What's the What ...

I haven't been a total slacker. Although I haven't been hanging around these parts much, June and July were busy, and mostly fulfilling. Only moderate patches of deep anxiety and the occasional freak-out.

Soccer continued until mid-June, which was so much fun for all of us. Although The Young Man was the one huffing and puffing around the field (not really, he never seemed to tire!), we all enjoyed going to the practices and games to watch and support him. It did make me realize that we hadn't really been dedicating any significant time to plain old family relaxing. Although I would say that we make our little family unit central to our lives, it was so good for us to have to sit for an hour or so and not be doing anything else. Well, obviously Miles was up to something, but even then, he was the focus of the rest of the family. For the two months of soccer, we were a friendlier, more relaxed, and more connected family.

The end of June brought a lovely visit from my mother, including her little dog Chloe, an out-sized rescued Pomeranian. Ten days of Grandma time spoiled the kids! We picked strawberries, finished off the school year, and celebrated Miles' sixth birthday a few days early.


July 2nd was his big day, although somehow he's managed to stretch it out so that he has his two best buds from school joining him tomorrow for a friends' birthday hang-out. No big party this year, as it just didn't fit into our schedule, and I wanted to head off some of the birthday frenzy at the pass.

Amongst all of this, the garden is somehow thriving, although deer, bunnies and a certain groundhog that may just prompt me to finally learn how to shoot have all taken a toll. If we ever get some warm weather, we'll be swimming in tomatoes. Until then kale, peas, beets and beans are all doing very well. (The chard just tries to hide from the varmints).

And joy of joys, I am knitting again. A few modifications to daily life have reduced the pain in my wrists, and soccer gave me great swaths of (mostly) uninterrupted knitting time. I've revived my Ravelry account (dhautaniemi, if you'd like to find me), and although I'm a bit stalled on a boring bit of an exciting project, I'm pretty happy with my progress.

How could I almost forget?! There was also a crazy wonderful day with my Dad, youngest brother, and Miles at the Watkins Glen Indy Car race. It was Miles' first race, and while it wasn't the most exciting race ever, it wasn't dull. Motorsports ... yum.


Other parts of life have been less positive and more stressful, but I'm not going to devote more time than I already have to those bits.

I hope I still have a few readers, and that all is well for you and yours.