special days

These are special days: when the younger family is up for a visit, when their two little ones sleep over at the farmhouse, when all of us -- both young families -- gather here to play, talk, eat together. As special as it gets.

But I had stayed up way too late and gotten up way too early, so whatever reserves I'm coasting on need to be replenished tonight!

I do have an excuse for all this night time prowling around. After the girls went to sleep, Ed and I studied carefully reviews of e-bikes that you can purchase straight off of Amazon and put together yourself. I mean, if Ed can't put a bike together, then no one can. And he's willing to do it for me. So I agree to buy something online. A less expensive model with good reviews. I come to this decision late. But I dont then retire with any smug satisfaction. I begin to have second thoughts, buyer's remorse, great apprehension. What happens if you get a lemon? What happens if it needs adjustments? I'll have to ask Ed -- again and again and again to fix, tweak, figure out. It's exactly why I sold my old car and finally bought a new one. My guy spent too many hours under that old wreck trying to breathe new life into it. I don't want to saddle him with keeping a cheap e-bike afloat.

So the first thing that happened this morning was that I went on line and cancelled my order. 

The simultaneous thing that happened to me is that  the older Chicago granddaughter was too excited to sleep in this morning. She was up early. And I mean early! Her sister in the pack-and-play slept on, but Primrose was ready to get going before sunrise. 

I finally caved and we went downstairs and we did have a lovely time reading together, doing some art, and finally baking. The world's best blueberry muffins!

Two hours later peach-loving Juniper was up and ready to join us.

I decided we needed a little break from farmhouse play and so the three of us walked over to the playground in the new development.

(heading out)

And just as we return...

(discovering the secret flower path)

... the parents came back from their night out and I began brunch preparations. After snipping off some lilies!

The local young family arrives. The cousins go at it. Art, play, perform, improvise... you name it.

I love having everyone here for Sunday brunch. The house fills with the smells of baked goods and yes, bacon, because all the kids love bacon. There's always some eggy dish. Today there were other meats as well. And cheeses. And home grown tomatoes. And the very popular peaches. And the muffins of course.

A gorgeous set of moments for me!

And the special day had to be commemorated of course with a picture of the cousins, together. Boisterous? Of course!

They did all leave in the early afternoon and that is exceptionally sad, except that I will see them all soon again and, too, I had set myself the task for this afternoon of finding my perfect e-bike. Locally. At a place that will take back a lemon (should I wind up with that) and fix and adjust the bike as needed. In other words, I went to Trek.

Not just one Trek store: I tried the one on the far east side and came away discouraged. But on the west side of town, I struck gold -- a helpful salesman who went over all my questions and concerns so that when I found my most perfect bike, I was ready to commit. 

Alpine Blue is what I'll call it because actually that is its color name. It is being put together as we speak. And it offers quite the smoother ride over the B-Cylce e-bikes. I am so very excited about it!

At home again, the house seems soooo empty! The lingering smells of baked goods and bacon are still there, so deeply satisfying because they remind me of all that took place just hours ago.

All so very very special. To the core.

with love...

overnight

Ed's in the room, trying to gauge if I am asleep and if not, if it's a temporary awakening. Seeing that my eyes are somewhere in their halfway position, he plunks down his Great Idea:

The farmers market opens at 6:15. That's soon. Let's get there now!

Now?

Yes, I'll bike with you!

Bike? Like in pedal over?

Fifteen minutes later, we are on our way: e-bike for me, the regular one for Ed.

(wait, if I'm on the e-bike, why is he ahead?)

And it is grand to be out now, even if it's still a bit nippy and I'm calculating in my head how to fit in lily clipping and house tidying in the few available hours this morning. 

My shopping list is small: cherries, blueberries, flowers. And corn, because it's there, in abundance, from a vendor who really called it well this year -- the family installed irrigation before the big drought took hold.

Home. No time for breakfast! Clean the garden!

And within minutes, the younger family is here!

I haven't seen them I since Paris!

Not much Ocean text for you. And just a few photos.

We linger, eat, play, walk, admire peaches, pick flowers, "ride" the tractor mower, yes, all that, but then the parents are off for an evening and night of excitement (well, musical excitement) while I have an overnight at the farmhouse with the two girls.

