Thankful

For so many things! 

For this sky!  After no rain all summer to a couple of days of constant gray skies and downpours, we get days of pure beauty.  

That was my view from the balcony yesterday, and it's even better this morning.  

I took an excellent cup of coffee and all my reading material out to sit and enjoy the fresh air, but it was a little too chilly to enjoy long.

My Gratitude Journal and "A Life God Rewards" from Debby to Elise and me."

"Ageless Body, Timeless Mind" by Deepak Chopra.  Both my girls are working on making me more mindful and getting me to meditate and work on some of my fears and anxiety.  Love them, but I'm not sure how much this aging mind can absorb.

Then I have my Southern Living and that perfect cup of coffee.  

Thankful for friends and family who keep on caring about me, although I haven't been too chatty lately.  

For a good 2 weeks of school for this sweetie.

The ducks have a new pond, and I'm not sure who is enjoying it more - the ducks or the kids.

Graysen is hot and exhausted when we pick her up at 3:00.  I guess this is one reason why.

 I don't think she has gotten up the courage to pick up a chicken yet.  

 

BFF Brooklyn has to problem with it though.  You have to wonder how much the chickens and ducks enjoy this togetherness.

Thankful for pumpkin bread and breakfast with friends/family.

Ryan's parents, Mille and Allen, are here for a visit and brought this delicious pumpkin bread.  Elise and I enjoyed it a LOT, and I've heard there is more over on Steller.

The three of us took Graysen to school yesterday morning, so they could get a look at her school and her morning routine.  Then we went to North Bend and had breakfast at Twede's Cafe.  It was nice.  Good conversation and coffee.  We talked about going back for some of their famous cherry pie that is a must for Twin Peaks followers - which is not us.  But it was convenient, and we enjoyed a short walk in the fresh morning air.

Millie rode with me to pick up Graysen after school, and I think she was pretty excited to see both grandmothers there.  I dropped them off and came home.  I have to say I'm enjoying my free time while they're here.

Grandma and Tampa always think of the best surprises.

Katherine is getting used to her school.  She doesn't go in without a few tears every morning, but they are fewer and fewer, and she even told me this week that she wanted to "go play with my friends."  The teachers say she is fine after a few minutes and is very attentive and quiet during stories and participates in songs and activities.

We got to see these beautiful creatures as we drove up to her school last week.  One of them looked right into the car and made us so happy.

Friday is Seahawks Day.

 Mama too!

I'm planning on starting on the girls' quilts again.  It's so easy to put things aside and avoid going back to them.  The fabrics are a joy to work with, so I just need to make myself get started.  I took the squares over to Emily's and let her help me put them in a pleasant pattern.  She took a picture, so now I won't get confused when I start piecing.

I'm working on my life and trying to make the most of it - even if it's not the way I wanted to spend these years.  Mike is constantly in our thoughts and conversations, and we're trying to find the best way of going on without him.  We can finally talk about memories without that debilitating sadness - usually.

First Day of School 2017

Actually, Kate has been in "school" for a month now, but today was the first day of getting them both to school in two different places.  I probably made it harder than I should have, but I had a window of 15 minutes to get Kate delivered and then get Graysen to her school 10-15 minutes away.

They were helpful in getting ready and didn't veto anything suggested even though Kate almost insisted on wearing her rainbow pajamas.

I think Kate thinks she's posing very prettily for me with her boots on the wrong feet.

 They both got to take their lunches in their much-loved lunch boxes.  Owls and butterflies.

 There was just a tiny bit of anxiety from Graysen, not much but enough to catch a few poignant looks.

We parked in the same place as last year but walked up to a different door this time, stopping to watch one of the ducks try to get a little grass from outside the fence.

Right after we saw this, the goat came over and tried to knock over one of the sheep.  Graysen is scared of the goats a little bit, so that didn't help.

Lots of new kids this year but a few of last year's group.  Best friend Brooklyn only goes to afternoon classes, so that was kind of sad until after lunch.

