Summer Potpourri

Well, this is a first for the Stolen by a Bohlen blog. I decided to do a potpourri style post to cover how we’ve been spending the last half of our summer. Completely not my norm, but I have been struggling with writer’s block, developing a new creative outlet, and surviving a pandemic.

I knew I wanted to title this blog post with the word “potpourri.” I have vivid memories as a kid involving potpourri…ya, I think that’s weird too. I remember shopping at Goodwill and Salvation Army a lot with my mum when I was little. I hate how unenjoyable I probably was back then buying second-hand everything. I should really call her tonight and apologize for turning my nose up at her when she was trying so hard with what she had. Gah, brb. 😩

Mum would usually offer a bribe of “if you try on these clothes, you can pick something else out to buy.” For some reason, I would always pick out potpourri. I don’t know why because even back then I knew it smelled like shit. Potpourri literally stands for “putrid smell”…Can you imagine anything worse than second-hand potpourri!? 😂 That sack of spices probably sat in some old lady’s underwear drawer for YEARS before it was donated. In the 80s and 90s, potpourri was part of the designer community and maybe I felt like I would feel less “poor” wearing pre-owned clothes if I had a heart shaped pillow full of dried flowers and herbs in my closet. 🤷‍♀️

Luckily, we’ve upgraded to wax melts that smell like pumpkin waffles and caramel apples these days! :)

We celebrated Tom’s birthday with guns and butterflies. If you’re not a Bohlen, that seems like an odd combination, but it actually made for a great day! Waylin always seems to be at peace when we head over to the range to play with some tannerite. She’s content with such starkly different things: loud guns and soft butterflies. 🦋 Waylin and I grew five painted lady butterflies from tiny caterpillars. It was a pretty exciting ordeal in our household. Even Ben thought it was pretty cool.

We celebrated the 4th of July within the constraints of this pandemic. Although all of the local firework displays were canceled this year, Independence Day was pretty fun! It’s my favorite holiday! 🎇 MIL always has water guns and/or water balloons. Waylin got reeeeal good at the water gun. Check out her “old Western” movie skills:

This was such a good memory! I don’t know where she learned to shoot double guns like a movie star, but here we are! 😁 I was worried we weren’t going to get to see fireworks, but we heard a huge display going on down the road and we all hopped on the truck bed to go check them out! Waylin stayed up the latest she’s ever stayed up!

My brother-in-law’s fiance showed me that something was missing from my bucket list: to get ordained as a minister! Hah! 👰🤵 It’s unreal that I have the power to marry people by just using my voice and a little signature! My BIL’s plans to get married this year got disrupted by this COVID mess, so they opted to get married at his parent’s house, which I think it so sweet and beautiful. They asked me if I would marry them, and I thought they were joking! I think they knew I was juuuust crazy enough to do it…and I did it! I will write another post about that experience, because it was definitely a highlight of my summer!

I chose to put this picture in this potpourri post because it was another favorite memory of mine. Waylin and I spend a lot of time outside during quarantine, because cabin fever is REAL! A simple exploration in the backyard is enough to tie us over. What I love about this picture is that Waylin pointed out that this flower needed a kiss because it was crying and sad. Before she said that, I only saw a wet flower from the rain. We really need more of that perspective in this world, especially now. 😍

We have spent a couple of weekends swimming at BIL’s house! Waylin has grown her confidence in water every single time. We started with a llama floatie, but now she prefers to wade in the water herself! She even started learning how to kick and move her arms to move around in the pool in the direction she wants to go! I always think she’s more brave than the average girl. I try to remind myself that it’s okay if she’s scared of something…she’s not even three! But, then she progresses so fast in developing a skill and I’m back to thinking, “alright…she’s ready for wheelies on a dirt bike now”…😂 Okay, maybe not yet. My mama heart just jumped thinking about when that time comes!

If you were wondering, we are still really into bugs. This summer, I heard that there’s less lightning bugs around and I was low key worried she wouldn’t get to experience the fun of catching them! I was able to find a copy of this picture of me and my sister:

We spent SO MANY days catching lightning bugs at parks while our mum studied for exams. I’m not sure what people around here call them, but we say lightning bugs. I know some people say fireflies. I’m not sure if that’s a location type of thing like soda vs pop (BTW, it’s soda. Ben says pop!) Either way, I’m glad Waylin has had that opportunity to catch them this summer!

My in-laws had the pumpkin patch planted again this year, so we are very excited to pick out our own pumpkins again! They also have another year of honey production from their honey bees which has been cool to see that process! It’s really a family affair as it takes a lot of people to extract, render, and jar the honey!

That brings me to my next adventure: photography! 📷

I don’t consider myself to be a lucky person. I once won a Goo Goo Doll CD off of Q96 by using the pay phone at Sholem pool, but that’s about the extent of my luck. I even called my mum using the “00 it’s magic” toll number trick to tell her about my winnings! Oh, the 90s!

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine posted about a photographer’s giveaway on Instagram for a professional camera. You had to follow all the rules and write about how you would use the camera to create something. I entered and talked about my blog that I’ve been writing for over 5 years to record all of my family’s memories which I eventually turn into coffee table books! I want to be able to remember when I no longer can.

I can’t believe I won! I don’t know what I’m doing or how to truly use it yet, but I do have a pretty model that makes every picture beautiful!

I’ve been spending a lot of my time learning this new craft and not writing blog posts. It’s been really exciting to pour myself into something new. With the podcast on hold for happier times, I feel like this new creative outlet is a really good challenge for me! In the short time since I’ve owned this camera, I have learned that file compression is a b*tch and I don’t know what my editing style is yet. 😭

Every time I pick up the camera, I take better pictures! I just have to keep practicing and stop being scared to post what I create. That’s a total Salfelder complex: If I’m not good at it on the first try, fuck that. 🤪 I don’t know why I am built like that, but as I have gotten older, I realize when my mindset starts to turn towards that totally destructive thought process. Photography is not as easy as clicking a button. I understand why photographers charge so much money now. It’s a really big production to take someone’s pictures.

This is what we’ve been up to lately. I may do one more potpourri post to round out the rest of our summer as I am diving into the world of photography to bring us more content and heck, maybe one of these days I will actually put a picture on my walls in this house! 🤞