One Fine Morning...

Last weekend we took Lillian camping. We loved it. Except for the part where the kids in the campground next to us stayed up until midnight talking in REALLY LOUD voices. Lillian couldn't quite fall asleep with so much action going on. Go figure. But other than that, it was awesome. After we set up camp, we played on the swings and went on the slide at the playground. At sunset, we enjoyed the banks of Lake Ontario. Also, Lillian broke into the Jeep and ate every single one of the strawberries from the local farm that our friend hand picked for us. I can't say I blame her. They were the sweetest, tastiest strawberries I've ever had in my life. Except that I only had like three of them. We played cards, we ate s'mores, we enjoyed the good old outdoors. It whet my appetite for more campouts. We're going to make sure that this summer is filled with lots of camping. Other than that, June continued on a merry way for us. So much of what I love about summer includes su...

A few weeks ago, my friend, Cindy, had her fifth baby. Her oldest child is not quite seven, so that means she's had five pregnancies in six years. Whew. Cindy is just the kind of person, though, that makes something like five children in six years seem easy. She does everything such a thoroughness, thoughtfulness, and apparent ease that I teasingly have told her she should have crossed the plains with the pioneers. In fact, if this were the nineteenth century and we were crossing the plains, I would have been that lady that died giving birth in the covered wagon, and Cindy would be the Mary Fielding Smith character, healing the ox and hauling all her family west with a smile. Nevertheless, following the birth of her fifth baby, Cindy has gotten sick with a fever that she can't shake. No one knows what's wrong, and so far (thank heaven) it doesn't seem to be any more serious than a simple fever; just enough to keep her out of sorts and upside down....who has time to hav...

June, with all it's splendorous sunshine, has slipped by us quietly. We work, we teach, we play, we sleep, we eat, and so go the days. Since moving to New York, I find that starting around January I begin my countdown to summer solstice, to the days when the sun lingers well past 9:00 p.m. This year I have discovered, as I make my way to church at dawn, that the sky is pink as along the eastern line of trees in my neighborhood. It's nice to know what direction east is--without mountains, it's hard to know sometimes, you know? It's been a long countdown to June; and now Summer Solstice is almost upon us. We take long evening walks through our neighborhood. We eat luscious dinners of grilled meat, corn-on-the-cob, and watermelon out on the patio. We watch our flowers bloom. We marvel at our fast-growing-darling who now chats nonstop from the moment she wakes until she crashes, exhausted, into bed at the end of each discovery filled day. Summer is beautiful. Since my last ...