Springing into Action

 Spring is in the air!  Spring and all of her blessings and curses has arrived, and she could not arrive too soon for me.  After slogging through the dreary days of January into February I finally feel alive again.  Am I a plant?!  Sorry I missed you all in February.  I wish I could say it was because I was off in a remote part of the world with no internet connection or because I was just so busy living my life that there just wasn't a spare moment to write or because I was too busy writing my book, but alas, it was none of the above.  It was mostly because I didn't think I had much to say on the icky days of January and early February.  Hope your winter was better!  I did find myself wondering how I used to spend those dark damp January and February days when I noticed most of the "memories" photos to cross my screen were on ski slopes.  Ahhh, that explains it!  I think I need to find my new ski slopes during those weeks and I think they may be on a golf course somewhere in the southwest.  Hope I remember this next year!  Who is in?

If you can't find beautiful flowers outside, make one inside!

As I looked back through my photos of February...I did a lot of puzzles.  Then I got tired of doing puzzles and we decided to visit some of our grandchildren.  Nothing like young family dynamics to vault you out of the winter doldrums.  We hung out with Augie and Thomas in San Francisco for a long weekend.  They are growing and changing so fast I hate to miss out on all of those cute stages!  Then we went to Madison and hung out with Daniel, Christopher and John while their parents celebrated 20 years of marriage!  Well done!  They boys are now pretty easy to watch and a lot of fun/competition for Grampy on the cribbage board.  We got to see some basketball games and experience some real winter.  Love seeing all the kids grow up. 

Post church donut o'clock!
He earned the biggest and best donut!

So much happiness!!!

Those eyes!!!

Just me and the guys waiting for our pizza!
Celebrity guest, one of TJ's brothers!

In hindsight...which is perfect, I realize now how sluggish I was in those early months of the year.  Once the days got longer and warmer and everyone came out of the woodwork, this extrovert was a happy camper!  Plenty of sunshine, long walks and golf!  And as if two weekends away were not enough, we threw in a trip to the big apple to celebrate one of TJ's high school buddies 70th birthday.  Yikes...!  NYC was on our radar for a visit and with the birthday invitation we were all in.  We love the city and managed to see two plays, eat dinner and brunch with one of our nieces who lives there, walked many many miles, ate some excellent food, stumbled onto/into a great wine bar and had some delicious charcuterie and wine and totally enjoyed the city springing to life.  Perfect weather too!  The city felt very subdued this time, dare I say cleaner and safer?  Maybe it was just my rose colored glasses.  

Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge has been checked off the list!

Highly recommend Cork Wine Bar in SoHo!

Last but not least... it's here!  Speaking of turning 70, one of us, is turning 70 next month and the other one thought it would be fun to take a celebratory trip to a place that has been on his radar.  Hopefully by tomorrow night, I will be sitting in a cafe with my head spinning, looking through bloodshot scratchy eyes in wonder while sipping a lovely glass of wine and savoring a delicious meal with my soon to be 70 year old husband and a couple of friends.  This is almost my favorite part of any trip...the part where my imagination runs wild with fantasies of the perfect travel experience.  So far, the trip has been perfect, hehe!

Stay tuned in April when you get to see and hear more than you want about the trip.  Arrivederci!

The People, Places and Things of...May

It's already mid-June!  How did that happen?  I should know to expect this by now...May is a sprint to the beginning of summer when we finally get to take it easy.  Well, some of us get to take it easy, there are parents who get to do swim team and baseball much of the summer.  I count myself among the lucky ones where summer means flying north to the shore for a while.  I also count myself among the lucky ones who get to experience a sprint in May, I would be sad if May were just another month that slipped by the same as all the others.  Thankfully, I am not there yet!  May generally keeps me busy!

This year I spent May with some of my favorite people, in what is becoming one of my favorite places, doing one or more of my favorite things.  I left Houston on May 8 and returned on the 30th!  It wasn't all fun and games.  Who am I fooling?  Yes, it was, especially if you like waiting, playing, walking around soaking up the views, cleaning, climbing up and down many hills and stairs, rocking a baby, and falling in love.  

Yes, I spent most of May in this beautiful city.

