Five Things September

Another quick installment of Five Things...inspired by Journey Mama.

1.  Water can be such a beautiful, forceful agent of change.  It can also be heartbreaking, terrifying, and destructive.  All of us who love Colorado, especially those of us who make our homes here, have been heartbroken as our friends and neighbors lost their homes to the recent flooding.  It's just made for a strange couple of weeks....

This is a picture of the Planet Bluegrass Ranch in Lyons, CO.  This magical, perfect place where I've been spending festival weekends for over a decade has been significantly damaged by the flooding.  It's been very sad for us in the festivarian community.

2.  I had the best birthday celebrations this year.  My husband and family and friends all came together to help me celebrate my 35th birthday.  The weekend was full of all my favorite things....reading in bed, good food (including cupcakes!), locally brewed beer, pickin', and all my favorite people (at least those in Colorado).  My heart was completely overwhelmed by all the love inside of it....

3.  My garden is hanging in there, despite the periods of neglect it has suffered from this summer.  I did manage to throw some additional arugula and spinach seeds in the ground, and am hoping to get some more of those before things freeze up.  In the meantime, I'm halfheartedly working in the garden, and managing to still harvest some peppers, beets, greens, and a few last, measly tomatoes.

4.  Last week Brian and I visited a school in our community that we're interested in sending Sadie to, starting next fall when she'll be a kindergartner!  This school is considered a Magnet School, and although it is not a charter school, and is a county school with the same testing requirements as other public schools in our county and state, it has a bit of an alternative approach to teaching and learning that we're interested in.  But it certainly does have my mind reeling...I just cannot believe that my little girl is getting so big so fast, and that all of a sudden (it seems) we're thinking and talking about this big choice and all that goes along with it! 

5.  I am sure one lucky mama and wife.  Towards the end of the summer I was feeling quite depleted, ragged, and exhausted.  Our busy, wonderful summer took a lot of energy and planning and organization on my part, and it caught up to me.  And it showed...my patience had worn thin with my family and my coworkers, I was feeling overtired and cranky, and knew I needed to do something about it.  Well, being close to home and spending a little bit (just a bit) less time on the go has done wonders for me.  And I've also been lucky enough to have some alone time...which I'm thinking is just what I needed to press my reset button.  Last Friday I left work a bit early to take part in Denver's Happiness Sprinkling Project.  And without going on and on about how much this experience meant to me, I'll sum it up by saying it absolutely filled me up.  The smiles and love that we were able to inspire in perfect strangers, for no reason other than the joy of spreading happiness...oh what an amazing thing it was.

After all this Happiness Sprinkling, I continued on to a quiet dinner and reading alone over a nice glass of white wine, and then to see some of my very favorite music in the whole world, played by Cahalen Morrison and Eli West.  I sat and knit and listened to these friends playing and just could not stop smiling.

Five Things

I have about 10 other blog posts that I need to work on and finish up and post up here.  Lots of summer fun that I still haven't documented.  But, at the moment, that seems monumentally impossible.  And yet, I want to be sharing here at my blog.  So, inspired by Journey Mama, I'll be sharing thoughts/musings/observations in small snippets of Five Things.  This seems much more manageable....

Five Things Day One:
1.  Sadie officially started ballet class a couple weekends ago, and it's just the loveliest thing!  We've known she'd take to this for quite some time.  And it absolutely fills my heart with joy to see her there, listening intently to every word the teacher says, while standing still in first position. 

 

2.  My Dad's been really sick and it's certainly thrown my family for a loop.  After barely making it home from a solo camping trip, he came down with what appeared to be a really nasty flu or virus.  A few days later it was finally diagnosed as spinal meningitis, and he spent 9 long days in the hospital.  It was a scary time for all of us, since there were so many unknowns and he was so very sick.  The staff at the hospital took great care of him, and he was finally able to go home yesterday.  Now he needs to just rest and recover and will hopefully be back to himself before too long.  Just happy that both my parents are home where they belong, sleeping in their own bed and surrounded by the mountains and flowers and peace and quiet that they need.

3.  We've been home for a couple weekends now....and it's the most glorious thing ever.  Summer has been SO fun and SO busy, and has left me reeling in happiness and exhaustion.  But at this point, there are no little voices inside me telling me to squeeze in one final camping trip, to make it to one last festival, or to organize one more outing.  All I want is to be home.  I want to wake up on Saturday morning, take my girl to ballet class, wander through the farmer's market with my wagon, read and knit and cook, and visit with my neighbors in the middle of the street.  That's about it.  Bring on fall.  Maybe even throw some football in there for good measure!

4.  I've started running again!  This is huge and will be discussed at more length in another blog post.  Quick background...I'd been running pretty consistently (and doing other types of vigorous exercise) 5-6 days a week for the last couple years.  I felt and looked great.  I was thriving and chalked it up to all the exercise.  And then my back started bothering me.  Really bothering me.  And my first response was to stop exercising, especially running.  And I haven't run a step, really, since January.  And it broke my heart.  I would secretly cry when friends and relatives would casually go for a quick jog.  I've gained weight.  I'm not handling stress very well.  I seem to have no patience with my husband or my daughter.  My clothes don't fit me, my skin is bad, I'm not sleeping well, and I don't feel confident or comfortable in my own skin.  It's amazing how many things have gone downhill for me when I stopped exercising.  Well...I finally hit bottom and decided that I was going to try running again, slowly, and see how things went.  I've been reading a book called Back Sense that has started changing my perspective about chronic back pain.  And so last week, for the first time in months, after doing as many unhealthy things as possible to my body for last several months, I took some first tentative steps.  And I feel great!

5.  There's a new baby in the family!  Our dear neighbors and best friends welcomed a beautiful new baby girl to the world last week.  Welcome baby Caroline Mae!  Everyone is happy and healthy and recovering at home.  I'm trying to keep my distance and give them time as a family...but I can't wait to start snuggling on a regular basis with this sweet girl!