Not absolutely sure of going in this new classroom.

It got better when she found her cubby and put up her boots and lunch box.

Tater was everywhere, seemingly excited about school starting back.  He was probably lonely all summer.

We've been talking about writing her name over the summer, but I never saw her write the whole thing.  But she aced it with that left hand.  I noticed the little girl in front of her was also left-handed.  You can see Tater's signature on the other paper.

Circle time and a whole bunch of new friends.  She was happy but tired when Emily picked her up at the end of the day.  Going all day is a little different for them.

It's snowing ashes

This was at 11 a.m.

We don't have forest fires nearby, but we're getting the smoke and even ashes from Eastern Washington where the fires are so bad.

Elise and I woke up at 5:30 and smelled smoke inside the apartment.  It was as if we has a fire in the next room.  I finally went out on the balcony and saw the pieces of ash falling and smelled it.

We are lucky compared to those folks nearer the fires and the ones in the flooded areas.  We do need some rain though.

We went on to Graysen's first gymnastics class this morning.  She loved it and is in a sweet group of 5 little girls and 1 boy.  She's the one in pink. in the middle.

Graysen told me all about where the ashes are coming from.  "A very baby skunk!  He was playing with 4th of July fireworks."

Summer's End

Just some pictures from this week.

Breakfast on the deck:  Oatmeal with apples and cinnamon toast.

Lunch on the deck with just-pulled-up carrots and lovely tomatoes.

Sweet big girl.  She's sure she can fly if she can just get it right.

A New Year

A new one for me anyway.

I have always thought of the beginning of the year as September instead of January.  Maybe it's those 22 straight years of back-to-school preparation and excitement.  Maybe because it's my birthday month.  I love the beginning of fall, the smell in the air, the color of the sky.  My whole life, September has been a warm to hot month with just a hint of cool weather.  This year, the feeling started last week -- in August.  It's cool in the mornings and cool at night and just fine during the day, so I'm looking forward to a couple of months of enjoyment before the rain and cold come.

In two weeks, Mike will have been gone a year, and I don't think a new year is going to help much.  I still wake up missing him and go to bed missing him, but there are whole chunks of time during the day when I get on with my life and laugh and enjoy things.  I was able to see his mountain with the dark clouds sitting on top of them last night without being sad and just enjoying the beauty.

I think I'm going to make a conscious effort to get out of my sadness and fear of going forward if I can.

Now that Elise is here, I'm enjoying time at home more, cooking, talking, even watching TV, something I didn't do for the past year.  Not that watching TV is anything very enjoyable, but it is getting out of my self-centered rut.  And school starts next week, so I will have 3 middle of the days to do what I want.

I had a moment yesterday afternoon when life just creates the perfect moment, and you know you will remember it for a long time.  Just a simple thing.  A cloudy Thursday afternoon around 5:00 after 8 hours of togetherness with the girls.  Sometimes that's not a good thing when they're hungry or grumpy or I'm tired.  Or all of those.  But that moment was just right.  I was sitting in a chair with a lamp on behind me and my long-awaited book from the library.  Graysen had brought the bag of blocks into the den and left them, planning to come back to build after she "cleaned up the playroom a little bit."  She was doing it very cheerfully, and she and Kate were chatting.  Then Kate came into the den and picked up the bag of blocks and started building.  Possibly a very bad thing.  Sure enough, Graysen came into the den with plans to build and saw Kate with her blocks.   Amazingly, (after a small frown and a glance at me), she just sat down beside her and started her own project.  She then noticed that a piece she wanted to start with was already being used and started to tell me about it.  Kate looked up and said, "Here, Gwacie, you can have the windows."  Wow.  All the hard work and lessons on sharing and loving each other, and here they were making it come true.

If Mike had been there, we would have looked at each other and grinned smugly.

I just opened my book and started reading.

I'm going to try harder this year.