More Swimming, More Okra, and an Ancient Highchair

 

1.) Week two of swim class 

It's week two of swim lessons, and I am just about ready to be DONE. 

I'm happy and impressed with how much the kids have progressed, and I like that they're tired at night now. But I'm having to plan ahead and have a crockpot meal pretty much every night (lessons take place smack dab in the middle of my normal meal prep time), and it's just tiring to load the kids into the car, drive over there, and then wrestle Bitty Baby away from the pool for a half hour every day. 

I am very happy and grateful they have the chance to go. It's something I didn't get to do as a kid. But man...it involves some sacrifice. 

2.) Pickled Okra 

There's a lot of okra now, and I've taken my first foray into pickling it. 

It went ok, I suppose. I under packed the jars, so it was mostly flavored vinegar in there at the end of the process and not as much okra. 

No cracked or broken jars this time though, so I'm claiming it as progress. 

Chris found a local guy via a Facebook group who has a massive garden and cans extensively (as in gallons and gallons of canned produce and probably lives on that over the winter). He said we're welcome to come see his set up and learn some things and I'm going to bring him some okra seeds. I'm not quite sure if we'll ever reach that level of self-reliance with our garden, but I wouldn't mind getting a bit better at it than we are at this point. 

Sequel: much prettier (and better packed!) jars of okra. 

3.) Relic from a bygone age 

This high chair has sat at my grandmother's house for three generations now. 

My dad used it. 

I used it. 

My kids use it. 

Since 1970-something, this stainless steel, welded contraption has been holding babies at the dinner table. 

I just think that's kind of cool, and I'm in awe at the fact that they used to make high chairs out of something that indestructible. Plastic just doesn't hold a candle to it. This high chair was MEANT to last for three generations, dangit. 

4.) Schedule, schedule, schedule 

We're a couple weeks into having all three kids home all day, and so far the schedule has worked for the most part. 

I'm very thankful. 

It's just very gratifying to know that I'm capable of keeping a basic structure to our day. I grew up as the oldest in a house bursting at the seams with kids and with a mom who was dealing with some pretty heavy stuff and was frequently overwhelmed. Somewhere along the line, I formed the impression that once I hit a critical mass of children any semblance of order and routine were going to go out the window. 

Maybe I just haven't hit that critical mass yet, but during the course of my marriage and motherhood I've found that no, I can actually manage things. Not perfectly by any means; I'm constantly having to readjust or recommit (you should see the laundry backlog at the moment). But the time in between lapses are a lot longer than I expected. Some things, like bedtime routine, we've been able to maintain for years. 

That's a big deal to me. I had more or less consigned myself to total chaos by this point. 

Now if I could just teach the kids that my bedroom isn't a common area of the house, we'd be set. 

5.) Sunflowers! 

The sunflowers are still in their full glory, and I'm enjoying them while they're here.