We spend a lot of time in our backyard either tending to the garden or relaxing on the porch.  And most nights, when it's cool enough, we eat dinner out there.  I particularly love the warm, sticky summers we have here, with lightening bugs, honeysuckle, and magnolias everywhere.  But warm and sticky means tons of mosquitos.

Badger is our go-to bug spray, and simply enough the main ingredients are essential oils.  So I'm reading the ingredient list and thinking, if they work in a spray why wouldn't they work in candles?  Thankfully, other people on the internet have already thought of this and worked it all out, so I took what sounded good from different places and came up with these candles.  They seem to work pretty well so far, and they don't leave you stinky like the spray.

DIY Citronella Candles

You will need:

Essential Oils (Citronella, Lemongrass, and Rosemary)

Glass Jars (canning jars work great)

Coated Candle Wicks

Natural Soy Wax 444

Clothespins to clip the wicks in place

Food Thermometer

1. Melt the wax to about 150° in a double boiler (or in a pyrex measuring cup inside of a pot of hot water).

2. Dip the wicks in the hot wax and then affix them to the center of the bottom of each jar.  Use the clothespins to keep the wicks centered to the top.

Step 3. Mix in your essential oils.  Most recipes call for about 1/2 tsp of oil per pound of wax.  I used about that for the citronella, but then added in rosemary and lemongrass oils.  We like the way these smell, so the stronger the better?

Step 4. Once your oils are mixed in, and your wax has cooled to 135° (+/- 5°), you're ready to pour.  After pouring, the wax will cool pretty quickly and may sink a little.  You can top them off as you go.

5. After the wax has cooled, trim the wicks, cover the jars with their lids, and set the candles aside to cure for 24-48 hours before burning.  

 Mosquito-free dinner time!  Plus some extra romantic ambiance ;)

In between multiple bouts of pink eye, stomach viruses, and colds, life lately has been a fun beginning of summer with Elodie.  She's pretty easy to keep entertained since she's literally never experienced summer before.  Everything is new and exciting, which makes it new and exciting for us, too.

Eric has a new study site in the works, so we've spent a lot of time working on logistics for it like buying a boat and getting gear ordered.  We also had the "chore" of going down to the Northern Neck to check out the area and the crew housing for when they're in the field.    Can you really call something this nice a field site?

^ ^Eric watching the osprey nest while Elodie naps^^

^^ Out on a friend's boat scouting for dolphins^^

Our friends Kevin and Lo came for a Memorial Day visit.  It was probably one of the most patriotic Memorial Day weekends I've ever had - we went to both the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum and Arlington Cemetery.  Neither of us had ever been to the cemetery even though we drive past it almost every day.  I was most surprised at how big it is, there are so so many graves.

Otherwise, we've been out and about enjoying the weather with friends, and trying to get Elodie used to playing in water.  She's not so sure about it, especially when it's too cold!

 ^^first ride on an electric horse^^

 ^^making out at the splash pad, she's delicious^^

 ^^"Oh, we're all getting in the pool? Ok I'll get in, too"^^

Cara's neighborhood had a block party and thanks to Anthony we have a family picture!

Everything is blooming right now as DC transitions from the grey, barren winter to it's lush summer.  Spring around here is beautiful.  We got brave and joined the masses on the mall so that Elodie could experience her first Cherry Blossom Festival.

Her dad really knows how to make her smile.

The festival was packed and the metro was crazy.  Elle loved her first metro ride, flirting and smiling with everyone that looked at her.  We didn't end up staying too long, but got a few pictures to prove she was there :)

Meanwhile, the trees in our neighborhood are out of control beautiful.  One neighbor's dogwoods are just gorgeous, so we make sure to go past them on our evening walks.

It's hard to believe that Elle will already be 5 months old this week.   She's getting bigger every day!

We asked for and received two large wall maps for a wedding gift (thank you Andy and Nancy!) with the intention of creating pinned maps of our travels and now, almost two years later, have finally gotten around to it!  yay!  We also have a sad plant.

The guys at home depot were nice enough to cut us pieces of pine to make the frames.  At home I lined them up with the maps to make sure my measurements were right before staining and assembling.

 I then glued cork rolls onto backing, glued the map to the cork, and screwed the backing to the frame.

^^Double checking the sizing before gluing the map to the cork board^^

 Everything magically lined up!

 Once it's finished, we got to do the most fun part of this project - putting the pins on the map.  Purple for places I've been, brown for Eric, and white for places we've been together :)

She makes me smile with my heart :)

Something bittersweet about getting married is knowing that with that person was the last time you would fall in love.  You won't get those butterflies, that crazy early infatuation, it's one of the best parts of living and you won't get to experience it again. You're trading it for something more rewarding, but there's still something sad about the thought.

Then life gives you a wonderful surprise! A head-over-heels, stare into each other's eyes, totally absorbed, shout it from the mountain tops love affair that you never saw coming. 

So now I will return to my love, my valentine, with her gifts of slobbery kisses, sweet baby breath, and constant happy smiles.

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is an Elodie post!

It's winter, and we're home together on maternity leave.  Life lately consists of lots of snuggly naps, hot tea, eating, feeding, picture books, and living room dance parties.  The girls have gotten comfortable with and protective of our newest family member, it's very cute.

Elodie is already eight weeks old.  I'm glad she's getting bigger, my constant worry about her getting sick gets better and better the older she gets, but being eight weeks old also means I only have four more weeks to be home with her.  The meltdowns about returning to work are in full swing.  She is way too tiny to be without her mom all day and it makes no sense to me to work all day just to pay for someone else to take care of my baby.  I've tried to convince Eric to move to Europe multiple times in the last couple of months.  Seriously.

Before Elodie was born, tons of people gave us insider knowledge and advice.  Most of it was complaining about the bad stuff, although we had a few friends share the good.  And some of the bad is true.  Sleep is a little rough in the beginning, your body is wrecked, and you do change a lot of diapers.  That sounded terrible to the pre-baby Katie, but then the baby comes and you honestly just don't care about the bad things.  It's so cool that you just shoved a human out of your body and you both survived, and then you get to take the cutest little human home and play with her all day long.  It's like you got the best Christmas toy of all time, an incredible toy that provides endless entertainment.  And you LOVE them on top of it, more than anything.  It's so oversimplified to say there is just good and bad to having a baby, or to just complain and say it's hard and you're tired.  Maybe it is hard, but it's also wonderful, frustrating, exciting, cool, weird, funny, fascinating, overwhelming, and magical.  It is a trip like you have never been on.

We were staring at E sleeping the other day and I told Eric it's kind of sad that she'll never love us as much as we love her.  He was like, that's not true!  So I asked if he loved his parents as much as he loves Elodie.  Nope.  And we've only known her for 2 months.

I want to throw out there how impressed I am with the female body.  First, you think you're going to pop open like in Alien, but you don't.  Then you think you're going to literally die of pain, but you don't.  Then you think you'll never recover, never look the same.  But, miraculously, you do.  We are programmed to forget the pain of childbirth, otherwise we wouldn't do it again.  I remember asking Eric exactly that during labor, "who would do this AGAIN?!"  Knowing ahead of time that all would eventually be forgotten, I made it a point to journal while in recovery to make sure to have an accurate and detailed account of what went down.  It's a very scary journal entry.  But, yeah, I'd do it again.  Blame biology.  And blame her ridiculous cuteness!!!

 Like these monster feet.  Two pairs.

My "postpartum anxiety" has me convinced she has a fever at all times, so she's half dressed a lot around here.  Being half dressed also makes it easier to kiss that tummy!

 ^^She loves her dad so much^^

 ^^Beautiful baby!^^