Hello, friends.
As I prepare to say goodbye to the summer, I like to reflect on what has made it special. I did this last year and I really enjoyed it, so here we go again. Here are some roses from the summer for you. I hope you will share in some of the beauty we have found.
Books
This summer was very literary. Most mornings, I would take my children to a park and read as much as I could while they played happily. I even got to get out on my own in order to read! I enjoyed The Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo, Writing & Thinking by Foerster & Steadman, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. There were more, but I will spare you!
Homeschool
My son is a voracious reader, and the two of us went hard on literature this summer. What a delight it was to read, discuss, and write about great stories with my very own first born. He read Little House in the Big Woods, My Side of the Mountain, Redwall, Pippi Longstocking, and more. We discussed them all. He asks such wonderful questions. I never would have suspected such deep conversation from a seven-year-old! What a gift it is to be a teacher. What a gift it is to be a mother.
Nature Walks
We got out as a family to walk around in the heat. I am a southern Californian, born and raised. I am a self-proclaimed desert rat since I was a child. I am a lizard. I love the heat.
My children are, happily, very good sports about all of this. They enjoyed picking flowers, spying on birds (sometimes chasing them), and climbing on every rock they could find.
Shady Pathways
While in St. Louis for a wedding, I spent a morning exploring beautiful Forest Park. I was charmed by the old trees and shady pathways. Perfect for a hot and humid day!
Art
While in Forest Park, I visited the St. Louis Art Museum. For three hours. I was surprised to find paintings I knew and loved, along with several new discoveries I came to adore on the spot. What a beautifully curated museum. What a moving few hours.
The Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis
A breathtaking feat of architecture. A most reverent display of mosaics. I gasped upon entering the place, and was told as a response, “Oh, just wait.”
A Wedding in Latin
A dear friend of mine, and one of my bridesmaids when I was married, was married in St. Louis. I was honored to attend, and to bear witness to the traditional ceremony. Having never attended a Catholic wedding before, much less a Latin Mass, I was in awe. Also, I love weddings.
Shakespeare
My husband and I attended a Shakespeare By the Sea performance at a local university. I was delighted to see Macbeth, live, outside, on a warm summer evening. It was truly wonderful. And since I teach it every year, and have most of it memorized, I was not exactly easy to please.
Manliness
There is something about a boy learning to use a hatchet in the middle of the woods that needs to be documented. My sweet son was taught by my husband and one of his best friends how to use one, and he just went wild on a stump. All was right with the world.
The Lake
For me, there is only one lake in the world worth talking about, and it is a small one in northern Michigan. Lake Margrethe is in Grayling, MI, and it is pretty much perfect. We were lucky enough to spend a week staying right on that lake surrounded by loving family and home cooked food. It felt like paradise.
Sand Dunes
Sleeping Bear Dunes
I fell in love with a sand dune in northern Michigan. My only exposure to sand dunes before this was in reading Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan. I felt drawn to their descriptions before, but now? I cannot believe how stunning they are. Nature’s slide made just for us.
Independence
My son walked through the house one day waving pliers in the air. “Will these get training wheels off?” he asked. “Probably,” I replied. Five minutes later, without help, he was gliding around our cul-de-sac on two wheels.
Koi Fish
My children… struggle with sharing. That is a really polite way of describing what sometimes happens in my house. But you would never know it if you were to see their stunning generosity to the fish at the California mission we live closest to. The ridiculous, adorable guttural laughs which escape them as the koi splash about to eat the fish food is one of my favorite sounds in the universe.
Old Fashioned Friendship
Old Fashioned—my favorite drink
This summer I have enjoyed the company of friends over drinks. Long walks with coffee, long text message conversations about poetry while drinking lemon Spindrift, and best of all: movies with my husband and one of his homemade old fashioned cocktails… How perfect!
Love
This summer my husband and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary, which is also our eleventh anniversary of being together as a couple. I am still so in love.