The Thursday before last, a friend called right as we were headed out the door for speech therapy. She was planning to head to the coast with her girls and wondered if we’d like to meet up. We were going to Florence that morning anyway, but going to the beach with our friends felt so perfect that day we would have been there regardless. The weather turned out to be one of the most gorgeous beach days I’ve ever experienced on the Oregon coast. It was hot (I was even sweating), and there was hardly any wind. There were a few moments there when I felt like I was in Florida. A sand sled was found and some fun rides had (before the owners came to claim it, we thought it had been left), hilarious selfies were taken with only partial faces included, and a sweet beach baby napped in the shade.

Time to chat and catch up can be hard to come by with busy mamas, as you know. Conversations get cut short, distractions pop up everywhere, and sometimes our minds are in so many places at once we can easily lose our train of thought. Know what I mean? That time together was such a gift. I love to surround myself with people who bring out the best in me and I feel so grateful to have people like that in my life. It was the kind of day that was so rejuvenating, I dove into my work the next day with more gusto than I’d felt in a long while. The beautiful day and the ocean magic helped, but mostly the wonderful company.

The next day Bracken wanted to try an experiment. We love to dip leaves in beeswax in the fall and he told me that he wanted to try dipping flowers in beeswax in the spring. We weren’t sure how that would work out, but he was eager to try. I heated up our crock pot of beeswax, he went around the yard collecting flowers, and then he got busy dipping. When the wax was too hot initially it just made the flowers shrivel up with the heat, but once the wax cooled (a small window of time before it wouldn’t work much longer) he was able to dip some flowers and they turned out really neat! Some he dipped in cold water afterwards and that helped too. Bracken brought some of his beeswax flowers to market the next day and gave a few away as gifts.

Jeff did the opening weekend of market by himself while Bracken and I were in Iowa. Bracken and I joined him for the second weekend. We went straight to the farmer’s market for the first strawberries of the season (before they sold out, it happens quick) and they were surprisingly sweet for so early in the year. We also saw zucchini already. (Heated greenhouses are amazing.) I bought some asparagus because it doesn’t matter the cost, we must enjoy some asparagus every spring. I lightly steamed it and every bite was savored. I love asparagus. We ran into our booth neighbor at the farmer’s market and he told me about his family recipe and the horseradish sauce he was going to make. It sounded so good we brought some horseradish root home and Jeff created a recipe. We went nuts over it and there’s hardly any left.

Bracken had been saving up his money to spend at farmer’s market and as we were walking around that morning, he told me “I really feel like I need some flowers today.” We spotted a bouquet of tulips and lilacs and he picked his favorite bundle. I love seeing how happy flowers make him. He ended up picking all the petals off his tulips, drying them in the window, and doing an art project with them. My first inclination was to put them in a vase of water to make them last longer, but he bought them with his own money and they were his to do with what he pleased. And his art project ended up being so cool I was delighted by his creativity. (Plan to share it soon.) I find it funny that on that Thursday we were sweating at the beach and a few days later at the market I had Bracken bundled up in his wool sweater, hat, and cowl. It did warm up that day, though, and we shed our wool.

I found out about the nearby book sale later in the day (that Bracken and I have gone to for two years in a row.) At first I thought I’d skip it this year, but then Bracken and I ended up popping over quickly in the afternoon. The books had been picked over by then (people show up super early for this book sale every year), but I got some large print books for Jeff and some picture books for Bracken. You can spend hardly any money and come away with a box full of books, it’s awesome! By the end of the day we didn’t want to go home, make something for dinner, and eat late. Instead, we decided to swing by Vanilla Jill’s for some soup and ice cream. (Their new vanilla rhubarb jun is incredible, by the way.) What a wonderful way to end the day! It’s great to come home with full bellies and be able to get the tired boy right up to bed. Today Jeff did the market solo. It’s the second time this month he’s done that and it’s not a usual occurrence for us. I don’t like him doing all the setting up and tearing down all by himself, but he insisted. Bracken and I have a full, long town day tomorrow so needed to get caught up at home today. Looking forward to market next weekend, we want some more of those delicious strawberries!