ending of summer & welcoming the last bits

 

I’m finding, and maybe you are too, that as things slowly start to close, I want to clutch them ever more tightly.

So this coming of August, this welcoming of the big Minnesota heat waves before the autumn really begins, this time makes me nostalgic for the summer that already was, and the one that I’m still living right now! It’s a little ridiculous but that’s where I am.

It was a summer of slowness, relaxed afternoons and quiet evenings, mid-day flurries at the pool & tennis courts, lots of chipotle & Mac & Cheese for dinner. Not at the same time, mind you. It was a summer of me not feeling 100% and adjusting life accordingly. #notpregnant #autoimmuneissues

Our sweet summer sitter goes back to college soon and the kids will miss her and her bribes with gum, ever so greatly.

We had an epic Costco trip where I only had three of the four kids, only had one kid rip off half my toe nail because he’s got slow feet and everyone was helping push the cart, and then while we all rallied ’round inside the bathroom stall because no one is old enough to be left outside the bathroom with the enormous cart, someone wasn’t done going yet before someone else flung open the stall door and while both someones shall remain nameless, I was less traumatized than I thought I would be while she sobbed her little heart out over the siblings’ correction.

I snuck away for a surprise trip to NYC to see my sister and bro-in-law’s newest venture, CENA!, a delicious taco joint in Brooklyn, and to visit their beach house. Our oldest girl came with me so the one-on-one time with her was a gift, too.

Our baby (sobs, not a baby)–toddler–moved out of her closet nursery into her sister’s room. We feel like it’s a whole new world wherein we can talk in a normal voice with the lights on in our own bedroom for the first time in years, and set up a little work/writing den in that windowed closet (a walk past on the way to our bathroom). BUT I STILL HOLD HER HAND WHILE SHE FALLS ASLEEP. (kind of)

And yet, and yet, I tear up pretty fiercely at her being so grown that she can sleep on a trundle bed and stay happily there all night long. I do carry her around a bit still but at nearly 40 pounds, she’s a bruiser on the old back. She isn’t our baby, she is simply our little girl.

We’ll head to the Lodge for most of the rest of August with coming home for doctor appointments and the like. I’ll probably take a social media break, work on writing some talks I’ve been invited to give (sept 28 for you locals!), sew, and pull ticks off the kids. I’ll probably cry a bit about them being so grown up (9, 7, 5, 2.5!!), and then enjoy ice cream late at night when they’re sound asleep. It will be a sweet end to summer.

However your summer is wrapping up, I hope you’re able to welcome these last bits. Even if it doesn’t feel slow enough or long enough, even if your heart is mending or your body is worn.

Praying for you, my friends.

I’m offering a cool little 8 week email sharing about deepening sisterhood if you’re into that sort of thing. Starts August 15!