Summer thus far

N is away for the month, so the remaining four of us decided to start our first two weeks of summer with a little get-away to Grandma and Grandpa's.

I love it up there in that little piece of Pacific Northwest heaven that is my hometown. Watching my daughter and sons touch the grass and squeeze the earth between their tiny fingers fills my soul with goodness.

We ran amok outside and filled our lungs with good, fresh country air.

The early summer showers afforded my tots a few opportunities to hop in puddles and brandish the bumbershoots--their favorite.

 

I'd love to write more about our trip today. I really would. But, you see, we returned home yesterday with a heap of work to tend to and I'm beyond exhausted.

In addition to unpacking, pantry-filling and vacuuming up the mounds of cat hair our furniture accumulated during our absence, my 3-year-old also required a follow-up appointment with the pediatrician for some sort of infection he ended up with on our trip. And yet another housing crisis has befallen our family, for which I had to schlep all three of my cherubs to an attorney's office today to seek legal advice.

Tonight I'm going to postpone picture posting in favor of really letting myself enjoy summer for the first time this year.

With windows wide open, I'm going to enjoy an ice-cold IPA and some perfectly ripe California strawberries. I'm going to paint my toenails watermelon red and I'll start reading that fluffy novel I borrowed from the library.

Maybe tomorrow, between briefing my new landlord on my family's rights under the "Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009" and dreaming up yet another creative way to get my son to gulp down his goopy pink medicine, I'll actually remember that these are the brightest days of the year.