This post falls under the category of “I’m not sure if anyone besides our family and dearest friends will find this entertaining,” but it’s my blog so I’m going for it :) To mark June’s first June, we filmed a short clip of her every day, all month. It’s not the highest quality (everything was filmed on our phones, and some of the clips are blurry!), but I can already tell this little video will be a Thomas family treasure for years to come. She’s already grown so much in just two months! Here’s a peek at our life together, if you’d like to see…

June in June: 2016 from Emily Thomas on Vimeo.

The password is JUNE.

Love love love that little muffin :) Hoping this will be volume one of many!

I am really grateful for August!! It was just a good, good month, starting with our time in Connecticut, which felt slow and relaxed (and now, like it was a long time ago!), and ending with a string of at-home weekends with no big plans (a rarity this summer). June continues to be the most fun thing going, especially now that she’s crawling everywhere and obsessed with pulling up. There’s so much to look forward to in September, too, including more relaxing weekends and more adventures (and potentially welcoming three already-beloved friends + family babies into my life!!).

This verse has been constantly on my mind the past few weeks. Hoping y’all have much to be grateful for this month, too!

Revisiting my goals for August:
Finish our June in June movie (last night! Coming soon to a blog near you :))
Try out a yoga class at the studio near our house
Go to an outdoor concert or movie
Relish our time in Connecticut (post here!)
Read at least one book (Garlic and Sapphires – it was great)
Book accommodations for our camping and Asheville trips (SO excited about camping, and our Asheville Airbnb looks amazing! Lots of fun adventures coming up!)
Master an updo from the Small Things archive
Finish our will

September goals:
— Run once a week (hoping this will be more enjoyable as the weather begins to cool down!)
— Plan well for and enjoy our camping trip
— Add the final layer to June’s nursery so I can call it complete
— Post my guide to the Triangle (have been wanting to do this for ages!!)
— Celebrate our four year wedding anniversary
— Resurrect my nighttime routine now that June is sleeping in the nursery

As a reminder, here are my 2016 guideposts. If you’ve posted your goals somewhere, I’d love to see – or just drop them in the comments!

After a short interlude, I’m back with another Marvelous Mama! And this is a very special one (though aren’t they all): my grandmother, Margaret Ayer. or as I know her, Bang. Bang raised six children (including my Dad, the fourth), on a dairy farm in Connecticut. She is smart, resourceful, funny, lively, and humble. At 90 years old she has more energy than most people my age (which seems like a cliche, but with her it’s actually true), and lives close to her children but in her own house. She is famous for injecting herself into any conversation within earshot. She loves doing crosswords, telling stories, singing camp songs and hymns, being at the Island, and being with her family. She has a loud, gorgeous, generous laugh. I would be thrilled to be just like her when I turn 90.

P.S. Big hugs to my Mom, who went out to the farm, asked Bang my questions in person, and sent me her notes. I’ve paraphrased from there!

Name: Margaret (Peg) Ayer
Occupation: Wow – there have been a lot! I was a Biology major at Mount Holyoke College; I graduated in 1947. Out of college, I was a lab assistant in Dr. Peter’s Diabetes lab at Yale Hospital in New Haven. I met Jack then – he was working at Yale teaching Spanish. In 1949, I began working for the Red Cross in Attleboro, MA as the Executive Director of a local chapter – a very small chapter! Jack and I were married in September 1950. I switched to working for the Department of Children and Families for the state of Connecticut, assessing families that wanted to take in children for foster care, and I worked there until John was born in Nov. 1951. Then I had five more children! As the children got older I began subbing in our town’s school and in other districts – with no training. I also kept busy with church activities and being active on the School Board and Public Health Nursing Board. Around 1967, I taught kindergarten in a nearby town, bringing my youngest daughter with me. I worked there for about ten years, also teaching fifth grade. For two years, I worked for Project LEARN on the team that identified special needs kids, but the funding ran out and the job ended. After that it was back to the Department of Children and Families as a Child Protection Coordinator based at a local hospital.

