240/365: going for gold
My life has been mostly consumed with home, family, and getting the kids off to a good start this school year. It occurs to me that this sometimes feels like a distraction from “my work”. In reality, though, “this” is not the distraction: it’s the main attraction. “This” is the heart of my life. I can make up anything else that I miss but not the time spent getting to know my kids. It turns out, they are really cool people. I’d hate to miss on that.
Since I have a lot of catching up to do, I decided to break with form and put all my daily photos from our week at the lake into a single post (mainly to spare my email subscribers a total barrage of Terra).
We had a great time, as always. Memories were made, wildlife witnessed, great food consumed. Cold beer, boat rides, fishing, a grand parade. It was pretty much everything you could want from a week at the cabin (except, maybe, another week).
180/365: rocco, nearly 10 months (happy dog)
181/365: goofballs (sawyer & zola on the boat)
182/365: bubbles, side lake 4th of july parade
183/365: wild daisies @ the sand pit
184/365: luna, international wolf center, ely, mn
185/365: bobber, pickerel lake
186/365: birch bark
As parents, we all have our strengths and weaknesses. I’m sure we all dwell on what needs improvement. But it’s a tough job and I think most of us do the best we can. Which is why it’s good to also recognize the things we do best.
For me, one thing I know we’ve done right as parents is nurture Sawyer & Zola’s love & enthusiasm for the outdoors; they may suffer from messy room syndrome but they will never come down with nature deficit disorder!
154/365: zola with caterpillar
I snapped a few shots of Sawyer & Zola yesterday while they were running around by the creek. It’s how I like to see them best – in nature, being happy & free, fully alive & taking it all in. I love the dim reflections in the creek behind them and the play of sunlight on their skin. Mostly I just love them.
Happy Mother’s Day!
128/365 (a): sawyer
128/365 (b): zola
If I know my kids, this is more than a puddle of dandelion threads in a Tonka truck bed; it’s a magical YELLOW potion in progress. It’s hard to number the things we love most about our children, but I’d have to place their boundless imaginations in the Top 5.
116/365: dandelion potion
Our baby girl is seven. As time flies ever faster, I’m reminded to soak up every moment of sweetness.
Happy birthday, dear Zola. May all your wishes come true.
67/365: birthday girl
It was written in the receding line of snow at our neighborhood sledding hill – the last day of sledding for a while. Maybe for the season. With a string of 50 degree days ahead, the world is utterly transformed.
66/365: sledding hill
Today’s post title is also the title of a song by The Head & the Heart. We fell in love with this band after seeing them play live at Festival Palomino last fall.
This mama duck visited the cabin throughout the week with her brood of seven ducklings. So did Brad’s cousins and their kids. On this hot afternoon, when all the kids were in the lake, the ducklings came shockingly close to swimming with our extended brood before Mama gave the signal and they all scuttled away.
184/365: families
We’re back! We spent 10 days at the cabin. I took 975 photographs. Now to get caught up here on the blog…
Before we headed north, we were invited to visit Sawyer’s fort-building camp at Wood Lake Nature Center. We checked out the forts, ate scat cookies and got a live zipline demo!
180/365: sawyer hits the zipline
It’s all about rites of passage this time of year. Graduations, last days of school, weddings. Doors closing and others opening. It’s a bittersweet time.
As a child passing through these milestones, I think it’s mostly sweet. At least, that’s how I remember it. Everything exists in the present moment when you’re kid. You think about things in the future & past, sure. But, really, it comes down to giving all you’ve got to the moment.
155/365: tug of war
avant garden 365 