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.

weekending

:: treating myself to a bit of shopping to buy a purse, I've needed a new one since this happened

:: unpacking my hiking boots, and slipping into their comfortable familiarity

:: some woods, some hiking, and a much desired trip to the driving range for boys newly enamored with golf

:: falling in love with this corner of the sun room, especially when it includes a first cup of coffee and a newspaper

:: making our way through this jar of raw honey, the yummiest housewarming present from a sweet friend

:: some scheming for gladsome, it will be oh so good this year!

:: adoring my daughter when she puts her hand to her heart and says that she feels it "beeping"

:: checking most things off of the to do list, yard work, hanging pictures, grocery shopping, last-minute school supplies.  Just about everything except ice cream, its a bit harder with our favorite spot no longer right around the corner.

:: an end of summer cookout with new friends, the gaggle of boys playing until dusk fell and it was time for bed

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!

good things

:: Finding a great spot to rest and talk.

:: A path being made between our front door and the front door across the street -- where four boys live.  Four.  Boys.  Yippee!

:: Colorful lanterns from IKEA.  A burst of color during the day while they solar charge, then a soft colorful glow at night when they automatically light up.  Really cool.

:: The sweet joy of a snowcone machine.  What could be better than ice with some yummy concord grape syrup?

:: The first fall leaf.  With just a bit of cool breeze to remind me that fall isn't far off.

:: An afternoon at the pool.  Those almost-fall breezes keeping us in the water where it felt warmer.

:: A good kind of messy floor.  The kind that shows there has been some great playing going on.

:: gladsome details set and registration open.  Check it out, and join in a great experience!

:: A little hole in the bottom of Robeez.  See it there?  Pal has earned it.  Those shoes were brand new when he started toddling.  He has climbed, walked, danced all the way to needing a new pair.

:: Ginger ale with a pink bendy straw.

:: A dozen roses from my parents.  Lovely thinks they were for her.  They actually were for me, but I'm not telling her.

:: A girl who spent her entire birthday jumping up and down exclaiming "this is the best birthday!"

:: Sploches of paint color on walls throughout the house.  Blues, yellows, green, browns.  Picking colors this time around has been tricky.  I think I will be living with sploches for awhile.

:: New backpacks ready and a bag of school supplies waiting.  Unbelievable that we are on the cusp of the first day of school.

closer to home

It isn't always the unpacking of boxes, painting of walls, or hanging of artwork that makes your house feel more like your home.

Sometimes it is having just the right person come by and stay for awhile that makes it feel that way.

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!

this little girl

With her dresses and soccer cleats.

Her skinned knees, tree climbing, and hiking.

She wears necklaces and Spiderman costumes and boots to the swimming pool.

She pretends that sticks are curling irons and rocks are hats.

She tells me "leaves of three, let it be." Carefully counting leaves and stepping around poison ivy.

She loves nail polish.  And biting her nails.

She makes silly faces, sings silly songs, dances silly dances.

She makes me laugh.  And think.  And love every bit about her.

When she was born I was mesmerized with her girlishness.  I still am.

She captivates most people she meets, and makes friends everywhere she goes.

The day she got a tiara at Target, she wore it out of the store, riding atop the cart, waving the entire time, and hollering out "goodbye, thank you, goodbye, thank you!" Other customers waved back.

She sometimes kicks her brothers, and tells them what to do.  She screams too.

But is the first to notice another's sadness, and easily asks for forgiveness.

She sneaks my chocolate bars, and food off of her baby brother's high chair.  But always shares her ice cream cones.

She dances in public.  And asks me to join her.  I do.  How can I not?  Passersby usually smile.

She holds the hands of mannequins in stores and always wants to know the names of the people who are helping us.

At 18 days old she landed in the ER.  I sang to her as the doctor performed a spinal tap.  I told her she was brave, and tried to be brave myself.

Earlier this year she swallowed a charm off of a necklace, getting it stuck in her throat.  I sang to her as we rode in the ambulance.  I told her she was brave, and tried to be brave myself.

I knew she would be just fine when, as she was wheeled into the ER, she asked the nurse her name.

She shows compassion and courage and curiosity.  Always.

By her being her, she reminds me of the very goodness in being strong, confident, smart, brave, kind, and a good bit sassy.

And that a tutu and tiara are acceptable accessories anywhere.

dispatch from my day {iPhone}

I'm settling in.  Sloooowly.  We've found a bit of rhythm, and have unfound it, and look for it again. 


I am getting used to the amazing view out of my kitchen window.  I have to remind myself daily that this in now where we live.

I've been listening to Kat Edmonson.  Really, what isn't beautiful about her voice?

I've begun baking bread again.  That is a rhythm I can get my head around, for sure.

I've been reminded that it is tricky to take three (not even four!) kids to the doctor's office at the same time. Thankfully I simply have the best (and cutest, ahem) doctor on the planet.

Visiting old chums has brought comfort and a respite from making new friends.

I am now on Twitter.  I kept reading Honey's Twitter stream.  So he signed me up for my own.  I enjoy its bits and pieces of life and laughter throughout the day.  Please let me know if you tweet too, I would love to follow you.  (I'm @bcomingclaudine)

Squirmy is everywhere.  E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E.  Which means I am everywhere too.

So, I'm off.  Squirmy is on the kitchen counter.  See ya.

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!

finding

These days and weeks that I haven't been here in this space, I've instead been finding.

Finding the sunlight.

Finding the right cupboards for the right dishes.

Finding paint colors.

Finding that having double ovens - double ovens - doubles the loaves of bread I can bake at a time.

Finding that moving our family of six has been so, so hard.  So much harder than I ever imagined,  physically and emotionally.

Finding the generosity of family and friends to be a balm.  Reminding me that I am not alone in this world, that there are so many that love and care for us.

Finding gratitude for the sweetness of friends who bring dinner on our first night in our new house.  Dinner, and the sweetest housewarming gift of cleaning supplies and rubber gloves and dish towels.  Almost too pretty to use.

Finding a different system of laundry with a large capacity washer.  Simply cavernous!

Finding special spots.

Finding the courage to make new friends.

Finding new rhythms to our days.  New routes to drive.  New places to go.

Finding our lives feel new is so many ways and trying to live these lives in ways that feel just right.
Finding that by the time my kiddos are asleep on these late summer nights, that I too am sleepy and happily snuggle on the sofa with Honey and Sherlock, instead of unpacking another box.

Finding that I miss being here with you, dear readers.  I will be back, soon.  As I find my days becoming my own again.

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!

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!

1,327

That is the number of photos on my camera.

1,327

I have been without my computer, and photo drive and internet for over four weeks.  Four weeks.

So there are 1,327 photos waiting in this camera.  Waiting to come out.  Waiting patiently to tell their stories of this time in our lives.

Of packing up our home and putting it into storage.

Of the adventures of staying with Honey's family for awhile.

Of getting the keys and beginning to unpack into our new home.  Our new lives, it feels. 

There are bonfires and s'mores in there.  Three different times in three different states.

There is a family wedding.  Lovey's wedding.  She, the flower girl.

There is the beach.  The pool.  The museum.

Firsts on stairs.  Firsts in sand.  Firsts on tree swings.

Many many stories to be told. 

I've missed you.  I've missed you.  Missed you, missed you.  Missedyoumissedyoumissedyou.  Here, and in your spaces.

But just a bit longer, my readers, my friends.  For we are still at the beach.  We are still awaiting internet, but soon. 

For now I have to go snap number 1,328...