A few of our favorite things

1. Summertime! Bruce and Phoebe have one more week of school left and are counting down the days until vacation. We get a zillion holidays during the school-year, so that combined with the other zillion snow days we had and we have a very late summer vacation.

2. Hampers. Oliver's new favorite trick is to overturn the hamper, throw out all the laundry piece by piece, and then climb in. And just hang out. He doesn't really do much once he's in there. He just sits.

3. Our garden! I am happy to be able to do a little more in the garden this year. Our little plot yields a few tiny ripe strawberries per day, plus a good-sized salad. We have strawberries, herbs, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, a million tomatoes, and a tiny blueberry bush.

4. Running. I recently switched running clubs from the Greater Boston Track Club to the Boston Athletic Association. GBTC practices were across town and increasingly difficult to get to, while the BAA practices are a half-mile from my house. I am getting to practice more reliably and I'm hoping this translates to better fitness at some point. I still feel postpartum lumpiness, but I managed to run a 19:56 in a hilly 5K last weekend (first race since the marathon!). This weekend I'm running a trail 5K that I am really excited about.

5. Minecraft. Every day after school, Bruce speeds through his chores so he can get his 30-minute fix of Minecraft. He builds villages, trades diamonds for cookies (makes sense, right?), battles zombies and dragons, and blows stuff up with TNT. Afterward he tells me all about it. I just nod my head.

6. Everything related to firetrucks. Phoebe is still crushing on firefighters, particularly the ones at the station closest to us. She knows a half-dozen of them by name and regularly tells stories about their firefighting exploits.

7. Scott! We celebrated Father's Day with a manly breakfast, new headlamps, church, and dinner with a radiology friend. Speaking of church and Scott, he got called as the second counselor in the bishopric two months ago. So far it means that he is stressed out a bit more, emails a lot more, disappears on Sundays, and doesn't sit with us in church. Looking on the bright side, he pays more attention in church (since he has to sit up front!), and gets to counsel people and make a difference in their lives.

Saturday

On Saturday morning, Bruce, Phoebe, and I went to an Independence Day carnival. I didn't get any pictures because I was in charge of the "bowling booth," but Bruce spent most of his time in a bounce house and Phoebe hung out with me by the bowling pins. Saturday afternoon was less eventful: laundry, dishes, and cleaning up messes that have been piling up during the week. Phoebe is a fully proficient crawler now: she can get around quickly and even pulls herself up. Yesterday she discovered the washing machine. Not only are front-loading washers eco-friendly, but hypnotic as well.
After a morning of bouncing, bowling, and cake-walking, Bruce built a big fort in the living room and a "Hogwarts castle" out of blocks and Legos in his bedroom. Life is good.But life is better when Scott comes home. Here he is complaining about my insistence on taking a picture of him at the end of a long day. Scott's first week in the hospital has been great. He loves working in the psych ward and comes home with all kinds of wacky stories.