148

Dean has been eager to do some of his own gardening, and got under way by filling two large outdoor containers and claiming a section of the hill out back.


A photo a day over at Chicken Blog, too.

Nothing waits

Our peonies bloom and then, in only a day or two, they are done and their petals scatter. We adore them, and understand that we must be vigilant and quick if we're going to see them on their glorious day. I love that I can spy a bud just coming out in the morning and then by the end of the day see the full-blown result.

Summer's coming just as quickly.

Dean will be graduated from 8th grade in 15 days.  He has school on only 5 of those days!  There's a hiking trip up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire next week, and parent-teacher conferences and, oh, field day (a day of fun and games) so really that's 4 days of school.  And then, if I'm counting correctly, 80 days of summer to relish.

Ready or not, here we come.

I want to be sure that in the insanity of moving we don't lose sight of making sure we make the summer count, that we carve out time for mini golf and ice cream and, because I'm free to dream, a trip to the beach.  I wonder if it will make sense to put the badminton net up on the lawn.  Probably not.  Maybe at the new house?  Sleeping in -- we can definitely try to do some of that.  And this really should be the year we go to the drive-in theater that's not too far from here, before we're too far from here.

What I realize is that while time is always whooshing by, there are certain points (big impending life changes and milestones being major ones) that make me so much more acutely aware of how there really is no slowing it down and that it's going too fast.  No turning back, just holding on tight and trying to enjoy the ride. Or, better, throwing your hands in the air and laughing all the way.

Accepting

Long days spent just hanging out, thinking just a little about what to do next. I'd like to be on the water, or near the water; silly that we can live about 50 miles from the coast and still have that be so difficult to achieve. (Of course the real problem is that EVERYONE wants to be near the water at this time of year.)

Dean appreciates the lack of motion, of time spent driving, of having a time that we have to be somewhere. He's been waiting for this part of summer when he's home. So I'm trying to sit back and enjoy it, too. Taking it for what it is and not wringing my hands over what could be.

While I'm here, I'll mention that I highly recommend Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet; on the one hand, a somewhat predictable story. On the other hand, so entirely refreshing to read about someone's life story that's manageable, understandable, imaginable -- and eye-opening to read an account of the internment of the Japanese during WWII.

A Summer's ABC

Let's see how this goes.

A is for airline; Dean and I started our summer by flying down to southern Missouri to visit my brother and his wife.
B is for Bass Pro Shops -- like the LL Bean of the midwest, only bigger. Much, much bigger.

C is for cavern -- we drove to Fifty-Six, Arkansas (yup, that's the name of the town -- and we had to drive through Flippin, Arkansas, to get there -- seriously) to visit Blanchard Springs Caverns. One of the most staggeringly beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. If you ever get the chance, go.

And so onward we go.

Everything changes

It's a constant process -- trying to figure out where you are, trying to decide where you are going and the best way to get there. I miss writing here, but a lack of clarity about my purpose and direction have left me wondering what to write about, how much to say. I have mixed feelings now about what I've been sharing and with whom; I know from my journeys in blogland that this is a common enough struggle but the weight of it hadn't quite hit me before.

In the meantime, I am adoring the feeling of summer's beginning. I'm not tired of sunshine nor of birdsong and only wish for more strains of music from ice cream trucks. I am tired of firecrackers at all hours on any given night, but that's not dimming my enthusiasm overall very much. I'm making lists and researching festivals and hoping to squeeze out every drop from these long days (work notwithstanding).

Memory

Without any great sense of purpose or schedule, I've been slowly, erratically working my way through the few boxes of my mother's things that have landed here with me.

Just now, I came across this photograph -- me, at about age 8 or so? -- taken at the beach that was in walking distance from our house. We spent too many summer days there to count, cooling off and rinsing off sand on the way home by walking through the sprinklers set up to give little city patches of grass some relief from the summer sun.

I don't remember ever seeing this photo before. My parents, both photographers, were very casual with drawers full of photos primarily taken by my mom with the film developed and the photos printed by my dad. This one is, so typically, just a contact proof, printed by laying the negative right on top of the photo paper. Not chosen to be printed individually, not balanced for exposure, not even with all the dust blown off (I've cleaned it up in PS just a little).

