this moment {in the downpour}

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!

it's all good

Something has been afoot here.  Some shifts, some stresses, some changes, some serious changes, some summer weeks flying by as if they are rushing towards something unseen.  A friend of mine e-mailed yesterday and described this summer as a doozy.  Yes, oh yes, a doozy indeed. 

As these summer weeks have marched along at a fast clip, I've kept wanting to pause it all and plan our dream list.  Brainstorm the must-do's, make a long list with the kids, think big about how to spend our summer days.  But it seems we haven't spent our summer days, they have spent us.  Now all that is left is making peace with it, that our perfect summer alluded us, alluded me.

But then I remember a moment, or a day, or a special little trip and I realize that added together they have made our summer good.  Not perfect, but good.  In a doozyish kind of way.

So I'm keeping the very long to-do list in perspective, thinking of ways to fully enjoy these last weeks of summer, believing that all of the loose ends will twine together beautifully, and remembering a moment, a day, a special trip.  Because really there have been many...

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!

perfectly perfect

By day's end I realized that the day had been perfect.  Perfectly perfect.  It was not one thing, or even the right combination of things.  It was everything.

The sky.  The sand.  The water.

Cousins.  Always cousins.

Breathing.  Deeply.  Contentedly.

The accomplishment of the high dive.  And going over and over and over again.

Learning a new game.  And winning first place.

Sandcastle building.  And winning first place.

A day that felt like a vacation.  A real vacation (but without the travel and packing.)

A day with many cousins around to lighten the load, and make the deep, contented breathing possible.

Lunch, and later, dinner.  Feasts prepared and brought by my Mama.

The sky and its many colors as hour upon hour passed.

Enjoying the smell of natural water on my skin, in my hair, on all of the kids.

Sand that has smoothed the rough edges, and not just on the bottoms of my feet.

A dock in the deep end to swim to.  Sitting there, talking and laughing with my sister.  I laid down to worship the sun.  Then did back dives off of the side.

Laughter.  And sunscreen.  And watermelon.  And family.  And sky, sand, and water.

Staying until the sun was well into setting.  With kids asleep moments after leaving for home.

Everything summer, perfectly perfect.

this moment

Still a chance to win the latest issue of ART TOGETHER.  Enter here for a chance to win!

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!

this moment {confidence}

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!

the good {and a giveaway}

Zip.

Zip.

Zip.

That is the sound of our summer rushing by.

Zip.  A week.

Zip.  Another week.

I sit here, on the cusp of Independence Day, and grapple with my clumbsy entrance to this summer.  As is life with four kids bursting with energy and intensity and creativity, our summer has started off as a mix.  Some good, some not so good.  Toss in a hefty dose of anxiety about a couple things, and well, that's been these rushing weeks.

So I'm aiming for graceful.  It may be a bit late, and accompanied by the whooshing sound of weeks zipping by, but graceful is what I want my kids to see how summer can be.  The good, and the not so good.

And there has been plenty of good.

Moments of fun, mischief, curiosity, a hometown carnival.  A growing boy in his element

A wonderful afternoon with Annie, a dear friend who is so talented.

So much more good, if I look closely, and slow myself enough to take in these zipping by weeks.

And this.  This is so very good!   

 

This magazine.  Amy is the talented artist behind Amy Hood Arts, and the creator of the Art Together publication.  

Issue 4: Mixed Media/Collage is a journey filled with inspiration, insight, and permission.  Lots of permission to explore and create and discover the beauty of taking many different materials, objects, textures, colors and making art.

Her guidelines are perfectly presented for getting you started, or for helping you delve deeper into the art of mixed media and collage.  The projects vary in scope and time frame, and all can be adjusted for any age - so creating can happen together.  The magazine is full of gorgeous examples, and tons of resources and links.  I love that the projects are flexible enough to make them your own, and bring a playfulness and joy perfect for this time of year.  Take a peek at Issue 4, and check out the beauty to also be found in Issues 1, 2, and 3.

Amy is generously offering one lucky reader a free copy of Art Together, Issue 4.  Enter by leaving a comment below.  A winner will be selected on Friday afternoon, July 11. 

(Congratulations to Kortney - Amy will be sending you your Art Together issue!)

Everyone can also enjoy 20% off of any Art Together purchase with the code: ARTPLAY.

I can't think of a better way of being graceful with these remaining summer weeks.  Slow down, feel the freedom of creating mixed media with my littles.  And maybe even sneaking some time in to create all on my own.

this moment {let summer begin}

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!

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!

weekending

:: reading together in the sun room, just as the morning sun streams in

:: building a putt-putt hole in the woods

:: spending a summer afternoon as it should be, hanging out talking to neighbors as the collective kids whirl around us in play of all sorts

:: starting up a new soccer season, in a new town, at a new field, with new coaches, and new parents

:: ever sighing at how new all of the new is

:: sharing fresh homemade quesidillas and the rare Corona with a dear -- old -- friend

:: devouring the insight of Cheryl Strayed in tiny beautiful things - Advice on love and life from Dear Sugar

:: having two days in a row where coffee was enjoyed by the cup-full, not sip full (can it be?)

:: considering an afternoon at a nearby Greek food festival, or a hike at the national park, or maybe, just maybe, a bit of sewing -- oh it all sounds delightful

Joining Amanda in her ritual of weekending.

these {my summer} moments

I've attempted a couple times to write posts about our summer.  There are such exciting stories to tell and pictures to share.  I've thought about lengthy posts with nitty gritty details of our move to a new home, our week at the beach, Lovey's wedding.  I've considered a quick "postcards" version sharing the highlights of our time in between houses when we stayed with family, or of the first days and weeks trying to establish ourselves in our new community.  I've written sentences and deleted them, I've browsed the thousand plus pictures of this summer.

But a post never quite came together.

Then I realized how hard it is to write about a season of life that has been so difficult.  So very difficult.  Despite all of the goodness, all of the excitement, all of the blessings of our summer -- it has been overwhelmingly hard.

How could I write about summer when in many ways it hasn't seemed like summer at all, certainly not any summer I have known.  Instead it has been a season all its own, delight and surprise, coupled with fatigue and unknown.  As I explained in a comment to Lady Cordelia "I say goodbye to summer, without ever really having said hello."  

And so it is that this past week has been spent saying goodbye to this not-quite-a-summer, and saying hello to new.  New season, new routines, new schools, new friends, new teachers, new bus stops, new places to keep the keys and lunchboxes, new kitchen with new cabinets, new sounds, new smells, new yard and new trees, new playground and new pool, new, new, new.

Yet.

Yet, even in my tipping toward fall, I don't want what has been experienced and learned this summer to be lost.

So I share these {my summer} moments.  Some you will surely recognize for what they are, others may only mean something to me, as it should be.  There are many photos.  Many, many.  The photographic quality of some aren't great, but I don't care, they deserve a place here.  This is my summer, my meaningful moments.  And it is in my sharing that I can embrace this season for what it has been, and say goodbye to summer with much more pleasure and gratitude.

Joining Soulemama, and many others, in this moment.