Popcorn

Here are my husband and son making popcorn in our new air-pop popcorn maker. Son loves the bouncing action of the popcorn and when he wants us to make popcorn, he says "Popcorn mama!" and moves his hands up and down like popcorn popping! My wonderful husband is looking out the kitchen window - probably spying on the activity in front of the neighbor's house. We are noisier neighbors than one might think.

Carpooling

My husband and I started carpooling to work together when we worked in the same building. It also helped that gas was over $4.00 a gallon at the time. Once gas dropped back down to a semi reasonable price, we continued to carpool. Now we work in different buildings but we still carpool. I drop him off, then I drop our son off at day school and then I go to work. Some of our friends think it is sweet. Some of our friends think it is weird.

I love carpooling. We have some of our best conversations in the car. In the mornings, we are all business at the house. We are trying to get the three of us out the door with all our clothes on, two of the same shoes on the right set of feet, and all the stuff in the car (not on top of the car). It is a wonderful, mostly relaxing time for the family to talk about what is going to be happening during the day (on the way to work) and what happened (on the way home from work). We often have dinner planned out before we get home so there is no staring blankly inside the pantry or refrigerator.

But now my son thinks that Mommy stays in the car all day - from the time I drop him off to the time I pick him up. My mom asked Will the other day what happened during his day. He told her that we dropped Daddy off at work and saw boxcars (my husband works next to an industrial park that uses boxcars for tranport). Then my mom asked him if Mommy when to work. And he said "No, Mommy's car." So apparently he thinks that once I drop him off at school, I just get in my car and stay there until I come and pick him up from school. Funny as a child's mind works.

Morning ride with my boys

My new bike.

When I was pregnant, one of my biggest fears was not being able to sleep-in anymore after the baby came. I know - it is a weird thing to worry about but I think most pregnant women worry about odd things. Now sleeping-in for me was 8am at the latest on a Saturday or Sunday but I'm one of those people that needs every minute of sleep I can get. I also used to fashion myself a "night person" so the thought of being up before 7am was a nightmare for me.

Now my favorite time of day is the morning. Early morning - from 6am to 8am. Especially on the weekends. Don't get me wrong - I would like to be able to sleep until 7:30 and on the rare occasion when that happens, it is bliss. But I like the quiet of the neighborhood and the cooler temperatures. I can relax and not worry about all the household chores that need to be done.

Will in his trailer.

This morning Will was up at 5:30am thanks to the cat. So we were up as well. By 7am we were loading the bikes and heading to North Little Rock to ride the River Trail. The trail is a whole system of bike trails running about 22 miles on the Little Rock and North Little Rock sides of the river. The connecting point is the Big Dam Bridge over Murry Lock and Dam just west of downtown Little Rock. We don't ride over the dam yet so we drive to North Little Rock and ride on that side. Eventually we will be in shape enough to cross the bridge but that will take a lot of riding.

My husband and I bought new bikes this summer and Will rides behind one of us in a little trailer. He can have  his books, toys, and snacks as we ride along and he doesn't get bored. I was against the trailer at first because they are expense and I thought one of those seats behind the rider would be just fine but the guy at the bike shop convenience us that the trailer was better and he was right.

Great Blue Herron

The weather has been so cool here that in the shady spots, I could have had jeans on and not get hot. We saw a white crane and a great blue heron. We saw beautiful bales of hay and hear birds, trains and airplanes. A small flock of Canadian geese flew over at one point. The ride was so lovely. We stopped and took pictures and enjoyed the low humidity. It was a rare treat for an Arkansas August. It was a wonderful 7 mile ride and a great being to a family day.