Last night, I worked on a lengthy, picture-laden post written to highlight our first week of June. I finished up around 9:45 and clicked Publish, and nothing happened. Then Blogger ate the post and all my work vanished. I was so frustrated that I gave up and went to bed, and almost said forget it altogether. And then tonight, while I was putting Ellie to bed, I came across this post. Much of it I remember, but so much of it I'd forgotten. Life is just as precious now, and just as hard to grasp, but I don't want to forget it--and if I do, I want to have a place I can go to to remember again. So this verso will be a bit more abbreviated, but here it is all the same: Serrano Family June 2015, Week 1:
Monday, June 1
Each week, the girls clean their bedroom and toy room and are paid a $1 per room allowance for this chore. This week, they also cleaned out several toys they had outgrown or lost interest in and donated them to the local second hand charity in town. They then used the allowance they had earned to order a couple of stuffed animals they'd seen at Barnes and Noble a few weeks before, and today, they came in the mail (thanks, Amazon Prime!). Wolf and Puppy joined us at dinner and on our family walk, and Elaina sleeps with hers every night. (No such love for Puppy with Ellie--nothing, it seems can supplant Piglet's place in her arms.)
 |
| Elaina was howling. Not sure what Ellie was doing :) |
Tuesday, June 2
Tonight, Ellie chose to watch Olivia before bed. As Olivia danced on the screen, Ellie danced on the coffee table.
 |
Wednesday, June 3
Today's work lunch included a stop at 3030 for some coffee and a chat before heading to Sugar for the main event. It was every bit as delicious as it looks.
 |
| mmmmm...... |
My Timehop today was a Facebook status that was so sweet--six years ago today, Josh felt Elaina move for the first time. I was barely showing, and we didn't even know she was a girl yet, and then I blinked and this is what I see. Such a little beauty.
 |
Thursday, June 4
Today, Ellie followed me out to the strawberry patch. While I weeded, she found the one red berry and promptly asked for permission to eat it, which was granted. She then went on to tell me all about how she is "stwabewwy expert" and that when she grows up, she will feature stwawbewwy dishes at her restaurant. And chicken olives (whatever those are).
 |
Friday, June 5
Today we got the pool out for the first time of the season. It was met by the seals of approval of two very happy little girls.
 |
 |
 |
Saturday, June 6
Just about as perfect as summer days get. After relaxing for a bit in the morning, we headed to two farmer's markets in Peoria, and to Su Casa, the Mexican store in what I lovingly refer to as the scary part of Peoria, to get tamales. The farmer's markets were sort of hit or miss; we walked away with some nice pea pods, a bunch of ginormous radishes, and kettle corn, but I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the booth selling avocados. Avocados. In Illinois. With the Kroger sticker still attached. The tamales, however, never disappoint, and today they were no exception.
 |
| This is a sad picture, because all of those lovely tamales are gone... |
After lunch, we let the girls go in the pool again, and Josh made an amazing guacamole while I tried a new, successful recipe for lemon blueberry bread. We spent most of the day outside, all of the day together, ate good food, laughed, and it really couldn't have been much better.
 |
 |
Sunday, June 7
Rain threatened first thing this morning, so after breakfast, I stepped outside to put the girls' pool floaties in the shed so they wouldn't blow away. Elaina decided to help :)
 |
Josh and Ellie followed soon behind, and we watched the storm roll in while Ellie mowed the grass and I hummed "It's Beginning to Rain" and transported myself back to a revival service of my childhood held by the Armstrongs.
 |
| Piglet is a faithful mowing buddy, too |
 |
About five minutes after we came back inside, the skies opened up. Elaina was happy to sit with me and watch the rain, even though a particularly sharp crack of thunder scared us both.
 |
| Watching from inside after we ran screaming and laughing into the house together |
In the afternoon, the girls were content to play by themselves, so Josh and I took the opportunity to lay down and pretend to nap. Yuna joined us, and she was in no hurry to get down, evidenced by the look she kept giving me when I nudged her with my foot.
 |
| You're not gonna make me get down, are you? |
After quite some time, we noticed the girls were exceptionally quiet and came out to find them like this.
 |
It was a good weekend, and a good start to June. Keep up the good work, summer!
 |