My youngest daughter and her husband were expecting their second little boy in May.  I flew out a few days before the due date so I could watch the oldest while mommy and daddy were gone and help out after they became a family of 4.  Well, the due date came and went, and we waited.  We waited while walking, while eating, while shopping, while cleaning, while cooking and while hanging out at the playground.  Finally, a week after I arrived sweet baby Thomas Sebastian was born and I shared some very special alone time with big brother.

Big, beautiful, blue eyed, baby boy!

I have had the pleasure of seeing many of my grandsons meet their younger siblings and it is one of the sweetest moments in life!  To see their face light up when they meet this new little person who is their sibling is just so sweet.  It has been one of the few times I have gotten to be that fly on the wall and just watch a family take a new shape.  The next couple of weeks are a blur.  We slipped into a semi-routine.  Is there ever a routine with a newborn?  I tried my best to be a good mother/mother-in-law and do what needed to be done and stay out of the way as much as possible.  I also made sure I got to snuggle with that new baby as much as possible!  There is nothing like just staring at the face of innocence and beauty for hours on end.  I fell in love...again...instantly.

Mother's Day carrots planted and harvested
by Augie!

Dinner date at "train sushi"* waiting for baby brother
to enter the world. 
*Augie's favorite place to eat...sushi delivered by robots
and bullet trains.  What's not to love? 

Lots of playground time!

First time to hold his brother.

Gigi just soaking up all the snuggles!

I followed up three weeks in California, where the weather is perfect and the sun shines with two weeks in Houston where the days are hot and humid.  I think I do this to myself just to make sure that when I leave for the shore I do it with no regrets.  I will not miss this torture they call summer down here.  I tried to brush up my golf game but seeing the ball through sweat blurred eyes was very challenging.  I am not sure how much more a person can sweat than I did this week on the golf course.  Yes, I could have opted not to play...but I am a glutton for punishment.  I will leave knowing I have stayed as long as I could and now it is time to migrate north.  

I get to go to the most wonderful place on earth.  If you ask me.  I have hopefully crossed all the t's and dotted all the i's before I leave.  If not, I have some very good neighbors who look out for us!  This will be the first summer in a long time that I won't be going to the shore concerned about an aging parent.  For years I have either worried about them making it to the shore and how that would all play out or felt guilty about leaving them behind at home and what might happen while we are so far away.  While I was never their primary care giver, I worried never the less.  They will both be there in spirit this year.  I am hoping for a great summer, full of family, friends, sunshine and good times.  I might even make time to write about it...if it rains.

Have a great summer everyone!

And Just Like That

 The last time I slept in my house alone was on June 17th.  Since then my life, and house, have been filled with one and then 3 more and then 3 more and then one more and then 3 more, until dinner on August 2nd, when we had all four kids and 5/6 grandchildren at the dinner table!  The hoops that had to be jumped through for this happen were not insignificant.  Turns out this is not an easy place to get to, especially this summer.  Beginning on August 3rd, the house started to empty slowly and steadily until a couple of weeks ago, when TJ headed to Cape Breton and I was alone in my own house for the first time in 7 1/2 weeks.  This may not seem like a big deal to many of you, but as one tired but happy Gigi, Mom and wife...I embraced this time.  My battery needed some serious recharging. 

The first time in 5 years all 4 kids have been at the shore...at the same time.
It was a brief overlap, but it happened!

Seems a theme of the summer, for my peer group, has been living life as a member of the "sandwich generation".  Many of us still have living parents, some were here this summer, but lately fewer and fewer are able to make the trip.  While I am not the caretaker of my mother, I do think about her daily and there is that constant concern...albeit from afar.  Many of my peer group have much closer and "hands on" experiences with their parents.  We also have grown kids who are married and now have families of their own.  One of the reasons we shared this special place with our families is that we hoped some day they too would share it with their children.  And now they have!  What this translates into as far as shore life is we find ourselves being pulled in many directions.  As if shore life didn't offer enough directions to be pulled in already!

