Summer 2012

This summer seems to have been a bit of a bummer for my kids. We started June by moving into our new house. We slept on the floor, on our mattresses, for nearly 2 months until our floors were put in. We were living with stinky old carpet and peeling vinyl floors. We haven't gone anywhere. No trips to the movies, no family vacations. Now we have the pleasure of hardwood and tile and fresh carpets. Walls are still waiting for paint. We've done nothing else of note, it seems. But when I look outside at our beautiful yard I see swim suit clad children running with ice cream sandwiches. Motor scooters buzzing between houses, or pedal free bikes zipping back and forth. My kids are in heaven. They play in the creek almost daily. Searching for fish, water snakes, baby duckies. The neighborhood dogs sniff their way to our back yard and my kids love it. (Even if I don't like it!) It seems crazy that in the middle of urban living we have this oasis of nature. It feels a little like living at Bear Lake or a cabin in the mountains. If you ask my kids if they like this new house they will say they wish they'd never moved...that they miss their friends terribly and that this new house isn't as fun as their old home. But I see a difference in them already. They fearlessly explore. Climb trees. Get dirty. This didn't happen before. Even though there is still so much to do inside our house I feel so contented. It feels like home. And my kids are loving it.

Lilly's good friends. If you look closely you can see chocolate smudged on their faces.

Poor Milton. He's not yet aware that this truly is love to be wrapped tightly in towels and pulled around the yard in a wagon.

Some flowers from my garden.