“Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies.”  Erich Fromm

hellloooooooo

I have something to say to you!

The sun is shining for the first time in (what feels like) years!

How was your weekend?

I’ll tell you all about mine.

First of all, Rich came home super early on Friday to surprise us.  And with all the extra time, we decided to take the children bowling.  Dave didn’t want to go, so it was just Caleb, Seth, and Sarah.  We all bowled our best in the first game.  Rich got like 5 strikes and I myself got my new P.R. which was 113.  The next game wasn’t as good.  In fact, Seth made me laugh when they all watched me accidentally release my bowling ball in such a way that it went up in the air and then halfway down the lane with a boom.  I turned around in embarrassment and he said, “Mom, this was you,” he made the same motion that I did throwing my ball in the air, “here you go, Lord!”  

It was much fun.

THEN

on Saturday……the boys got haircuts while Sarah and I went to a consignment store.

 

The clothes that I am wearing were the actual clothes I had worn to the shop.  The only thing I bought myself was a cute sweatshirt.  Sarah found a bunch of things, including this April Cornell dress.  I used to love buying Grace their dresses and was happy to find this one, and not only that but Sarah actually liked it, too.

Then we went to get the boys who were all done and waiting.

When I pulled into the parking lot, I turned right and drove completely over the curb.  They all saw me do it with basically these same expressions.  They ridiculed me and Seth said, “Woman up, Mom!” in a rebuking way.  It made me laugh because I had worn a tshirt two days in a row that week with the words “woman up” on the front.  Apparently it made an impression on him and gave him the words to say when I ran over the curb.

We went home to change and I put on my new gray sweatshirt and then we left for baseball games………. it was FREEZING COLD and I was a big baby the entire time.  It didn’t help that Caleb’s team lost terribly.

We did some walking around and around the field.  (keeping an eye on the game)

 

David had a friend to hang out with, Sarah read a book, and Rich sat next to me in our lawn chairs.  We also ate wraps and cheetos and I had a scone (which is why we had to walk).

Caleb catching.

He’s really good at it.  Funny note, a few years ago he became “famous” for making chicken sounds and everyone in baseball (including coaches) STILL calls him Chicken despite the fact that he has deep regrets and doesn’t make the sound anymore.

Back home gathering eggs.   I was happy to find five, as they usually get eaten by the hens.  These were saved because a hen got broody and sat on them.

As you can see, the grass is turning green.

Sarah fell asleep on me.  (heart melts)

 

Our college children each sent us a selfie.  Cannot wait to get them back home for the summer.  In fact, Rich and I are going to get Gracie this weekend.

Beautiful Sarah; this is my favorite photo of the weekend.  Taken with my new iphone X! Portrait mode!  And…..she’s wearing one of her new shirts from shopping with me.

We went on a 4 mile walk in the cold (she ended up wearing her Dad’s sweatshirt) and then went downtown for ice cream.

A favorite place to stop for a bit is an abandoned house.

 

We picked flowers.

 

Took selfies and photos.  It was so pretty and felt secretive.

I thought of my dad when I took this at someone’s house by the road in the neighborhood.  The wood is stacked so very carefully.  Art.

When we got back home we found the boys watching tv and Seth sound asleep looking angelic.

 

This morning I fried the dog an egg.  He waited just long enough for me to take a photo for the family group chat before he scarfed it down.

*****

It was fun to sit here and type although hard with these long fingernails.

Happy Monday friends, with lots of love!

(please leave a comment and let me know how you’re doing!)

“I never knew love had a sound until I heard you laugh.”