Summering

 “Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” 

― Henry James

 "Where are you going?" I asked.

She looked up at me, pad of paper under her left arm, a pack on her back, hauling a chair behind her

"out to draw lettuce" she smiled. 

Of course. 

Only in the summer can one sit in the sunshine, 

enjoying the air and the bugs and the pine...

and attempt to capture the beauty of  lettuce. 

The days have been full of hosting family and friends,

 late dinners, warm air, and lately...a bit of crafting.

Trinity and I have started painting peg people, starting with a family of fairies. 

Zac and I are building a little fairy house ... it's been quite a process. Not hard really...just a bit of waiting for wood glue to dry. I can't wait to show it to you.

I've been baking again too ... warm herb breadsticks and vegan enchiladas...this past week blueberry pancakes. I'm not ready for summer to be over, but I'm excited for cinnamon and spice and everything nice about fall. I've been gathering ideas...

The garden seems to be growing "okay." My cucumbers are flowering but the leaves have been turning a bit brown  - I've been researching about Ph this and Ph that and calcium and magnesium and all of the things that our soil needs. Words like "compost tea" and "nitrogen" have become part of my everyday vocabulary. My thumb isn't quite green yet...but it's slowly changing color. I had no idea there was so much science involved in gardening.

There is hope for me yet. 

One other amazingly good thing that has come my way in the last couple of weeks...

I've found a friend.

A sweet, kindred spirit friend that crafts and loves things like acorns and burlap and thrifting.

She made me this lovely "C" for my front door.

I felt like she handed me the moon.

I do love a handmade gift.  

As for me...I've been making a bit of Christmas in July - my love

of "all things felt" has return and I'm on a hoop making mission.

I also discovered Joanne Fabrics.

For some reason, all these years, I thought Joannes only sold material.

 Imagine my surprise when the glass doors parted and my eyes were met with 

colorful yarns and paints and birch rounds.

Twas love at first sight.

I found some lovely navy linen that I have plans for.

It's nice having plans.

There is a cool breeze calling me and a piece of avacado toast just waiting to be enjoyed, 

I leave you now friends.

I hope that your weekend will be full of joy and blessings,

that you will find ways to love others and feel loved by them in return

Happy July weekend.

May the Light find you right where you are.

End of summer...almost! ~musings~

Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.

Hans Christian Andersen 

The weather here in Colorado has been glorious. Early mornings are crisp...a little taste of the soon to be fall weather. The days are sunny, warm,  and I'm noticing...a tad bit shorter. The planner in me is already getting together a list of autumn themed crafts and recipes to make mid September - I'm SO excited for fall this year! 

First of all, I will be turning the big (well, not really so very big) 30 next month. I feel like I have been waiting for 30 my entire life - it has always been my dream age. No more explaining to people why I am in my mid 20's with oodles of children (I had four kids under five by the time I was 26.)

 Yes, now if someone says "wow, you have a lot of kids for your age" I can confidently say "well, I am in my 30's."

 I think 30 is a confident number - it sounds like it knows what it's doing. I feel like 30 likes it's personality and it's hair and it's body type. I'm going to really like being 30. 

 My second reason for being excited for September is that Zac told me to sign up for the women's retreat at our church - last time I was away completely ALONE without either husband or a baby on my hip was almost 11 years ago. I probably wouldn't have been so eager to say "yes" to going if the retreat wasn't going to be hosted at a gorgeous facility in Estes Park. Friends to be made, sleep (if I'm not up laughing and drinking cooca all night), not having to share my food,  and gold aspens are calling my name. I'm completely stoked. 

With that being said, I feel like at least half of the projects I wanted to complete this summer never got done. I never planted flowers in the kids little flower boxes, I have at least 20 crafts that I didn't get around to... several hikes that never got hiked. Lots of things. Maybe that's the problem with lists - you can look back on them and feel bad about what you didn't get accomplished. At the same time, you can look back at all of the things you crossed off and feel pretty terrific. 

I'm choosing to feel terrific. Maybe not everything got done, but I can honestly say that we have been active, we have been pursuing creativity, the kids are learning to work as a team and to help around the house - and we are giving them opportunities to be big. 

I'm letting them make their own food, sweep floors, fold laundry....sand chairs and spray paint them! I'm letting go and in the mean time letting my kids be. It's been pretty wonderful to see all of the things they are capable of doing if they have the opportunity to do them. This summer has been a time of transition for our family. Our last baby became a preschooler, we have found ways to interact and connect with our Brady, Trinity has become an awesome reader and LOVES art...has finally made a few friends and can wash dishes as well as me, clean a room almost better then me - plain and simple...she's a little 6 year old grown up. Tristan has begun "pretend play" with his big sister which is a big step for a child on the spectrum - and most of all, he seems to enjoy it. This is the first season of my life that I actually actually see that my kids are growing up. Even though our littles are still little, I have had a glimpse, a taste, of life with older children. 

I love seeing my littles figure things out. I love seeing ideas "click." I love watching them grow. 

So with the end of August just around the bend, I'm going to squeeze as much as I can out of the remainder of summer. We will use up the flowers, we will be barefoot, we will eat one to many smores and replace meals with cold smoothies. We will play a little longer outside in the evenings, we will feed the birds in our yard, we will try to go for long walks every week (our last walk we found 10 baby toads!) Our littles will climb trees, kick soccer balls, gobble up as many blueberries and grapes as humanly possible....

