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.
Another perfect festival weekend...good friends, good weather, WONDERFUL music as always, good camping neighbors, great festival kid, delicious mimosas to celebrate six delightful years of marriage...
and lots of snuggling....
Oh my gosh, what happened to July?? The last time I was actively blogging it was about things that happened in mid-June, and now here we are in August! Oy. Time sure flies when you're having the time of your life. And boy have I been.
Let's see. At the end of June we enjoyed a couple rare, unscheduled, mostly-close-to home weekends. We blew up Sadie's pool and drank beer in the driveway with our neighbors.
We (and by we I mean the neighborhood men) put together Sadie's new playhouse.
We celebrated our nephew Elias' baptism and enjoyed a short, but lovely visit with Brian's aunt and uncle who were visiting from California.
We had dinner at my brother and sister-in-law's house and visited with my aunt and uncle who live in town but we don't see nearly as often as I'd like to.
Oh, and we have a new family member! Brian's beautiful new Brooks Masten Fretless Banjo. Yay for more handmade, acoustic instruments! Love love love that....
The first weekend in July found us spending some time in Colorado Springs with our dear friends the Noleens. We also took Sadie to Boulder's Dinner Theater for the first time. It's an annual tradition for my family, and I've been dreaming of bringing Sadie with us as soon as she was old enough. Well, this summer's production of Cinderella seemed like the PERFECT opportunity! Needless to say, my little princess was in heaven.
And then it was time to kiss my family goodbye, give them a few extra squeezes, throw my pack on my back and get on the plane (by myself!) to Paducah, Kentucky. More on that in the next post....
After making a brief appearance at work upon my return from the aforementioned 10-day trip, and getting hit by a pretty big emotional hammer due to some intensity in my loved one's lives, we were back to living the good life in "festival land". Rockygrass was utterly divine this year, as it always is. And coming off said emotional hammering, I absolutely soaked and reveled in all the beauty that was around me. Moments of particular musical brilliance; watching my daughter hug, kiss, and generally and love on neighbors and friends and strangers; running alone along the St. Vrain River early Saturday morning and keeping my eyes open for a bear who I knew was nearby; drinking mead and visiting with like-minded festival mamas; curling up in my husband's lap while watching this band play this song on stage and letting all the emotion of a very hard and heartbreaking day pour out of me (Love and love and nothing else, is all I need)...these are the moments I treasure at a festival.
Festivating with an infant was easy. I wore the baby everywhere I went and during everything I did, including into the port-a-potty and while setting up and taking down camp. She nursed and I festivated. Easy. But the next two years were anything but easy. Festivating with a new 1-year-old walker and a rambunctious, newly independent (and not very focused on listening) 2-year-old were NOT SO EASY. And while festivating with a 3-year-old is certainly exhausting, and not anything at all like festivals in our pre-parents days...this (so far) has been by far my favorite festival season yet. Sadie is so comfortable and understanding of the music and camping scene, that she sleeps well, listens well, and really gets into the whole vibe of the thing. AND, whereas in past years, we lived and died by her taking a nap and getting to bed by 8 p.m....now she can (finally!) go without a nap without completely losing her mind, and bedtime rules and routines can definitely be flexible while at a festival.
On Friday night of the festival, Brian was exhausted, so he and Sadie both crawled into the tent by about 9 p.m. The glowsticks came out on Saturday night, and Sadie and her friend Beau ran each other ragged until about 9:30 p.m. in the festival grounds while we parents enjoyed the music and kept an eye on the kiddos. I could tell that Sadie was getting tired when she sat down in the middle of playtime facing away from the stage. I invited her to crawl into my lap and she was asleep in moments. I watched the rest of the set while she slept peacefully on my chest. She went right back to sleep when we got back to the tent and slept all night.
But my very favorite was the last night of the festival. All our festival buddies were gone, it was raining, and one of my top-three-favorite-of-all-time musicians, Tim O'Brien, was closing out the festival. Sadie and I were fresh out of a nice warm shower and in our comfy clothes and raingear. Brian and I found a nice spot to sit where we could see the stage, we spread a tarp across our laps, Sadie crawled into the "fort" formed between our chairs, and promptly fell asleep. I cannot put into words the pure bliss I felt as a light Colorado rain fell on my family as we watched and absorbed the beautiful music coming to us from stage. Sitting there with my loving husband while our beautiful, perfect daughter slept peacefully between us, was one of the happiest moments of my life. Truly.
Another high point of the festival....Sadie and I sat down in the front row of the sheltered theater on the festival grounds to watch Red Molly's set. Sadie, again, was completely entranced by the beautiful women in the beautiful dresses and boots. She wanted to pretend she was singing like they were. LOVE that she gets so into watching women on stage!
Anyway, this about sums up how I feel in my heart about things right now. Despite a lot of pain and sadness all around these days, I'm never far from this....
May I suggest
May I suggest to you
May I suggest this is the best part of of your life
May I suggest
this time is blessed for you
this time is blessed and shining almost blinding bright
just turn your head
and you’ll begin to see
the thousand reasons that were just beyond your sight
the reasons why
why I suggest to you
why I suggest this is the best part of your life
there is a world
that’s been addressed to you
addressed to you, intended only for your eyes
a secret world
a treasure chest to you
of private scenes and brilliant dreams that mesmerize
a tender lover’s smile
a tiny baby’s hands
the million stars that fill the turning sky at night
Oh I suggest
Yes I suggest to you
Yes I suggest this is the best part of your life
There is a hope
that’s been expressed in you
the hope of seven generations, maybe more
this is the fate
that they invest in you
it’s that you’ll do one better that was done before
inside you know
inside you understand
inside you know what’s yours to finally set right
and i suggest
and i suggest to you
and i suggest this is the best part of your life
this is a song
comes from the west to you
comes from the west, comes from the slowly setting sun
this is a song
with a request of you
to see how very short the endless days will run
and when they’re gone
and when the dark descends
we’d give anything for one more hour of life
We waited in line in a field, we played cards, we drank and ate and played video games at Oskar Blues, and we read and relaxed by the river.....
We hugged and laughed and cuddled with each other.....
We soaked up the peace and serenity that the St. Vrain River has to offer and played on its shore...
We listened to, danced to, and watched some GREAT music...
We drank mimosas Friday morning in camp and toasted our five year anniversary....
We ran into the festival grounds with a not so small or light baby strapped on....
We took naps....
We got naked!...
We rejoiced in the experience and said goodbye to another wonderful festival season. Until next year....
I am a wife, mama, daughter, sister, geologist, mandolin player, reader, cook, knitter, gardener, house concert hostess, and festivarian trying to simplify and make the most of this beautiful life.
Posts
