The Daddy Day's of Summer

It's been so much fun to have my best friend around again.  Someone you're so in sync with, who makes me laugh, makes me smile, makes my bed, and can't get enough of me or Sophia.  I think I discovered just how sarcastic I've been become in reaction to this lifestyle.  Being with Nate I feel calmer and sweeter.  .  . go figure
The end of two blissful weeks with daddy at home. We've had beautiful summer days, shooting stars, storm watching, lazy afternoon fishing trips, and lotz and lotz of laughter.  Tonight we dropped daddy off at the airport heading for Cleaveland.  Sophia & I drove away blaring Daniel Bedingfield's Friday (CHORUS: he's coming back on Friday!) 
LA or Bust! Cousin's Kelly & Valerie stopped through on their cross country road trip.  Next stop Bridges of Madison County west of Des Moines.

We three kings. .  . ZigZag, Sassy & Gabe. 

Lake Mc Bride one of my favorite places across the globe.

Monday's are for Dancing

Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music.  ~William Stafford

There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good.  ~Edwin Denby

How can we know the dancer from the dance?  ~William Butler Yeats

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.  Ecclesiastes 3:1-4

Breath for Bones

"Archeologists have not yet discovered any stage of human existence without art.  Even in the half-light before the dawn of humanity we received this gift from Hands we did not manage to discern. Nor have most of us managed to ask: Why was this give given to us, and what are we to do with it."  ~Alexsandr Solhenitzyn in his lecture on being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. 

My recent silence hasn't been due to lack of things to say. Thankfully quite the opposite has been happening and much thanks goes to our church, Imago Christi.  Imago is one of those rare Christ communities that value art AND the artist.  Sometimes I think the reason churches are fearful of art is not b/c they have anything against beauty.  It's the artist themselves, channeling God's beauty often requires broken vessels, warn and cracked.  We're rarely balanced, we're often raw and sensitive, and we're desperately in need God's grace. What a pleasure to find a group of Christians that welcome the artist and inspire the art.

The Rest of the Story. . .

Mission Accomplished--In the last month we've emptied our home for a new family, and FINALLY gotten slightly settled in my parents in-law suite.  Late Friday, I was finally feeling like we were ready for daddy to come home.

As a mom who's never broken a bone or needed stitches I always wondered how you knew when a cut was bad enough for an ER trip. Instantly, after trying to close a pocket knife I looked at my thumb and thought 'I don't think you're supposed to see your muscles? I think I need stitches.'  Of course I'm sitting in my sweats, tired, dirty from cleaning and nobodies home except Sophia.  

Thankfully, I sliced up the inside of my thumb right where it bends--there are very few nerve endings there--except in the muscle that I cut into (that hurt came later.)  My grandparents moved to town last year and were more than willing to take Sophia while I went to the local Urgent Care. They must have been running a special on sutures that b/c I was number six to walk-in that afternoon. 

Alls well that ends well. Friday night Daddy stepped off the plane and told us he'd be home for the week.  Plus we have a lovely little home to rest in and spend some much needed time together.  We've accomplished the move and although Daddy isn't necessarily home to stay. At least for today he's home.

Thumbing Through

A run in with a pocket knife, six stitches down my thumb, definitely slowing down my hitch hiking and my writing, among other things. Never knew how much I'd appreciate opposable thumbs. . . .

"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish & stupid."  Epictetus

 I  doubt either of us envisioned an ordinary life when we first married. Right now life is anything but ordinary.  Moving back into your parents home seems like a step backwards by most standards. I hate moving but Nate & I are very thankful to have this option as a way to supplement our family time.  We're defininately testing the limits of the foolish & stupid.  That is where the faith part comes in for me.  I believe God is in control and smiling on our strange gypsy lifestyle.  None of us enjoy the weeks apart but I keep telling myself that unlike our nations soldiers Nate comes home every weekend & isn't getting shot at.  Not yet at least.  One moment, one prayer at a time.