Memorial Day

On Memorial Day - we honor those Americans who have fought bravely for our freedom. My own children boast three great-grandfathers who are WWII veterans. One of whom is still with us, class of '38 (blows my mind!).

Those people, those amazing members of our military, have enabled me to have the all-American weekend.

Including, but not limited to:

• pitching a tent in the yard, watching the kids play "camping" all day on Saturday
• strawberry rhubarb pie ala mode (with rhubarb grown and delivered by a sweet neighbor!)
• a fire in the pit, used to roast hot dogs and marshmallows (s'mores, yes please)
• a movie in an air-conditioned theater, with bottomless buttered popcorn and sodas
• planning and dreaming of a family trip to K.C. this summer
• an endless supply of popsicles in the freezer
• church on Sunday and a bucket o' chicken for lunch
• rootbeer floats
• washing cars in the driveway with daddy
• watering, weeding, and growing lettuce, radishes, onions, spinach, and carrots
• a movie at home (with more pie, popsicles, etc) as a family

It's officially summer and we are happy. The kids are obsessed with campers and want to OWN an RV. Talks are in progress about renting one next year and taking a big family road trip.

It's the freedom we have that lets us dream big and enjoy this life. Thank you to each and every person who has given their own time, or their life, for the freedom that allows us all of this.

We will never take this for granted.

THANK YOU.

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Another Photo of the Day

Don't you want to go there? RIGHT NOW?!

This picture is of Inishowen, Ireland. Photograph by Dave Johnston, Your Shot. Photo of the Day by National Geographic continues to be one of my favorite blogs. The photos are so beautiful and I often set ones like this one as my desktop wallpaper. I even put one on my phone. My kids often ask about the photos when they see them on the screen and it has been a great conversation starter. We end up talking about where Italy or Ireland or Iceland is and often have to pull up a map so that they can see it.

[By the way, I'm not paid for this, it's not an advertisement. I just like to share things that I like...that's all.]

I Am 33 Years Old...I Think

I had a dream last night that I COULD NOT remember how old I was. I tried to remember my birthday and subtract the years. I tried to ask people. Nothing worked. I was so confused as to how this could happen, and guessed myself to be somewhere around 38 years old.

It was so strange.

For some reason, I really do feel a bit like that this year. My birthday is in October and this year I will be...34. I had to think about it AGAIN.

Maybe it's because I'm in a strange age range. Not exactly young anymore, but somewhere in between.

I've read a ton of novels this year and have felt this strange disconnect with how old I am while reading. Several books placed the protagonist at a sturdy age of 35. She is successful professionally, but either newly divorced or never married. Looking for love. And finding it. As I was progressing through the book, I realized that I was picturing this woman as OLD. And wondering why she hadn't settled down yet. (Not everyone gets married at 23, Mel, remember that). Then I had this moment of revelation, this character is my age. I could picture her as a friend, a peer. Huh.

Thirty something is just a strange place to be. My friend and I have discussed several times about the challenge of what to wear. No longer wanting the same style we wore in college, but not ready for more mature styles either. My friend laughs when I say it, but I mean it when I tell her that I am excited to be old. I hope that I live to the age when I can happily wear a loose button up and some elastic waisted pants. I want to drink coffee and eat doughnuts before my water aerobics class with my pals. I want to take a bus trip to Wisconsin. I am  going to rock old age.

But for now, I have to figure this time out. This in-between phase.

A good start would be the ability to state my age without having to subtract back to my birth year.
33, 33, 33, 33.
Why can I not remember that?!

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May Flowers

March rolled around and we had a few beautiful days. I got SO excited, we cleared flower beds, prepared soil, got everything ready so that we could plant. I took pictures of the buds on trees and coming out of the ground. I watched things sprouting up, wondering what our yard would look like in the spring. There's something so fun about your first spring in a new house. We had no idea how many plants the previous owners had and we have a ton of landscaping around our yard.

 I watched and I waited. Waited. And waited.

April was COLD. And rainy. Dreary. Cloudy. Snowy.

Where was spring?

FINALLY, this past week, it warmed up. We planted lettuce and carrot seeds in our future veggie garden . We mulched elsewhere and put in some perennials.

I'm happier here than I've ever been. I love being outside and enjoy gardening. I'm weeding, I'm planting...I'm playing in the dirt. It's so great! For the first time in a few years, I put in the effort to get some annuals and enjoy their color, even if it's just for this year.

So this summer there will hopefully be lots of fresh veggies, flowers to arrange and put inside. Butterflies visiting. And birds singing.

Yesterday M and I watched a bright red male bird singing a song that soon attracted a dull colored female. We watched her come to visit and then fly away. We laughed when he quickly followed. "Wait!" We imagined him saying, "Wait for me!". It was one of our favorite episodes of Life, come to life in our own yard.

Spring has sprung and it was so worth the wait!

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FIVE

"You melt my heart." I told him that, just now. "What's melt?" he asks me. I pat my chest and tell him that he makes my heart hurt, I LOVE HIM SO MUCH. Then they were playing a game, they are running away. He actually stopped to make sure I was okay. I pretended to be distraught, and his eye began to water for real, he didn't want to upset me. "I wouldn't really want to leave you", he wanted to make sure that I knew.

And now my baby is five. His birthday was Monday and we're spending a birthday week of family visits and a friend party and cakes and cookies and doughnuts.

I've registered him for school. We've got the kindergarten round up on Friday.

When he was first here, just newborn, we spent 10 tired days sleeping on the couch. I could lean over and lay him in his carrier and he would cry. He just wanted to be right there, up on my chest. I would pseudo-sleep, propped up, so terrified that I would let him slip or fall. I joked to J that he would think his name was Buddy, because I called him my little Buddy. Wherever I go, he goes.

It's been that way a bit this year. We spend hours and hours together. Buddy and me. It's been the perfect, perfect way to spend the year before kindergarten. The bond is solid, he has no question where we stand. If he will allow it, he will be my Buddy for as long as I live.

Sigh.

So he's five. And the years he has spent on earth have been beautiful and wonderful and fantastic.

And the other morning he informed me that herbivores eat only plants and that his eczema is complicated.

Oh the places he will go.


I love you, Buddy. With all of my melted heart.
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Photo of the Day

Photo by Joel Sartore, National Geographic

One of my favorite feeds in my Google Reader is National Geographic Photo of the Day.
Imagine my surprise when the image this morning was from my home state, from right up the road, actually.
It is a sight to see.

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Magic

My B, my beautiful 7-year old daughter, wrote a letter to Santa last week. Yes, it is March. She made sure to immediately clarify to me that it is NOT a request for gifts.

           Dear Santa,

I am B. I am 7 year old and I have a prablum! This is not my Christmas list, My problum is My teacher beleaves in magic but I know kids that do not, I am very comefused!? P.S. I am trying to find the magic (I sill beleave) but I can't find it!? Will you write me back? Love B!

Oh, my heart. Does Santa write her back? Does Santa tell her about magic?


How do I help her to see that SHE IS MAGIC. I hope that someday she'll understand that. The distress all began because she's got friends who do not believe in fairies or Santa or elves. It's obviously caused her a lot of confusion. I remain vague and tell her that someday it will all make perfect sense and that I will explain it all to her in great detail.

And man I hope by then I have the perfect answer for her! Until then, she may need to just receive a form letter from the business office at the North Pole. It seems the sensible option. A child like B needs to be rewarded for her hard work in pursuit of magic and for bringing so much of her own into my life.

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