So Abram basically owned this weekend.  A soccer game (no pictures), a baseball game, the birthday party of some friends (no pictures), a lost tooth and his First Communion where I didn’t take enough pictures because 1- he was over it and 2- I was feeling flustered by the parents of 46 kids all trying to take pictures at the exact same time and needed to get out of there. Thankfully, the service itself was less hectic. It was wonderful watching my son take part in Holy Communion for the first time and his whispered thoughts when we got back to the pew (“Mom, I just drank alcohol!!! The body was waaaaay better.”) made me smile.

In other news, I have no news. Zero.

I haven’t been watching much in the way of television.

I haven’t been knitting much.

I still haven’t gotten buttons for Violet’s sweater (I’ve resigned myself to the fact that by the time I get them she’ll be too big for it.)

I have been reading, but mostly Warriors books because that’s pretty much all Violet reads right now and I wanted to see what the fuss was all about (and because I figure if I read them, I could figure out what she likes and try and get her to branch out a little bit).

I took a two week vacation from Facebook and have been back for a week and am ready to take another.

I’m focusing a lot on the day to day things in my life. Brushing hair. Packing school bags. Chatting with friends. Folding clothes. Making dinners. Playing games. Saying yes when Abram asks me if I want to shoot hoops (despite being completely horrible at it). Snuggling in. Thinking about the goals I’m going to set for my 39th year. Taking baths. Going to bed early. Sleeping in late. Accepting that I might not be changing the whole of the world (I might not even be doing much at all) but loving the tiny place I inhabit. Searching for peace amidst the chaos and madness because I’m tired of feeling chaotic and mad.

What’s new in your world? Watching, reading, cooking, making anything good?

We had a lovely Labor Day weekend. The kids swam. We had fires both inside and out (that black and white picture of Abram and Jesse lighting the fire is one of my favorite pictures from this weekend), ate lots of s’mores and other good food. I knit a little (my September socks) but watched zero Netflix. Abram and Grandpa dug worms for fishing, Violet proceeded to set them free because they were “innocent and shouldn’t have to die”, we later used the can to scoop three baby mice out of the boat. We found the nest (see a life jacket of Violet’s) and Jesse says he found the mother and got her out of the boat too, but I don’t believe him. Just thinking about it gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Two random Violet comments I want to remember: While discussing the freeing of the worms, Jesse’s dad mentioned that those worms are going to head back and talk about the great Violet who saved them. “Grandpa, they don’t know my name!”.

And when we heard an owl (a great horned owl if my google comparison of owl screeches is correct) one night: “He’s warning those mice we set free that if they aren’t careful, they’re gonna be dinner.”

I updated my Lightroom a few weeks ago and ever since then any pictures I try to post on the blog show so much more grain then they do on any of my software (or the couple of prints I’ve ordered) so I need to figure it out because it’s gross. The last thing I need is another processing step, but I hate posting pictures that look crappy when I know for certain they do not actually look crappy.

I haven’t cooked much of anything though I did make a broccoli slaw for the weekend because it’s my absolute summer favorite. It’s simple to make – a bag of broccoli slaw, a small head of broccoli cut into small pieces, sunflower seeds, raisins, peanuts, red onion, and some crumbled bacon (if you aren’t a veggie). For the dressing I put a 1/2 cup mayo, 1/2 cup greek yogurt, 1/4 cup sugar (or a little less), and 2T vinegar in a Mason Jar and shake the crap out of it. When it’s good and blended, I pour it over the salad. If you make it ahead of time, put the dressing on right before you serve it. It gets soggy otherwise. We also made some chicken salad – a perfect addition to our last lunch of the summer cabin season.

Tell me what’s new with you this week? Any good recipes, knitting patterns, books, or television shows on your radar?

Fourth and Second grade. We went from having two things on the calendar in August to very few free days in September. Maybe having a lazy summer wasn’t such a terrible thing.

And I have no idea why my pictures are showing so noisy and grainy because they don’t look it at all on my software, but I’m beyond trying to figure it out. The kids are still adorable. (And of course, I’m not biased in the least.)

On this date, 14 years ago, we got married. (It’s a picture of a picture because we got married back before people got digital copies. In fact, I’m pretty sure our photographer shot using actual film.)

Now, the rule of thumb in pretty picturesque bloggerland is that you write the wonderful and amazing and good – especially about your spouse. Because it’s public. And you do not show your cracks in public. It’s better to make everyone think that you have it all under control and that your biggest problem is which pinterest project to tackle today.

Well, I’m going to say this: Jesse is wonderful and amazing and good. He’s also almost completely my opposite in every imaginable way so quite regularly drives me bat shit crazy. Honesty, folks. You’ll always find a good dose of that here. The reverse is also true (but Jesse would probably be too kind to ever say that because of that whole completely my opposite thing).

But in all seriousness, any of you who have been committed to someone for any length of time know that there are years and then there are years.  Some years are smooth sailing, some go by so uneventfully they are lost to the ether and then every so often…you’ll have a year full of surprises (and not the good kind of SURPRISE! but the Dear God, can we just catch a break, PLEASE), and setbacks, and life-altering-big-decision-where-do-we-go-from-here conversations, and all you can do is hold on and hope the crazy rollercoaster will stay on the rails. You know, a hard year.

We’ve had one of those.

I look at the picture of that young girl above. Her ideas about marriage, and life, and love were all so precious. She didn’t have one iota of a clue about what marriage looked like. She was completely oblivious the future times when the only thing holding it all together would be a scrap of love and a whole lot of white knuckled stubbornness. And I’m grateful for that…because I can tell you, that girl wouldn’t have done it.

This girl is glad she did. Because if I was going to white knuckle a part of my life with anyone, it would be Jesse for a million and one reasons. This isn’t that kind of post, so I won’t name them all here.

But he’s helped me build a life in the last 14 years that is wonderful, and amazing, and good. At least most of the time.