What was June made of?

Our June was a bit of a crazy whirlwind, with pockets of calm. That energy is spilling into July.

Here are the components that made it unforgettable:

Singing

Two very special musical events came back into our lives in June- our choir returned to singing with Brit Floyd in Red Rocks Amphitheater, and our Sing a Mile High festival has returned with a tremendous success. It was C’s first festival, she did both rounds, first as a full time festival singer, including overnight stay, and the second as a mass choir singer. D. was an ambassador in first round, and full participant as well as ambassador in the second one. 10 days of intense music and bonding with friends from other choirs for both kids.

2. Postcards of amazingly beautiful places

D. travelled to Yellowstone and Grand Teton with his choir. It was his first time away from home without one of us. His group travelled by bus and saw a lot of pretty amazing things, including bears, volcanos and truly incredible vistas. We missed him a lot, but he had so much fun!

3. Flowers.

I’ve spent a wonderful day at Denver Botanic Gardens with my illustrator friends and being among flowers was a wonderful, restoring feeling.

4. Clouds and rainbows.

One of my favorite things about summer is the enormous thunderheads that appear in the sky most afternoons. An actual thunderstorm may or may not follow, but the show is never dull. And when we do get rain (so so thankful it seems to be at least one each week, even if only a brief one), sometimes we get a rainbow, and sometimes it’s more that one. And often they shine and glow.

5. C’s enthusiasm for her plants. She takes such an amazing care of her container garden! And it thrives. I am so delighted to see her so dedicated to the things that she loves.

I am late with this post as we are fast approaching mid-July, and our summer break is at halfway mark. Somehow the second half of the summer always goes by incredibly fast, but this time I really want to make it linger.

Summer and memories

In a few days I will mark 20 years (and half of my life) in the USA. Of course back in June of 2002 when I stepped off the plane in JFK, I had no idea it was about to become my home.

The first impression of the USA I got was of course New York City. Even though I grew up seeing it on TV, I had no idea it was that big. We took a cab from the airport and it took us a while to find a right address for the student program office. Me and my friends spent the night in the dorms on the campus of Columbia university and I will always remember the view of a tree-lined street from our corner window. The street was so quiet for such a big city with only an odd cry of a passerby here and there.

We were pretty exhausted and hungry, because we didn’t eat since we left Moscow the day before and we went to a little convenience store on the corner. My friends got pizza, but I was too tired and too excited for that, so I opted for a large cup of fruit salad. How different it tasted from what I was used to at home! We didn’t have cantaloupes or honey dew melon where I lived, and come to think of it, fruit salads were not a thing at all. I don’t think I could even finish the whole cup then, but nowadays, every time I have a fruit salad, I think about my first American meal.

The one I had then had watermelon and grapes instead of pineapple and blackberries

It will always be a taste of summer for me, and taste of the beginning of something yet unknown, but very exciting. It’s funny how taste can take one back, better than any picture I could have taken (but didn’t). I bite into a cantaloupe and I am back to New York, sitting criss cross on a dorm bed. And I remember this head spinning anticipation of a summer full of adventure (which it was).

Postcards of Summer 2020

School year starts tomorrow and Summer 2020 is coming to a close for us.

There is no doubt 2020 is the year of confusion, fear and doubt and many face challenges that they don’t know how to deal with.

For our family, all the anxiety about work and schooling aside, was one full of wonderful memories and new discoveries.

My husband being on furlough with one of his employers and on shorter hours with another, despite the financial anxiety, turned out to be the best thing that happened for our family, as he was finally able to spend more time with us and de-stress in the nature. We all realized how wound up we were and how much stress we were carrying inside.

We were on a stricter budget, and due to everything being closed it was easy enough to maintain.

Our choice destinations were open spaces, state parks and, for the first time ever- camping.

Here is what we did this summer:

Mt. Falcon Park

easy and moderate trails, incredible vistas

2. Staunton State Park, this is one of our absolute favorites to visit, it has both easier and harder trails, we love spending time by the creek, but this year we also strolled on the meadow trails.

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3. Maxwell Falls trail. We parked on the lower trailhead and it took us well over 1,5 hours of intense hiking to get to the falls, which were beautiful and refreshing. It is a very busy trail and a popular local spot.Many thanks to my lovely friend Natalia at Raising Gen Eco for recommendation.

5. Roxborough State Park, another favorite of many many years. It’s very close to our house and its stunning beauty never fails to amaze us.

6. Genessee Park, lovely overlook for the bison herd and nearby mountains.

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7. Deer Creek Trailhead in Bailey, CO. We chose that trail randomly, just to see if there’s something new to us and not too far away from our house. We were amazed by the beauty, lovely little waterfalls and pleasant hike.

8. Grand Lake, Shadow Mountain Reservoir and Lake Grandby. A lovely day trip that we had back in July. We didn’t have any plans and just enjoyed time by the water.

9. Golden Gate Canyon State Park, another beautiful spot that we haven’t been to in a while. It was a funny day as we chose a trail that was mislabeled as moderate on the trail app and ended up being actually the hardest, and involved climbing over boulders. But the views were absolutely worth it.

10. Shrine Mountain Pass was one of the most beautiful places we visited this summer, incredible abundance of wildflowers, gorgeous views. A little challenging with the elevation.

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11. One of our most favorite spots this summer was a little swimming hole near Lair O’ the Bear park. Kids loved the little pool of water and the stream.

12. The crown of our summer is no doubt three days we spent on Lake Grandby at Arapahoe Bay Roaring Fork campground. It was our very first time camping and we didn’t know what to expect and ended up having a wonderful time.