What does a grandma do with two little tykes on a hot summer day? Take out the wading pool. True, one girl is too young for it, the other too old, but still, who doesn't like to splash?? Or dump water out of the pool?

And we cook dinner. Pasta, because I am a kid pleaser in my cooking for grandkids.

And then we play, read, and retire for the night. Well, after the older one arm twists me for a movie!

What a beautiful eve it is here at the farmhouse! Hope it's terrific for you as well....

with so much love...

fully charged

Time to tidy up. The house, the bathroom mats, the coffee maker. The dish rack, the porch tables, the scattered stuff that you ignore 95% of the time and hate to look at the remaining 5. Ed laughs that I do this when my younger girl is about to make an appearance. Well, I need some excuse, because we are, otherwise, not motivated. I like neatness. I like tidiness. If I had a cleaning service, I'd be happy to let them wipe the baseboards and dust picture frames weekly. But for me to take the time to do that level of house care routinely -- well, I'd have to be pretty bored with my waking hours to do that. And I'm not bored.

But, daughter is coming and so, as always, I am motivated to at least do some things that I do believe must be attended to on a regular, if infrequent, basis.

Of course, this is after lily plucking. The flower buds are now getting far and few in-between. I doubt I'm hitting 300 anymore. Everything is still very lovely, but the mass of flowers in your face is a thing of the past. In August and September, you concentrate on pockets of beauty. Sometimes one flower at a time.

Breakfast, with coffee from a descaled machine, on the yet to be cleaned porch.

Afterwards, I have my very last meeting with Dave, the physical therapist who has coached me through the knee recovery. I read that in some countries, therapy after knee replacements continues for a whole year, but here, you're pretty much done after three months and honestly, this is fine with me. Dave does some final measurements and comes up beaming: you're now at a full 100% straight and your bend is at 133 degrees! Now don't brag about this to other knee replacement people! Most cant get above 125. 

So here I am, bragging on Ocean? What gives?

Well, the fact is that I don't have super powers and I am kind of on the old side. I got to 133 I'm sure because I did those super dumb and super boring exercises religiously, since I wanted to be able to travel come summer time. So I'm here to motivate you if you're going through a knee change: stay with the therapy plan and keep to your therapeutic window and you will beat the 125 crowd, I'm sure of it!

In the afternoon we have ourselves a bike saga. I am discouraged by the low availability, nay -- the no availability of usable, charged bikes at my local station. I am ready to do the unfathomable (were you to ask for Ed's opinion): to purchase my own e-bike. Ed uses every strategy known to him to rein me in: let's go to the more distant station. You ride over here, I'll ride it back!

Fine. I take the scooter to a more distant station: same problem. What bikes are there are undercharged. I come home and tell him I am for sure thinking of buying my own bike. And this time he agrees that the supply/demand ratio on B-Cycle bikes skews toward the unreliable, unpredictable level. 

I'm ready to look at bikes I've been researching. He offers to go with me, to pull me away from bikes that are not right for me (meaning -- too expensive!). We agree to meet up in the early evening at one of our trusty bikes shops.

But first, I have an event to go to! Snowdrop is finishing the last of her summer programs today (drama: Broadway musicals) and it comes with a performance for parents and sundry others (as always, I am the sundry other!).

It is my favorite of all her camp performances. I am a sucker for children singing in groups -- they bring tears to my eyes! I hear songs that remind us of why we place so much hope in children -- about friendship, hope, about happiness. 

It's truly lovely.

Afterwards, I take the girl out for a treat and a read! We have an hour to kill and we settle ourselves at an ice cream shop just off the Capitol Square. She eats, I read from the book we're totally loving this month ("Firefly Summer"). It's a lovely moment.

And then I drop her at her brother's school and hurry off to meet up with Ed at the bike shop.

Honestly, I see nothing that is just perfect and hits a reasonable price point. Still, they send us to a sister bike store and there I am tempted.

Very tempted.

But I hold off. Too big of a decision. I'll try picking up a swapped B-Cycle a few more times. But I see the writing on the wall. If I continue to be this enthusiastic about biking, I may eventually succumb to having one here. Reliably. Fully charged and ready to go.