One of the results of having our families here though is that for part of the summer, we are busier than a person should be...on vacation.  Of course, at this point, those of us who spend months up here can hardly be considered "on vacation".  We are just living life in a different location. (more on that subject in a later post) In the early weeks, we spend time with our friends and relatives for dinner and sit on the beach or porches at night and enjoy the quiet easy life.  Once our families arrive, we all retreat to our own family vortexes.  Our time is spent enjoying the days and nights with our kids and grandchildren.  There just aren't enough hours in the day or energy to venture too far from the immediate family, especially when you only get to be with your immediate family two or three times a year!  These are precious moments!  Still, I can't help but want to hang out with everyone on the beach!  We do have fleeting moments spent catching up with various people along the beach, but really when family is here, we are doing family time, as are all the other families.

So, when I found myself in my house, alone, with all the time I needed or wanted to go and make those outside connections, I retreated inside for a day or two instead.  I just needed to let the dust settle (sweep it all up) and first connect with myself before I connected with anyone else.  Transitions.  Sometimes they take a day or two.  Now we are back to the slower, steadier, part of the summer where hanging out with my cousins and our shore friends is routine.  The summer definitely has several stages, as I have said before.

Lately, with the sun moving slowly across the horizon and the days getting noticeably shorter I find myself wondering how it all went by so fast!  I am overwhelmingly thankful for the gift of being able to spend months up here again after one year away and last year only being here for a comparatively short time.  It feels like "normal"!  I have been able to see the many colors of the wildflowers from the purples and pinks of the lupins in June, to the hot pink flames of the fireweed in July to the white Queen Anne's Lace and now the yellow ragweed and gold wheat fields.  Summer is brief and glorious up here!  

June

July into August

July

August

August...a hint of fall is in the air by now.

The pattern of life at the shore follows the seasons.  Early summer when nature is still waking up, the population gradually grows as well.  Once July hits and summer is in full bloom, the sun shines from 5 a.m. until 10 p.m. the shore crowd grows to maximum capacity and life is crammed full.  In August, as the sun moves slowly across the horizon and daylight hours begin to shorten, people start to go back home to their real lives and the beach crowd gets older...because all the families with kids have to leave for school.  I have missed this visible transition over the last couple of years.  Seasons don't change as dramatically in the south.  Life mimicking nature makes me feel very connected...possibly one of the things I love the most about this place. 

I still have high hopes of writing more, once I find myself with hours of time to spare.  Fat chance!  The ideas are there, plenty of photos to back up those ideas too.  Inevitably doing other things and actually living the life I write about takes priority.  There will be time...someday.   For now I will just keep enjoying nature and watching the colors change.

June 2022
About as far over the water as we get to see.

July 2022, the sun is making its move to the left over the land.

August 2022
Moving farther and farther along the horizon....

One more sign of time marching on.....the garden!

June 2022 garden of possibilities

July garden is starting to pop

August garden!  We need more people to help eat!

I just love this!

And just like that, only 3 more weeks left up here.  It happens every time!  Enjoy these final few days of summer, we certainly will!

March Marched By Me

Another month with no blog post....ugh!  I feel like my beloved blog and I are breaking up and it is not the clean break... "Goodbye, it's been fun, we had some great times, have a good life." kind of break up.  It's the... "We never see each other, we never talk, I still love you, I think about you all of the time....maybe we can try to work it out. (but we all know that never works...or does it?)." kind of break up.  I start each month telling myself  I'm going to write more...because frankly, I can't write any less.  I'm going to pay attention to life around me and look with my eyes wide open.  But it all feels a little Groundhog day-ish.  How is this supposed to be surprising, inspiring, touching and entertaining or remotely blog worthy?  Surely it hasn't all been said...has it?

They are pondering cereal and whether it has all been said....
Apple, say hello to tree.

March drifted by me this year.  As I read my last post, January and February were a massive effort to just keep going one more day with hopes the sun would shine.  Amazing how much that giant star in our sky affects me and my productivity/mood/outlook on life/smile on my face.  I had high hopes that March would break the clouds in the sky and my brain.  There was that day, in spite of  overcast skies, I decided to pretend it was a lovely spring day and took my camera out for a field trip.  We went in search of beauty and found it!  I practiced my rusty photography skills on the azaleas and daffodils and by the time I finished that star in the sky had shown it's shy face.  

I have never seen flowers growing on branches like these were.
Surprising!

Wish the planters in my yard looked like this!

Happy flowers saying Spring is here!

The southern beacon of spring...azaleas!