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13. As a final hooray for the Summer 2020 was a boat excursion on Chatfield Lake with my husband’s friend from work. The sunset on the water is the whole different level of happiness.

Now we are ready to start our school year. It will be most interesting with D. being a sophomore, and taking all of his classes except Russian at our program. It’s strange not to be his main educator anymore. C. is going into 7th grade and is taking cores at the program with my extended support. Here’s to a good school year!

Goodbye May, Hello June

May is over, June is here. Summer, at last. We are slowing down, trying to sort our thoughts, calm our minds and let our bodies truly rest.

We still had some activities going and there are some ahead of us yet, but it’s nice to know that we can take a step back if it gets unbearable. I was re-evaluating our school year and decided to scale back on activities. Kids loved what they did, I loved watching them try hard and excel, but on the other hand, their schedule took over our life and affected my health. Clocking in 200 miles per week in activities driving alone was difficult for me and I was sick a lot. I also want to have more slow afternoons, more unstructured play time for kids and especially more chances to get out and be in nature. So next year I will lighten up our schedule and combine kids’ activities where I can. I must admit, I do feel guilty about cutting things, but I believe ultimately it will all be for the best.

This past week brought great joy for us– we finally went for a hike (we haven’t been on a proper one since October). Just breathing in all the fresh air, getting our faces washed by gentle spring rain, oh it was a blessing indeed.

Meyer Ranch Park in Conifer, CO

Another lovely outing was in nearby Audubon Center, we enjoyed a wonderful display of Redwing Blackbirds, swallows were going crazy and flying around us on the eye level, the birdsong was incredible.

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Kids are reading with gusto, now that they have all this time. C. re-read “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane” by Kate DiCamillo (maaan, I read the ending when she was done and cried, again). D. is completely immersed in The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. He is done with first three books and halfway through the final, fourth one.

I am re-reading “The Enchanted April” by Elizabeth Von Arnim, probably because it is full of something I’ve been craving desperately- rest and flowers.

Mama makes:

I have made a new keychain out of polymer clay and finally painted an initial letter for my studio upstairs. Very happy with both projects.

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Final summer postcards

We start our school at home on Monday. Summer is still here, but a little bit of autumn too. It was a good summer, full of relaxation and replenishing of energy, we had lovely trips and spend time as a family. Like I have written previously, we consciously chose to spend more time alone with each other. Even on our trip we decided not to meet old friends. Since my husband was so busy this summer, every minute of togetherness became more precious.

There were some struggles too, and challenges this summer, but hopefully we learned more about each other and ourselves, and hopefully they empowered us.

Our August memories:

Golden Hours with the sun against thundery skies

Golden Hours with the sun against stormy skies

that very special birthday trip (a first double digit birthday for D. and a palindrome birthday for me)

the healing power of waves, I can still hear the roar in my ears

amazing colors all around us

many hills were climbed

And at last, when we arrived home, we found out that the tree in front of our house started to change color, and that even though it was in the 80s during the day, the evening wind got colder…

The fall is indeed creeping in. One more day to plan, to lay things out, to prepare for another year of learning together.

Now is good

It’s August tomorrow. My dashboard is preparing for school, countdowns are up, supply lists, clothes and lunches are being discussed it great detail. People are getting ready. We are not there yet. I am grateful for freedom of homeschooling – we can go back in a month as opposed to in two and a half weeks when our school district starts again.

We will continue to enjoy our little moments of gold. It was so simple to allow ourselves to rest well this summer. We enjoyed meeting friends, but also were alone a lot. We learned how precious it is to have alone time. I hope people that didn’t get to see us this summer will understand. We had so many “lucky moments”- pelicans, frogs, going hiking, reading under the tree, listening to the rain and watching clouds.

sparkles on the water under the sun

noticing pretty colors

making little bouquets on a hiking trip

little legs long enough to kick my elbows, but the toes are still tiny

We grew up so much this summer. Kids got more independent, they got taller too. I learned to allow things to myself (this poem helped a lot), the man of the house started a new journey in his career. Two books that fell into my hands talked about the importance of genuine living and basking in the light of present moment. While the concept isn’t new, never before have I felt it to be so imperative to our family’s well being. Maybe it is also because I can physically feel kids growing up so fast and I am not ready to let go. Maybe because the whirlwind wore me out. I want gold moments to last: C. waking me up with kisses, D. sharing his thoughts on Harry Potter, clouds raising when we go up the hill, the cuddles, the warm moments of togetherness. The peace. That is my biggest wish– to be peaceful in my heart. If I learn how to be peaceful, then when the schedules and obligations and necessary activities and chores will start again, I won’t be tired out of my mind, and I won’t feel like my world is spinning and I can barely keep up…Now is good.

Thursday Delights

Life continues to be slow with occasional bursts of activity here in Sunflowerous House. Children are getting a bit impatient to start school again, I am enjoying the fact that I haven’t had to set up an alarm clock for two months now.

Things that made my heart glad lately:

a sudden rainbow on our ceiling

My girl's dancing shadow and she gallops up the path

My girl’s dancing shadow as she gallops up the path

A fragile beauty of dragonfly’s wings (alas, this one was already dead)

Taller than me and proud, and so brillian against the sky's blue

Taller than me and proud, and so brilliant against the sky’s blue

Just a few weeks of summer left. And then the fall will come. I want to hold on to this feeling of being calm and rested. I want to slice our time into larger and neater chunks. Just a few more weeks…