot of dancing.
^Margot’s new signature move: high splits with a severe head shake^
:: And some singing.
:: Gazing.
:: Hugging.
:: And pushing off bedtime just a few more minutes.
I am so thoroughly smitten with all the little day-to-day minutia that adds up to years and lifetimes. The exchanges in between posed photos, the subtle offerings of love from my kids when it feels hard, the sun that faithfully warms my family. Minutia is the bobby pin in my messy bun.
