this moment

Joining Soulemama, and many others, in this moment. 

In Amanda's words: "A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

Please link to your moment too -- I love to see what you are enjoying this week!

Wishing you a weekend full of grace and goodness!

happies

i am going to write this post all lower case.  it's not any literary device i'm attempting -- unless a keyboard with a bum shift key counts.  i don't think it does.  since shift doesn't work, i can't put in any exclamation points, or parenthesis for that matter.  [here i would normally type egads exclamation point, but can't.]  and just to give the full picture of this keyboard situation, only half of the keys i am typing are appearing on the screen, and i have to back up the cursor and retype the letter very, very hard.  so i am pounding the keys, sounding a bit like a mad typist.

i am not.

actually i have quite a bit of the happies here.  happies because i am taking it day by day and am not allowing for anything else.  no boxes packed yet [egads again.]  instead the to do list has things like end-of-year teacher presents, baking for a bridal shower tea, thank you notes, play dates, more play dates, sending a box of boy clothes to a friend and soccer games. 

you might say i am in total denial that i need to have this very full, very cozy house packed up in two weeks.  that. just. might. be. it.  maybe.

my rational is that as soon as the first box is packed, then upheaval will begin.  i am willing to wait it out and condense the upheaval to an intense short period of time.

thus, the playdates.  and the spontaneous trip to the park, following the tractor that had ambled down our road, and watching it rake the baseball fields. 

all happies, i tell you.  so many to share.  in no particular order. 

the house in our neighborhood with the most amazing gardens.  we walk there almost every day and lovey pretends that the front walk is her castle.

there is even a 'secret garden' that winds behind the garage.  perfect for little ones to walk into a magical space.

bluths.  there is always money in the banana stand.

a hand-picked bouquet.

a boy who, with such diligence, learned to ride his bicycle.  nothing better than to hear shouts of 'i did it.' [that would have several exclamation points, and likely all caps too.]

spinning in fancy dresses with your oldest cousin.  as she gets ready to leave for prom.

and being made to feel special...not at all like a little cousin.

pink heart cut out cookies in a crystal bowl that has been in the family a long time.

and ice cream on the front stoop.

the first rose of the summer.   i look forward to it every year.  i will miss it when we move.

new sparkly shoes.  lovey chose red.  she calls them pink.  you go girl.

that curl.  he woke up with it.  it lasted all day.

blue sky days.  and a glimpse of the moon too.

barry white on the car radio.  honey and i choreographed a dance to 'my first, my last, my everything' for our wedding.  i can't help but smile when i hear any of barry's songs.  what fun.

seeing something that makes you smile and say 'you don't see that everyday.'  we laughed a long time about this.

this moment {lovey on prom night}

Joining Soulemama, and many others, in this moment. 

In Amanda's words: "A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

Please link to your moment too -- I love to see what you are enjoying this week!

Wishing you a weekend full of grace and goodness!

taking good care

One day last week, shortly after we bought a new box of band-aids at Target, I went upstairs and found this.

It seems that Lovey was quite busy taking care of every doll and animal she could get her hands on.  Every one.

She is a compassionate girl, that Lovely.  I would want her around when I needed a bit of taking good care.

And she sure can make her way through a  box of band-aids.  An entire box.

this moment {baking}

Joining Soulemama, and many others, in this moment. 

In Amanda's words: "A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

Please link to your moment too -- I love to see what you are enjoying this week!

Wishing you a weekend full of grace and goodness!

around here

For as much as is going on around here these days, it is slow making it to this space.  Its been a full week.  To-Dos being done.  Making way for more To-Dos.  I am trying not to get ahead of myself.

Packing.  Not started.

Plans for our "in-between houses" time.  Not worrying.

Wrapping up one school year.  Day by day.

Planning for next school year.  Little by little.

Instead I've been leisurely enjoying soccer games, spending hours wrapping up PTA commitments, discovering Sherlock, thanks to Honey.

I haven't been trading my todays for my tomorrows.  I've been sinking into what is right before me.  Walks around the neighborhood, stopping to chat with neighbors (and help mow their lawn.)  Play dates at the playground.  Making cookies and baking bread.  Noticing Pal's confidence in every move he makes.

And of course more Bluthing.  In anticipation of May 26th.

My mantra is bird by bird.  From the incomparable and amazing Anne Lamott:
"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he'd had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, "Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.” (Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life)


Not that I'm denying the hard work ahead these next several weeks.  Followed by the loooong time of transition and the challenges and discomfort that will come alongside so much change.  Oh no, I know it is all on its way.  I'm simply setting it aside for now, keeping comfortable in my present known.  Happily around here.

this moment

Joining Soulemama, and many others, in this moment. 

In Amanda's words: "A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

Please link to your moment too -- I love to see what you are enjoying this week!

Wishing you a weekend full of grace and goodness!

green

It became green over the weekend.

Full-fledged, trees bursting with color, as green as the day is long, green.  I've spent my time looking around in amazement.  Charmed that today looks so different from a week ago.  That the windows are open and I can hear the neighborhood.  That even with the tell-tale signs of pollen - truly a complete dusting every morning - that the air feels fresh.

I realize spring comes every year, that I've experienced this particular transition of season 42 times.  But the green, this green, is simply stunning to my senses this time around. 

Though my senses are heightened these days.  With anticipation for a new home.  With end-of-the-school-year rituals and celebrations.  With knowledge that much work lies ahead (though nothing could rival my nesting list our moving list has already been started.)  With understanding of bittersweet goodbyes to people and places that will come all too soon.

I received this text from Honey last Friday.

We are a bit further along in knowing exactly to where we will be moving, though there are still several big pieces to fall into place before we actually have keys in hand.  But into place they will fall.  I know.

Meanwhile I will look at the green around me, seeing it as perhaps Pal does.  Fully.

while we wait

Baking.
Soccering.
Iced coffeeing.
Doctor Whoing.
Bluthing.
Dandelioning.
Sparkley shoeing.
Playgrounding.
(These are all real words, trust me, I looked them up.)

Seems busy hands, and busy bodies, help best to pass the time while we wait.  Wait, day after day after day, for word.  Word about the house we will be living in come summertime.  And likely for decades to come.

This is not your run-of-the-mill waiting.  Not quite like the anticipation of a birth when you have a pretty good idea of the outcome.  A baby, by a no later than date.

Nope, buying a house is a different kind of waiting.  Less predictable, less pleasurable, more wrenching.  I am sorry, dear reader, for the ad nasueum.

Nausea indeed I say.

So we are keeping busy hands and busy bodies to counter the anticipation (and frankly mama-grumpiness) of waiting for that good-news phone call from the realtor.