...and I will start sorting clothes into "too small" piles. I will start collecting warm sweaters and rain boots for 6 pairs of feet. I will buy pumpkin and apples and stock up on hot teas. I will have echinacea ready and elderberry syrup handy. Time will keep ticking on...lists will keep being made and items crossed off - but my goal will remain the same in each season :

to find light in eight blue eyes.

Arsenal in Autumn

  Sunny days in Colorado are glorious for two reasons :
1. There are always new places to explore
2. If it's 60 degrees...it feels like 70 (me likes to be warm...very warm.)

Brady can't handle "walks." They bore him, him feels agitates....he just isn't into them. After about two years of feeling like "my son needs exercise, he needs fresh air...he SHOULD enjoy this because MOST people do" I've finally changed my thinking to "He can get fresh air playing in the backyard, I'll give him extra vitamin D, and he isn't MOST people." So, we will let him sit in the car and read or play the ipad (God bless the iPad) or we will leave him in his room for about a hour or two with the instructions that he needs to stay in his room. Brady is an avid rule follower so he does what he's suppose to do, and he loves texting us while we are gone.
 This allows the rest of the family to get out a little bit more and for my other three kids who adore the outside to run and play without listening to their older brother growl and spit in the background. Win win ....every one's happy. Work with what you have instead of coveting what you can't right? I would love for Brady to love nature walks...I'm a nature lover - I almost cry if I see a tree's reflection in water or light on tall brown grasses - Brady sees something that isn't exciting, and the sun hurts his eyes. That's fine - he is who he is...but I will always be who I am - so sometimes we will just have to do different things. :)

 With all of this being said...I give you my pictures of our family walk at the local nature arsenal. This area is about 10 minutes from our house and is just miles and miles of prairie and has a lake, little bridges hear and there, lots of paths for kids to run down - and the afore mentioned "brown grasses and tree reflections." The top picture is of a grass call "Granny Blue" or something - I loved it. It reminds me of something that a little mouse family would live in ... you know the ones...the mice with the thimble cups and the matchbox beds. So lovely and cozy and homey and the perfect grass.

  Trinity was stoked that the weather was warm enough for a tank top and skirt. This is what I'm saying - 60 degrees but tank tops and skirts totally wearable.

 I wish I could know how old this tree is. Unfortunately the only way for us to know it's actual age is to murder it - not a good option. I like to pretend like I know the age of trees, my kids think I'm cool when I say "Oh yah, that baby was certainly around during the civil war days --- probably even shaded a family moving out west in a covered wagon from time to time. " Who knows, but it sounds good.

 The lake with it's lovely reflections. I wish I could paint - I would bring my easel and little case of oil paints and set up right there on that dock, and paint....

 This. At least I can take pictures. 

“Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”

― Albert Camus

 “A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.” 

― Elbert Hubbard

 Trinity worked on her photography skills (I edited. ) We had to find her a little hill to perch on so that the pictures wasn't just a few of our nostrils (lovely as they may be...no one wants to look up someone else nose.)

 Don't you just love Tristan's little chipmunk face peering out from behind Zac's shoulder....or how about Trin's awesome choppy bangs? We are still in the process of letting them grow. I love it - some people might view this picture as precious little angels - I see mischief. Lots and lots of mischief. Can angels be mischievous? Oh...seems I just answered my own question - never mind.

 More of the lovely plants that make me cry. I know, I know...I have issues. Loveliness just makes me happy.

 And then...a deer - one large deer (well, buck?) I was able to get rather close to him. He stood as still as stone, just watching me inch closer and closer - he never moved a muscle. I was making sure I would be able to run back to the car in case he decided to charge (where hopefully Zac would be ready to video me on his IPhone - just imagine how many "likes" Brady could get if he put THAT on YouTube?!As long as I'm gorged for the sake of love and entertainment...) At the same time, I didn't want to get to close where the poor guy would feel "unprotected" in a nature reserve....so I got my shot and we drove on.

 Isn't it weird looking in the side mirrors as you drive away from somewhere or someone - a clear "past." As in... "wow, those trees were in my past. If I turn around they will be in my future...if I go and stand under it it will be in my present." A girl could make herself positively edgy thinking this way all day "these dishes are behind me right now as I walk towards the dining room table...grr...back to the kitchen for a glass of water, they are no in my 'here and now.' "

And then...Zac with his keen deer spotting eyes found this baby --- unfortunately those tall grasses are in the back ground (as lovely and as eye misting as they may be) so his antlers don't stand out as much as I would have liked in the photo. He was just beautiful...his face all snowy white and his body a muscly grayish brown. He was lovely. And...I don't mind saying...I want a set of white antlers for my wall. Just white. Preferably the "rack" would come from a deer that died of old age, not the hunted variety.

 Seeing a deer makes Zac very happy - seeing an elk makes him happier. There were no elks, but he did get to hug a Koala for free so that's something!

 Then, to finish off our adventure...a tree, loaded with starlings. We had our windows rolled down so that Tristan could feel the "refreshing "(his word for breeze.) The birds were all perched on the bare branches, soaking up sunshine and singing and harmonizing with one another....

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” 

― George Eliot

My thoughts exactly George...they were just too restful for such a lovely autumn day. So....we honked the horn.

And they flew.