Another time consuming activity in March was the search for the elusive perfect mother of the bride dress.  You would think that by the fourth time I would have this down to a science.  Oh no my friend!  Maybe if I had that 48 year old body with my 60 year old budget!  Alas, the dress has been purchased and as a result of the horrifying images that stared back at me in all of those poorly lit dressing room mirrors I am repeating an old Lenten tradition of mine...Weight Watchers.  Or as they refer to it now...WW as if no one knows what that stands for!  Needless to say, hope springs eternal and if I happen to snap back at you for no good reason it was because I was hungry....and sober!

Oh yum....kale, shrimp and oranges.
Salad done a million different ways!

What else....oh, I listened to Lauren Graham's (Lorelai Gilmore) book "Talking as Fast as I Can"  compliments of my daughter/bride-to-be/GG partner in crime.  I may have to explain to my neighbors why I was laughing and/or crying on my daily walks while listening to this book.  I felt just like I did when Gilmore Girls ended when I finished this book.  I miss them!  I now want to watch all of Gilmore Girls and the reboot again for the zillionth time.  FYI, Lauren Graham and I could totally hang out, I enjoy her perspective and humor.  You can also partially thank her for my deciding to try and patch things up with my blog.

In and effort to keep my hands busy not eating I picked up the old smocking stuff and decided to make and Easter dress for my grand daughter.  Something I have dreamt of doing ever since I learned to smock back in the '80's.  It is as much a pleasure as it was back then.  Creating something out of string and fabric is very rewarding.  Now to sew it all together...halfway there!

Spoiler alert....it's going to be super cute!

Speaking of smocking in the '80's....I found a dress I made for my daughter, Katie.  On Saturday, she and I took her children for our annual bluebonnet photo shoot.  It was a very special moment when we put Katie's old dress on Deirdre!  She must have known how special that dress was because she posed for the camera like a pro!

Be still my heart!
So glad I can't throw things away!

Other activities that made March float by were golf, the final emergence of the sun for an entire week and a short trip to Chicago.  The bride-to-be and I did some shopping and planning and walking and drinking and eating.  Shhh, don't tell WW.  We also got to have lunch with this motley crew!

Pizza, grand sons and NCAA basketball watching!  Fun!

Last but not least I have an announcement...I have decided to really break up with the blog and dedicate my time to writing a book about the joys of life such as hitting a golf ball straight, laughing and crying all in one 45 minute walk around the neighborhood, eating pizza and losing weight on WW, finding the perfect camera settings to use while photographing moving children on cloudy days, seeing all four of your grown children in one weekend, and what it takes to actually sit down and write more than a paragraph in a month.  Book coming out soon!

April Fools!

Waiting for Sunshine

Do you suffer from spring fever?  I've been trying to put my finger on what's been up with me for the last few weeks.  I've just been in a funk.  I thought it might be all the rain and humidity or the fact that I am in between big events and therefore in limbo twiddling my thumbs.  I'm not good in limbo or at the limbo for that matter.  I like spring or at least I thought I liked spring until we apparently moved to the tropical rain forest formerly known as Houston.  Everything is usually so pretty and green.  The flowers are all blooming.  The days are longer which gives us more outside time.  There is often a chance to sit outside on the patio and enjoy dinner or drinks or just read a book in the spring before it gets too hot.  Ideally, spring is all sunshine, warm breezes, flowers and fun.  So far...not so much.  Except for the flower part.  Ok, and lots of warm breezes.  Unfortunately, those breezes include 90-100% humidity, and are anything but refreshing!  At least my complexion is being moisturized.  So maybe I have one less wrinkle to go with my frizzy hair!

The lovely flowers all over Houston, covered with raindrops....
as Houston has been much of the spring.

Having lovely flowers all around not to mention the moisturized skin should be enough to keep my mood bright, right?  Wrong!   My English class  is out for the summer which is good and bad.  Good, because it was the end of the year and all of us were losing steam and ready for a break but bad because I now find myself with too much free time.  I know....you would love to have too much free time.  Be careful what you wish for.  You may just find yourself stuck inside your now clean house with all of your laundry done, looking out at the rain and trying not to eat everything in sight.

