Goodbye July

Today is the last day of July and I am saddened.  Saying goodbye to July is like ending a Saturday night.  The next day is Sunday....and try as you might to enjoy it, you know that  Monday follows close on its heels.  Tomorrow is August 1st.  And with the dawn of a new day...thoughts turn to back to school and real life...because the start of the school year....and schedules and routines loom large and dark ahead of us. Gone are the carefree days of summer...visions of beaches and sun and barbeques and picnics...and although we still have some summer left, we are now also concerned with details like back to school shopping, returning to college, and jobs and apartment hunting.  As long as July was here, we thought we had time....because it was summer.  But suddenly, as August arrives we are jolted back to reality.

So I bid a fond farewell, to vacations, carefree days at the beach, the promise of endless leisure time, corn on the cob, strawberry shortcake, hot air balloons...and all the other joys of our summer.  I thought we had more time to paint those chairs and take some day trips...but August is here, and we must start planning for the fall.  I will enjoy these last few days of summer but there will be the shadow of reality hanging over them.

"Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language."

~ Henry James

Catching up

Such a fun night catching up with our dear friend Meghan!!  A sweeter soul can not be found anywhere...

"What do you most value in your friends?

Their continued existence."

~ Christopher Hitchens

Growing up

Tonight we were looking through baby pictures...and I was amazed, yet again, at how my little girls have grown up.  Each into their own person, in some ways so very different, and in others so very much alike.  I want always to keep them close, to keep them right here.  But that is not the way life is supposed to go...that is not how it is supposed to be.   All this time, my job has been to raise them to eventually live their own lives....so with some regret...with a large measure of hesitation....I untie the apron strings...and let them fly in the wind.  But I keep that garment on, with those ties ready to be grasped when the winds are rough and one of my babies needs to hold on for a bit before trying their wings once again.

"The best way to keep children at home is to make the home atmosphere pleasant, and let the air out of the tires."

~ Dorothy Parker

Remembering...

I miss these times.  I miss visiting good friends and catching up and laughing and being by the water.  I miss being lulled to sleep by the sounds of the water right outside the window.  I miss my children....who were still children and not adults.  To me...this was always the best part of summer.  There was a peace found in these days spent with those you love by the water.

"Time flows away like the water in the river"

~ Confucius

The journey

I snapped this while driving on a deserted road in the adirondacks this past week.  (Don't try this at home, folks).  I had journeyed quite a distance already that day, and had still quite the journey ahead of me.  I wasn't really anxious about it though.  I was feeling at peace and as relaxed as possible given that I had already traveled 300 miles and had about that much more ahead of me.  I looked around me at the beautiful scenery and I really enjoyed the ride.  I really enjoyed the journey and was less concerned about when and where and how the journey would end.

I wish I could be this way about life's journey, less anxious about what tomorrow will bring, and more able to just enjoy today.

"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."

~ Ernest Hemingway

Game Night

We love getting together with the cousins to play games. I can't think of too much we do in this life that is more fun....and brings us closer together, and makes us laugh and creates memories untold then our game nights.

"Life is more fun if you play games."

~ Roald Dahl

Sunset sky

Yesterday was a long day of driving through the Adirondacks.  I hadn't driven those roads in such a long time and had forgotten how beautiful that part of the world is....or maybe I was just never able to really see and appreciate the beauty before.

"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky."

~  Rabindranath Tagore