One Week

Some weeks creep by and feel like they will never end.  Some weeks fly by, and we wonder how it all happened so fast.  The rest of the weeks just feel like another week in life.  There are weeks I would like to live over, again and again and pay attention to every single detail.  Others I am glad they are behind me.  I guess this is what life is all about, but do we ever stop and think about it?  This week seemed long, but it also flew by!  How can that be?

In one week, these went from this...

to this!

I arrived at the shore in the wee hours of the morning a week ago, today.  I was a bit weary last Sunday, after too little sleep and traveling for over 12 hours.  I was a very happy camper though, because the sun was shining, and it was not 90 degrees with 80% humidity like it was back home.  After an epic night of sleep on Monday, I felt human again!  My nesting instinct was in full gear as I unpacked, and reclaimed my house after TJ lived the bachelor life in it for over a month.  Mind you, it was clean enough, but "things" were not where they were "supposed" to be, aka where I want them.  I had fun settling into my summer life.  These feelings are completely opposite the ones I will have in September when I have to tuck frantically pack everything away for the long winter.  These are feelings of hope, excitement, anticipation and overwhelming peace.  I know we will be able to enjoy all of the food, the outdoor furniture, the flowers, the new beach chairs, the bbq grill and the garden for months before we have to shut it all down for another winter. There are none of these feelings in September!  

The bright green and yellows of early summer!

This part of summer reminds me of the weeks I spent up here with the kids in early July.  We referred to these few weeks as the "women and children" weeks.  Many of us had young families then and there was no "work from home" option, so we would come up with the kids and the dads would go back home and work and come back for vacation in a few weeks.  It was a quiet, communal time when lunch happened wherever the kids just happened to be playing and dinners were very casual and easy usually consisting of something that comes in a blue and orange box made by Kraft.  Now our kids have their own kids, and while some have the luxury of spending many weeks up here with more flexible work options available...many don't.  Our early summer dinners this week were again communal but now the menu has evolved to a much more sophisticated palate.  We all enjoy these slow, easy days when we can rotate the cooking and cleaning responsibilities and have good conversations without the multitude of happenings of the busy season and the fear of missing out on something fun somewhere else.

It feels like we have had at least two seasons this week as well!  The first two days were amazing, beautiful, perfect!  The middle of the week was similar to summer in Houston...very hot, even by this southern girl's standards, and humid...but still sunny and lovely.  By the end of the week things moderated a bit and we had Canadian summer instead of Houston summer.  Today it is cool and rainy...so spring?  All good, we need the rain!  Which brings me to golf.

I played golf 3!!!, times this week.  The course is in fantastic shape and the luscious weather made the rounds very enjoyable...even if I did blow a few holes.  I do not ever remember the course being in this condition this early in the summer.  The ground that is usually still a bit mushy or soft is very hard and dry, which plays into my game well.  I need all the roll I can get!

A few other early summer observations.  This is the week we move a lot of heavy things.  Just ask my back.  Things like bbq grills, canoes, large bags of potting soil, picnic tables, planters, outdoor furniture.  They can stay where we put them for a while now!

Summer solstice 2024 sunset 9:26 p.m.

Finally, this is my favorite week for a reason other than it is my first week at the farmhouse and the shore.  It is the week of the summer solstice which means it is the week with the longest days of sunlight in the year.  This year those days were full of bright, beautiful sunshine and that is not the case every year.  I soaked it all in, just as I am pretty sure our garden and all of our flowers did.  I also hosted what is becoming a summer tradition, my annual summer solstice party.  A little get-together to toast the summer and maybe, if the clouds part at the right time, watch the latest sunset of the year.  If this summer is as good as the sunset that started it, we are in for a great one!  Cheers to summer 2024!

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!