November 2- Thunderstorms and My Dad

As I write this we are in the middle of a wonderful thunderstorm!  I am thankful to live in a place where thunderstorms happen!

I am also thankful for my dad.  Before I settled in to write this post I received an email from him.  It was a calendar invite that read this way:

Super Moon

The moon will be closer to the earth on Nov 14th then it will be for the next 20 years!
It's also the closest it's been to earth in my... and your lifetime!

I consider myself a lucky person to have been raised and wholly loved by this guy for the last 40 years. He has always been the kindest, most interesting, loving, curious, hard working, fun loving dad around. We've had so many adventures over the years. One of the things I love most about him is that he's always 100% in. Yesterday, Lucy Face Timed my dad as we drove to soccer. As they talked she asked him where he was. He was pulled over on the side of the road because he was driving when she called. Rather than miss the call, he stopped the car and answered and talked. That was exactly the way he raised me......always, always making time for me. Thanks, Dad!

A year ago in a one of our happy places--Columbia!  

November 1

It's been awhile!  September and October were full of good things.  I wish I'd taken some time to record a few of the happenings in our house.  I suspect November will also be full and so I hope to make more of an effort to find time to record some memories.

November is one of my favorite (maybe my favorite?) months of the year.  Like several Novembers of the past, this year I'll attempt to write my daily gratitudes here.  Of course developing a habit around writing daily will not come easily so we shall see how this goes!

Today, I am thankful for a safe, interesting, fun community of wonderful people in which to raise our girls.  We really love the area we live in.  Every year, Halloween Night is so much fun and really capitalizes on the feeling of community.

Lucy in her second costume of the day.  One costume for school, one costume for trick or treating!

Eleanor and buddies.  This was a fun Halloween to watch unfold for these girls.  They had an idea for a joint costume months ago and laid careful plans and really did all of it themselves.  Halloween is a  big deal for 5th Graders at our elementary school.  These girls have been together since kindergarten so watching them this year was very special.

Finishing homework before heading to a friend's house to watch Harry Potter (for the thousandth time???).  No dressing up or trick or treating for her but it was a great Halloween for her all the same!

5 things

It seems blogging more than once a month is just too much for me.  So, here are 5  things about the last month and our current spot in life!


1.) This girl turned 6

and got her ears pierced, and lost two teeth and seems to have grown a foot.   She is absolutely the cherry on top of this little life of mine.

2.) They started school

7th grade, 5th grade, kindergarten!  These girls are all such good people and hard working students.  Having been a classroom teacher I feel qualified to say...they are a teacher's dream!

3.)  We haven't harvested much from the garden this summer.

Our garden looks nothing like this.  I took this photo in Chicago a few weeks ago....I love gardens and find myself taking photos of those I wish I had!  I like the look of a "working garden" not a garden that's just for show. Alas, this was not the summer of a plentiful working garden for us. And gosh it was about as far from a showy garden as you can get!  We've let everything burn up and go to seed.  It just ended up on the bottom of the list this summer and summer whizzed by so fast!   Some day!

4.) The calendar!  I take a look at the month, I back up to the week, then I close in on tomorrow.  Trying so hard to just be present in the day because these are good, good days.  But, wow.

5.) Blake was in St. Louis this weekend and we had such a great visit!!  We hadn't been together since Spring Break which was entirely too long! 

In progress....

We've traveled north for some time away this week.  

The weather and the lake are perfect.  

Seriously, perfect!  

It's pretty hard not to feel relaxed here.  Again, the weather.  And the lake.  They just beg you to STOP and play. 

"All you need to need to do is deep breath in, slow breath out.  You can do that, mom!"

 Morning yoga with Lucy is especially sweet.   She's the best and so encouraging for those of us who find flexibility challenging.

There is a 1000 piece puzzle that is taking over the dining table...but who cares, we're eating outside because of the beautiful weather!

 Summer Vacation* 2016 is off to a great start!

*Last year this article about a vacation vs. a trip was published.  I read it and laughed because, yes, I've mostly been on what the author considers trips not vacations for the last 13 years.  So don't be fooled by the pictures and my commentary; if you were using the vacation vs. trip checklist this is definitely a trip!  Oh, so much a trip!   It's sprinkled with passive aggressive tweens and hanger and sweat and sunburn and the general mess of being 5 real people.  But with the right eyes and a short memory I couldn't have a more peaceful, happy heart!

Mid Summer Review

June happened and I never took a moment to log anything here.  It was a great month full of summer fun.

A few highlights...

We went camping and it poured!  For hours and hours and hours.  But we still managed to hike and set up a tent and get a fire going (with some help from a friendly neighbor camper with a torch) and play some cards and generally have a terrific time!

Kevin biked from Hermann to Columbia (over 90 miles) on a 90 plus degree day.

We were all awfully glad when he arrived at my dad and Kyra's!  

Emma went on her first mission trip!  It was a really good experience and I'm proud of her for serving others for a week.

We're enjoying our Thursday night Muny tickets.  Music Man is tomorrow night.

Lucy had a great week at zoo camp.  She could spend the rest of the summer at the zoo and be perfectly content!  

There have been more than a couple of trips to the library.

We saw Shakespeare in the park and for the first time in years stayed for the whole show!  It was an excellent production!

Kevin and I celebrated our 16th anniversary in Chicago.  We had a lovely trip!  That "The Best Is Yet To Come" print was hanging in our hotel room and I thought it was just perfect.

And though it was rainy we still had a fun 4th of July weekend!

Now summer can S L O W down!  

Lowering the blade

Two days ago I mowed our yard and it looks like in two days more I'll need to mow again.   Tonight after dinner as I looked into our backyard I said aloud but to no one in particular-

 "Looks like I'm going to need to lower the blade"

Emma responded- " Really mom?  You could just say you need to mow, you don't need to try to be poetic about it"

Oh, I laughed so hard I choked.   This is life with a tween.  If they weren't so funny you'd lose your mind.  But amongst the aggravation there is so much laughter and goodness and it makes a person remember what they like about the world.

And one of the things I really like about the world is summer.  It's been it's normal slightly rocky start but it's just getting better from here, I'm pretty sure just about all of the grumpies have been worked out of our systems!

Almost Summer!

The weather might be calling for hot tea and sweatshirts but the calendar says May and that means we're almost ready for lemonade and swimsuits.  Summer vacation is nearly here!

Our countdown to summer chain only has 8 links left.  Just 7 more mornings of waking up to rush out the door, 21 more lunches to pack, 6 more nights of homework!  I'm feeling giddy just writing that down!  Glorious summer awaits!  The freedom and pace that summer affords seems like sweet slow music to my over scheduled soul. The weeks between Spring Break and the end of the school year are packed.   But June!  Oh, June.  Slow and quiet and full of undiscovered adventure.  The thought of June has gotten me up and on to the next commitment more than once over the last few weeks.