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.
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