summer bucket list - 2017

i know we are already far into july...
and i don't know about you
but i am now hitting that panicky
summer is fleeting...
it's going too fast,
i have to do more
or it's going to be gone feeling.

you know...
you get that sudden sick anxious feeling...

that
winter is coming
feeling...

i made myself a summer bucket list
at the beginning of this summer
because...well...no weddings...
means i can actually DO some things this summer.

i just realized there are already some more to
get checked off the list
as of this weekend...
and there will probably be more
that i will add to it
but for now, that's the list...
and t-minus roughly a month & one week
to get it done! (& cue panicky feeling again)
(although some of these will bleed over into fall...like tree-go & maybe cabot trail)

and (although it's been proven unwise
for me to ask this in the past,
i am always open to suggestions as well..
whatcha got on YOUR summer bucket list?)
(everyone DOES make one, right?
it's not just me...)

and a pretty flower picture....just...because...it's a pretty flower.

backyard gardening

a favorite next door neighbor stopped me on the street
on my way to the parade
and said
oh!  your garden!  it's gotten so big!
it's like a little rainforest in your backyard!

:)

she said she checks it anytime she walks her dogs

which makes me smile
because
i check it 4...5...10 times a day.
i water it...i pull some weeds...
i move a sprawling cucumber vine
hoping it will catch and hold the branches
i put in for support...
i count the strawberries
and look for baby string beans...
and, of course, i take pictures of it.

i feel like the closest neighbors
must think i am a bit of an obsessive nut.
but it draws me back again and again.

and already i am thinking about next year
and what i will add and what i will do different...
so yeah...maybe the obsessive nut thing
isn't that far off.. :)

the days are long...

but the years are short.
(gretchen rubin)

tonight our boy graduated
from high school.

it feels like the end of an era.

we have no kids in school.

sure, we have one in school away
and the 2nd one will be going back
next year but that's different.

that's on them now.

no more lunches,
no more phone calls from gym teachers
complaining about forgotten gym clothes
and lack of interest in gym
(um...they are MY kids...if you know me at all,
you will know i did EVERYTHING i could to
get out of gym)
(and for the record, not one of my gym teachers
ever phoned home because of it),
no more lost sneakers,
missing pens, late homework assignments...
no more googling math problems
to try to figure out what the hell
the "new" math is this year.

no more permission slips
or chaperoning field trips...
no band committee meetings, no fundraising
no more christmas concerts
and face painting day...

it's bittersweet.

i think about that little boy
that i brought to the shiny, happy grade one class...
the boy with the big eyes and
the crazy thick black hair...

and then i think about the 6+ foot tall
young man that i watched
walk across that stage tonight...
all confidence and easy going,
a big laugh and an even bigger heart

and i can't help but think
for all the years that i was so scared
of all the things
we might doing wrong,
as i watched him watch across that stage tonight
i couldn't help think
we must have done some things right.

congratulations bighead...
you did it!
and we are unbelievably proud of you.
♥ ♥ ♥