summah...

Isn't that the coolest beach find? A long-nose gar fish...We are in full-blown summer here. Tomatoes, basil, peaches and blueberries, beaches, hot afternoons, napping...summer.  Our summer this year is full of trips and visits, and what I am noticing is that we are handling the transitions into and out of these events a bit more gracefully than in previous years.  Yes, yes, we still have meltdowns. All of us. But they aren't as long or as fierce.  Maybe we are growing...

Yes, another photo of the long-nose gar! Really - look at those teeth! They are so fabulous, growing right out of the mandible! They're sharp-sharp! 

The girls and I have mostly kept our busy out in the world; when we are home we are cooking together, puttering in the garden, listening to stories (Lemony Snicket, Harry Potter, Rump), reading stories (Mother-Daughter Book Club, Olivia Kidney), and writing stories.  Eliza has been writing stories in Google Drive for the past year, and in the last month discovered Storybird.com.  She writes every day that we are home, sometimes for several hours at a stretch.  The stories are getting a bit longer and more complex; time was that they were mostly a vehicle for new name creations and lengthy descriptions of each character's wardrobe, but now they involve interesting characters with friend problems, family problems, and the occasional wicked spell.

Eliza loved her dance experience so much this year that she's been taking a class this summer as well, a  modern intensive.  She's asking to take two...or three...or four? classes this fall.  Love it! They also have had a monthly writing class, which is a continuation of the weekly poetry class we started in February.  

I love these two; they are at such amazing ages right now.  They are so enjoyable to be with, so smart and funny and when well-rested and well-fed, they are very kind and considerate! (I remember a mnemonic from when they were small: HALT.  When one of them (or both!) were feeling out of sorts, I'd go down the mental list: Hungry? Angry? Lonely? Tired? I've been thinking of this list lately, and applying it to all of us...Dang, it helps!)

Such fortune is mine to be with them in these long summer days...