Bang is in the pink and my Dad is down front in the yellow

Things you collect: Books!
Words to live by: Every day, learn something new, do something kind, and see something beautiful.
Favorite TV show: I don’t watch TV.
What was one of the best things you did to prepare for having kids? Well, we got the necessities together (cradle, clothes, etc.). There were no parenting classes, Lamaze, or anything like that, so that was about it.
Where did you go for parenting advice? Grammy Robbins, my mother-in-law, most often. I also would ask my other friends, and there was an extension (farming) group with other young families. We met once a month and after the farming talk there would be a family/parenting talk by the ladies!

I’m all the way to the right in the sweatshirt!

Best tip for a new parent: Enjoy being a mother.
What is your parenting philosophy? I always tried to encourage good things in my kids. I encouraged them to take advantage of opportunities that would help them grow. Mostly, I tried to ENJOY them — except for the time when John was about four months old and I couldn’t get him to stop crying and I yelled out the door, “If anyone wants this baby, they can have him!”
What is something related to kids you were not at all prepared for? Hmm, probably leaving the hospital – I thought, “these people are crazy for letting me take this baby home!” I was lucky enough to have my mother-in-law next door — she was a wonderful mother-in-law — and she was helpful with the things I wasn’t prepared for.

Classic Bang move – offering direction/telling people what to do :)

Tell us about a few of your favorite family traditions. I loved our Pendleton and Copeland family reunions. And of course, our time at the Island with my two sisters and all of our cousins.
One thing you did differently than your parents: I didn’t make my children take their younger siblings along with them — I always had to take Alice along.
One thing that fell by the wayside and one thing you never compromised on: I had played the viola with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony in Willimantic, but I didn’t get to keep that up. I was also involved with a theater group in Lebanon, and I only kept that up through the first few kids. We always stayed active in our church, and I served on many boards and commissions in town. I was lucky because Jack worked at home!
Favorite books to read with or to your kids: Everything by A.A. Milne, the Just So Stories, and A Child’s Garden of Verses.

My grandfather and my Dad – too cute not to include :)

Thank you, Bang!! We love you.

John and I don’t go on a lot of dates, or we go on dates all the time — depends on how you figure it :) I generally don’t consider going on a hike, heading to a swimming hole, going to a concert or a movie, or even getting dressed up for a fancy dinner as a date. That all just seems like doing life with my husband. Maybe that’s what a date is when you’re married?? Anyway, we recently tried something new, and if you’re looking for a “date” idea, this might be it :)

Last weekend, we decided to do a dessert crawl in downtown Raleigh. We started at 5pm at our favorite patisserie, lucettegrace. Triangle friends, if you haven’t been here, absolutely put it on your list — SO GOOD. We split the Videri Chocolate Cream Pie (dark chocolate cremeux, almond shortbread, brown butter cocoa nib custard) the Blueberries + Cream (vanilla cheesecake, blueberry mousse, pistachio cake, almond cake, blueberry compote), and a citrus agua fresca.

We walked around the block a few times (June was in the stroller!) before heading to our next destination, Bittersweet. Their seasonal peach and blackberry cobbler (with pie crust “fries”!) was a delicious second course.

A few more laps, and we were ready for our last sweet of the evening, at Treat. They have a kiddie scoop that is practically thimble-sized, making it the perfect final stop on our sugar quest (though John opted for two scoops!!).

By 7pm, we were back in the car and headed home to tuck June into bed. Once she was asleep, we ate a small (healthy) dinner. The novelty of eating dessert first, combined with walking Raleigh’s summery streets, made for a fun evening out (and, no babysitter was required).

I’m curious: If you’re in a long-term relationship, what do you consider a “date”? Every fun activity? Maybe an activity that one person plans? Or one that simply has advance planning? Something expensive? Something fancy? I’d love to hear your criteria!