dreaming

One of the great things about living for so long in such a tiny, poorly made apt. is that the living environment can't get worse. I am pretty sure it would be illegal for us to live in a smaller apt. And it is pretty hard to find a smaller apt. in this neck of the woods anyway. Therefore anywhere we go is up.

Since I passed my test I have allowed myself to dream a bit more. Dreaming in the form of job searching and house hunting. I know how silly it is. We have no money for a down payment and won't for a couple years (and that is assuming we get real-life adult paying jobs next year) and even then, we may have to relocate for Matty's job. Although, if I can make enough and he works part-time to cushion the income from my job, I told him he can become a writer, or something.

The following are just a few homes I have dreamt about. Like I said, anywhere is up. Ideally, the would have more land and be cheaper...

Just down this dirt path is a real life cabin for sale. Can you imagine chickens? A dog? Forts in the woods? And me with a cup of coffee in the morning on the porch? Plus it is nearly 2,000 sq. feet, that is 4 times the size of our apt. and it includes nearly two acres. Also great school district. $224, 000 is almost cheap for around here. Let's be optimistic, okay? Moving on...
This may be sort of jolie/laide (prettyugly)but I have a strange affinity for that gross siding, even though I may want to remove it. This house was built in 1780! Cool, right? It is in the country and right next door to great hiking trails but real close to town. Over 2,000 sq.ft!!! $189,000.
I love a big old, white farmhouse with no bells and whistles.Circa 1813. About an acre. Again, chickens. HUGE. PORCH. GAH.

So, Laura and Mike are you moving here? Ditto for Susan and Mark. Although I am feeling a pang right now for tina and Mark. you guys could move too, ya know...

time for a little bit of braggin'

I think my new glasses jive with my new nerdiness

I just passed a scary math test.

A couple years ago Massachusetts, in recognition that our country's kids are lagging behind most other countries in their math skills, decided to weed out teachers who can't teach math. They made the Mtel Math subtest much harder. It took me almost 4 hours. Yikes. The result? Most prospective elementary teachers have been failing the test and not getting their licenses (70%). So they passed an emergency resolution stating that if you fail within a certain range you can still get your license as long as you pass the test within 6 months.

I passed it the first time!!!! And I have always struggled with math. If this is all I accomplish this summer, I am a happy girl.

We celebrated with some Antonio's Pizza. Did I say I was happy?

pieces of a summer

I know summer is not over yet, but the word "school" is scrawled on the bottom of the current page on our calendar. The end of summer is on my mind.

I tend to measure my summers by the following

books read- this summer I have read the last book in The Millenium Trilogy, Evelina, The Count of Monte Cristo, The help and The Passage, I think I am not missing any.

ice cream cones consumed- only two (not enough), both soft-serve, one too watery the other just right.

variety and number of slices of pie eaten- only one. very. sad. indeed. But, thanks Tina, for the apple pie (with apples picked from her tree, and the perfect sour/sweet ratio). This weekend Matty has promised to make me a peach pie, my second favorite.

lobster rolls consumed- 2, both excellent. Not sure if there are enough lobster rolls in the world to satisfy me.

camping trips, quantity and quality- One great camping trip. We had a second one planned but we can't afford more Cape this summer. Especially with my lobster roll habit.

number of BLTs eaten (ok so food is clearly important to me)- zero. zip. You know what I am doing for the rest of this summer, (remedying this serious omission).

ocean visits- 2. Our family loves us some ocean. There could always be more.

weddings- 1. A beautiful, very emotional Quaker wedding. We have been to quite a few Quaker ceremonies. This was the first one that featured two paper airplanes being thrown in the midst of one of the moments of silence. And, alleluiah, it was not one of my kids.

lakes and ponds visited- 4 . Lakes, Owasco, Cayuga and Wyola, and Puffers Pond, for fishing, barbeques, swimming, stone skipping and general happy-making.

trips sans kiddos- 3. NYCx2 and Home. Sigh.

# of s'mores- When I am eating a s'more my brain momentarily loses function so can't remember this factoid. But I am guessing, 4-5, reasonable.

am i missing anything?

c a m p i n g

Top Ten things to do on a Saturday

Best thing to do on a Saturday?

Besides reading an email that one of your oldest/ dearest friends Finally had that baby!

is to semi-spontaneously go to the Cape for the day. Which is what we did yesterday.

1. Wake up at 5:30, drive 3.5 hours to meet friends at Campground Beach in Eastham. Frolic, read, munch. Enjoy low and high tides. Send someone out to get homemade doughnuts and iced coffee at Hole -in -one bakery just down the road. Ignore scary voices in head and eat doughnut while wearing a bathing suit.

2. Go to Mac's Seafood in Wellfleet. Eat amazing lobster rolls, lobster bisque, fish n chips, onion rings etc. Hit playground next door. Force kids to use potty. Wipe a bit of sand off of them and head home at 7:30 pm to avoid bridge traffic.

3. 11 pm- Carry filthy kids from car and deposit in bed.

A bit crazy? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely.

on the gym

I recently said I would never join a gym. I am not a fan for a number of reasons.

But yesterday I visited one. Because I am a Carlisle and we specialize in hyperbole and we also specialize in full thighs.

Some Reasons Gyms are scary...

I am convinced that flesh eating bacteria is everywhere in a gym. I know that many people don't wipe down those mats. I don't relish the idea of dying or having all the layers of section of my skin trimmed off and wearing a special bacteria-sucking vacuum on my person for a year because I was trying to grow bigger biceps or lose my mummy tummy.

I don't even like walking through a gym. I feel like maybe people are staring at me. Maybe because I am cute or Maybe because they think I waited to long to join a gym. Maybe I don't like walking though a gym because I am waiting for Keanu Reeves to chide me for tripping on a perfectly good floor (which really happened the last time I joined a gym).

The Machines. Who designed them? They terrify me. I got on an elliptical machine and had to pause a moment to remind myself explicitly that there were two enormous pieces of heavy plastic and GOd KNows What Else hovering right around either side of my head. Lean one way just a bit and WHAM, I could be down, in front of all of these toned and fake- tanned gym goers.

In college I fell off a treadmill and my walkman hit me in the face. At least my ipod is light weight.

I am trying a gym out for a week mainly because of the Zumba classes it offers. What is Zumba? I don't really know but it seems to be some sort of latin fusion dance. Latin with a tad of afro and hip hop mixed in. It is FUN. The music is awesome. An hour is painful but quick. So much better than trying to run. And no, I have never taken a latin dance class. I pretty much stink at it. But that's the thing with me and dancing. I am no good but I don't care, it's too much fun. I told myself this and then comforted myself with the thought that I would always plant myself at the back of the class. But then the instructor has us turning around constantly and I can't avoid being in the front occasionally. Halfway through the class I realized that most of the attendees can't copy the instructor anyway, so I felt better.

After this class I felt so happy. And bedtime with the kids was much easier for me (I said in an earlier post that they usually fall asleep quickly but Ez can be a nightmare to get ready).

If Robert Louis Stevenson's mom made him go to bed early in the Summer too, well I rest my case.

Image courtesy of Molly Carlisle

By 8 o'clock on a Summer evening we darken the shades. Turn on a fan. I close the doors, wash up my boys and we read stories. Then it is bed. And once in awhile I can sit on the front porch with my eyes closed and enjoy the silence (coming from my kids at least). The peace. They used to protest. But they fall asleep quickly.

Bed in Summer
by Robert Louis Stevenson

In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people’s feet
Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?