It makes me smile to think that spring is coming, and after that, summer. Maybe we'll get to the beach this year.

Through rose-colored glasses

Only the happiest memories from 2010.

January

Piano recital

Several trips to the aquarium so that Dean could complete seahorse observations for a research report (although of course we visited all our favorite exhibits)...

Lunch out, just me and Dean. These opportunities have always been wonderful, but they became even more of a pleasure this year as we had new kinds of conversations -- more grown up, as I think about it. So this is all about embracing the changes as they come, and reveling in what is.

February

More time at the aquarium

and oysters for my birthday.

March
The welcomed return of green, growing things in New England, and the discovery in our own front yard
of a wonderful tree for climbing.

April
How exciting to wake up on a day that is BOTH Easter and your birthday!



May
Participating in a piano competition was a first (here's the warm-up before heading to the theater),
as was landing a major (singing!) role in the school play (he was the Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland, and his *legs* had roles to play as well -- I was quite delighted with being able to design and execute a costume that worked!).

Soccer season got underway in earnest,

and he had his second school trip to The Farm School for the better part of a week.
Also a return to Dean's favorite fundraiser, his annual participation in the Walk for Paws.

June
We had a truly spectacular spring this year, and another lovely piano recital.

July

World Cup!Dean went on a hiking trip in New Hampshire with a group from school, and came back forever changed by the experience -- the goal of all great adventures, I believe.

Dean and I made a trip out to Chicago, where I joined a group of classmates from elementary school for an impromptu, casual reunion (my favorite kind); the ongoing contact with this group has been wonderful for me.
And we spent time with family -- my brother Chris, his daughter-in-law Erin, and our favorite first cousins (or something -- Chris' grandsons) Noah and Caleb.

Noah

Caleb

A special wedding in New Hampshire -- our niece Hallie,

to her new husband Shaun. Couldn't have been a lovelier day, a more beautiful bride, a more perfect way to gather with extended family and friends.

August
We even got to see my other brother, Tony, and his wife Carol this year; Dean and I took them on a waterfall expedition to New Hampshire, and we
spent some time in Boston as well. Seeing this much of my family in one year is extraordinary, although my goal would be to make it standard procedure.

We celebrated Ken's birthday with mini-golf and

cupcakes!

And took opportunities to see a Major League Soccer game as well as
Ovo, a traveling Cirque du Soliel extravaganza.

September
We did a pretty good job getting out into our local woods to hike and for Dean to have

lessons in stone-skipping (a skill fairly well mastered!).

Of course September always means back to school,

and this year it also meant a class expedition to the White Mountains in New Hampshire.

(a whole different look getting off the bus than there was getting on).

We hit LegoFest in Boston; not the most amazing event we've ever been to but really -- Legos -- what more does a boy need?

October
Although we could have used more rain during the summer, this review makes me appreciate how much gorgeous weather we had, and how our plans were really never hampered by weather -- kind of remarkable for New England. We spent a day in Newburyport, Massachusetts, to hook up with the newlyweds

Hallie and Shaun for a late lunch.

And of course the all-important selecting and carving of pumpkins, and the

annual Halloween Parade at school.

November
Oh, hurray for Disney World! Hurray for sunshine and theme parks and nothing else to do but decide what to ride next and whether or not to watch a parade.

Feeding the dolphins at SeaWorld.

(In case you were wondering why we keep going back there.)

I was the first guest to step foot in the Magic Kingdom on this particular day, and it filled me with joy -- an unreasonable amount, even -- to be there, to be that person, to have that moment.

Another opportunity to get together with family, and we learned on this day that Hallie and Shaun are expecting a baby next June!

December
We had ourselves a merry little Christmas!


And a fairly silly new year's eve, spent watching How to Train Your Dragon (highly recommended!),
and watching the ball drop in Times Square because we're Americans and it's what we do!

A toast, to realizing that you can always choose to look back and see only the good stuff and to looking ahead to what surely will be an even happier year.