Where has the summer gone?

I've been so busy living my life there's just been no time to write about it.

Boys are as funny and loud and boy-ish as ever. Thinking up crazy things to do much faster than I can think of things to forbid. Don't golf in your soup. Don't sit on your brother's head. No, you cannot try to open the laundry chute and slide down, and it's not a good idea to try to hurdle the picket fence or to use whatever that is as a sword either. Do hug your momma tight.

Lovely lady the elder has moved to Portland to live with her mom. A wonderful opportunity for her to build a different, more daily, relationship with her mom and her mom's husband before she's grown and off to college. And an opportunity to attend a wonderful alternative school. But it's still a little too close to home to share without tears. I miss her.

Lovely lady the younger is....lovely. Relaxed and funny. Her quirky, charming self. Storms are fewer and farther between. She's confident in who she is and where she wants to go. Where did she learn that? I wish I could send some of that self-assurance back to my fourteen-year-old self.

Loving husband is as loving as ever. Calm and steady.

And me. I've been in the garden, in the kitchen, at the park, riding bikes, scolding kids and hugging them too. Painting, planting, pickling, picking, preserving. Playing. Steering the ship. Squeezing every last bit of summer out of these days. If I give my children no other gifts, I want to give them the joy and contentment that comes from a life well-lived, work well-done, people well-loved.

Life is good. We'll be back when school starts.