I
This has been a beautiful summer! Lots of sun, lots of rain to cool things back down after the sun, and not a single smoky day so far. Not one! Any time I'm starting to feel like I'm all done with the hot/rainy weather, I remember that Anchorage is under a nasty pall of smoke from forest fires down south, and I'm immediately thankful for our weather again.
II
This is, hands down, simply the best ice cream ever. Even though it's non-dairy! Salted caramel, dark chocolate, and the faintest hint of coconut... mmmmm. Matt disagrees, but none of those things are exactly his favorite; I'm not going to try too hard to convince him of the ontological superiority of my dessert, though. Then I'd have to share!
III
Speaking of sharing desserts, Little Bear is sounding out words well enough now that we can't get away with spelling out desserts around him. He's known i-c-e-c-r-e-a-m for a while, and last night when Matt asked me if I'd made p-i-e, he perked up and asked what kind of pie it was.
IV
Kit is walking and running, still losing her balance and falling over close to half the time, but she walked all the way across the living room several times tonight before she toppled! She prefers to hold onto my finger, though, and if she isn't in the mood to walk on her own when I try to get her to let go, she certainly makes sure I'm aware of her opinion.
V
Her latest all-the-time word is "ba," bath. We spend lots of time running down the hall toward the bathroom with her shouting "ba! ba! ba!", then trying to turn her around and convince her to do something else. Usually, she turns toward the deck door instead and starts asking to go out on the "deh! deh!" It's not very conducive to getting things done! I'm glad she's talking and we can understand her, though. Other words we're hearing: "duh," done (at the table); "mo," more; "wa," water (water bottle); "ma" and "da," mom and dad; "bah," ball; "meh!", amen (while folding her hands).
VI
This doesn't sound like a terribly busy summer so far, does it? Why haven't I been blogging? I've been home with the kids, doing a little school, enjoying the summer, eating ice cream... and packing.
We're moving! After going in ridiculous circles with our lender and the local government, everything finally worked out with the house we made an offer on several months ago, and Matt and I signed the final paperwork yesterday. We're pretty excited! There's a lot of cleaning and packing and cleaning and moving and cleaning to do yet, but very soon we will be in our own house!
As a side note, our sale absolutely would have fallen through without the immense amount of work our realtor put in, meeting with many people at the borough offices—even our lender was strongly encouraging us to forget about this one and look for something else. If you're looking to buy in the Fairbanks/North Pole area, we wholeheartedly recommend Billy at Madden Real Estate.
VII
We're enjoying the challenge of planning a menu around whatever the CSA gives us each week, and it's been great learning to use new vegetables! I can't tell you how happy I was today, though, that I won't have to think too hard about what to do with any of the vegetables I picked up this afternoon: snap peas, pak choi, multicolored carrots, broccoli, kohlrabi, squash, and lettuce. And a bunch of thyme, which didn't make it into the picture somehow. All things that I already know how to use—perfect for what will definitely be a very busy week around here!
I hope that your summer is going well! I'm looking forward to getting back into a more regular cycle of blogging once we are settled into the new house.