Spring fever or spring funk is real.  I looked it up on the Internet.  Something about the long dark winter months using up our body's reserves of serotonin, the happiness hormone or nature's Prozac.  Plus serotonin requires sunlight to reproduce, that explains the lack of happiness lately... no sunlight!  The longer days of spring require a rise in hormone levels and this apparently puts a strain on our body and makes us tired.  I'm sure that is the problem, right?  Or is it just the rain, humidity, clouds and all that free time with no chance of playing golf?  Whatever it is, it has put me in a funk.  There are only so many hours I can spend in my house.

I was afraid I was just exaggerating the rain totals so I put on my weather nerd hat and checked the statistics.  Total rainfall in April was 9.7 inches in Sugar Land, normal is 3.3 inches. This made me even more depressed than I already was!  So far in May we have had over 5 inches.  That's it.....I'm moving to California!  Soon we will all have webbed feet to go with our wrinkle free skin.

What's an outdoor girl to do?  I've caught up on all the shows on my DVR, read, gone to more than my usual number of classes at the gym and done my share of economic stimulation at the mall. I've also sewn a crib skirt and valence for the nursery for "the reason all of us will be over the moon next week"!  We probably won't even notice the weather.  That's right!  By this time next week we will have a new grand baby!  If that doesn't change my funky mood nothing will!  I'll keep you posted on the ray of sunshine arriving next week!

Ready and waiting for our ray of sunshine!

I feel better already.  Think I'll go for a run....in the rain.

Being Gigi

My summer started ages ago with the long road trip north in May and if I look at pictures it has been a pretty darn good summer.  The central figures of my summer have been these guys...

Daniel

Christopher

and John!

The trip began with the birth of John and getting to spend 11 days with their family while Mom, Dad, and the boys welcomed John.  I was there to cook, clean, help Mom, play with the boys and of course the most important job...rock-a-bye John.  A mere five weeks later they came to the shore for the summer!

When the boys got here they had to figure out shore life.  It is a different life than "real" life.  Anyone who reads this blog knows that the rules at the shore a a bit different than those at home and I'm not just talking trash sorting.  There is more freedom here, the leash is a little longer.  It is a place for kids to be kids and run around with sticks and play Star Wars, pretend, swim all day, stay up past their bedtimes and get dirtier than they ever get in "real" life.  In my mind, it has been a place for kids to learn some important life skills and lessons.  Yes, playing Star Wars with sticks instead of video games and getting dirty are life skills in my book!  Running around with a pack of cousins and friends of all ages, year after year, gives a person roots.

Star Wars Land

When Daniel and Christopher arrived they were fresh off welcoming their new baby brother.  Their lives had changed.  John was a little six week old baby and Mommy was still a bit tired.  When they left they were all still a little tired, this place does that to you, but they were tan and relaxed too.  John went from a newborn to a precious chattering baby whose smile can melt your heart.  The boys made friends that they will have forever... as long as they come back to the shore.

the first week...clean bathing suits and no tan lines

John's first week, not quite the smiling cooing little baby who left here five weeks later.

They all had a great summer and took to shore life like many of us have generation after generation.  This place gets into your blood!  Maybe it is all that red dirt....  Rachel was able to see the shore in a different light.  She came early in the summer and got to experience the calm and relatively quiet times.  She got to feel the pace begin to pick up and the craziness of the games.  Then she welcomed the return to the calmer days.  She also got to see a glimpse of what my life as a mother of four was like (survival mode) when Daddy was home working for three or four weeks and and what it felt like when Daddy finally rejoined the family (relief!).   I would not have traded a minute of it either!  I hope she feels the same way.

I am blessed to have been able to spend such a long time with my grandsons and my daughter.  I know there are families who live in the same town and get to spend a lot of time together but we live very far apart and I miss out on a lot of grandson moments.  This summer was my special time to get to know my grandsons.  I wasn't Gigi who shows up every few months and it is a frenzy of activity because we are together!  I was Gigi who they saw every day for five weeks, no frenzy needed.  It's a different thing if you know what I mean.

And now some cute grandson pictures from their summer....

Painting birdhouses in the basement.

Tummy time with John.

Tractor show!

Wearing neon for Don!

Exploring on the beach

watching the softball game

Mommy and Michelle with John and Ross, future friends for life!



Heading to the beach!

Bye guys!  It was a fun summer!  I love being your Gigi!