Home, Briefly

What a month. What. a. month!

It went something like this: Week one, traipse through the snow in Tahoe. (Have you seen the video of my baby snowboarding in Tahoe Donner? Twelve months old and already riding like she’s too cool for school.) Week two, brave an 8,000-mile flight to Vietnam with a baby and sweat buckets in the tropics. Week three, watch my crawling baby turn into a walking toddler while visiting pagodas in Myanmar. Week four, take aforementioned toddler for her first swim in the South China Sea. Week five, come home to the first egg from the new flock (it’s blue!) and a wildly weedy garden.

In fact, I’m too embarrassed to show you what the garden looks like right now, especially after that beautiful tour I posted a few weeks ago. From what I can see out the window, the nasturtiums are all dead, the spring crops have bolted, and the paths, potted plants, and raised beds are all covered with sticky flower droppings from our feijoa tree.

But, some nice surprises as well: tons of tomatoes, a fully leafed-out mulberry tree with handfuls of berries ripening every day, and our fig tree, pomegranate tree, blueberries, and grapevines have never looked better. Fruit game’s going strong this summer!

I have an insane case of jet lag at the moment, made worse by a certain sleep-deprived toddler who loves to wake in the middle of the night for a good two to three hours, babbling and singing to herself like it’s middle of the day. The 14-hour time difference has made the transition back home a challenge, but we’re getting there. I hope.

The new time zone, coupled with her newfound skills, means she’s usually too amped to sleep (day or night) and I can’t say I blame her. There’s so much more to explore when you gain an extra foot in height!

And though I wish we were laying low this Memorial Day weekend, we’re actually on the move again and wrapping up this crazy month with a family wedding in Northern California wine country, followed by a few nights in Bend, Oregon, one of our favorite outdoor playgrounds. Swimming and beer drinking are high on the agenda for me.

I am very much looking forward to June, a month that’s wide open and free from plans! Happy (early) weekend!

(More to see on my Instagram, right over here.)