#22
pretending that the thermostat doesn’t say what it says…
and building just a smidge of a fire in the hearth…
…just big enough…
for that “just one s’more a piece”…
the chocolate and grahams and mallows that never actually got eaten while on our retreat!
#20
watching them roll down the “hill”…
that…once upon a (long-ago) time…grammy rolled…
and that…once upon a (not-too-long-ago) time…their daddy rolled…
and that now…all our kids…
…these crazy boys and their crazy cousins…
get to roll down any ol’ time!
and just getting to spend it…this day…
just…together…
their sweet mama and me…
– thanks to my honey for quick-snapping this image between their rolls down the hill!
#19
lunching…
…with him.
and getting little “whiffs” of his cologne all the rest of this day…
little hugs from him leftover on me…
– my grandad with we three…on my 3rd birthday! (april 16, 1975)
#18
coming home to happy kids…
that boy o’ ours having taken them on an ice cream run…
and to the park…
and sticking in a movie…
and letting them “camp” in this…
…for that whole two sleeps!
that boy…he parents these littles better than him and me…
– hannah’s image
#17
his leaving these tucked here and there…
…for me to just happen upon.
#15
that same naked baby…just exploding through the doorway of our room…
and just exclaiming at the mere sight of me…an “i’m just so surprised and excited to find you in here!”…“mama!”
#14
there is life here!
there’s a ring around the tub and the toilet bowl…messages in the inbox and out…laundry spilling over the sides of the bin…smiles and laughter…dishes stacked in the sink…and even more littering the counter…an expandable band ‘round my middle…sticky chubba paw prints (and what looks to be lip prints) on the sliding glass door…band aids and ointment and ice packs on hand…cheerios under the table…legos and coins and all-assortment of crumbs hiding inside of the couch…fits and tears…bicycles with flat tires and helmets with dents…clothes to pass down…a filled-up-one-minute-and-then-somehow-always-empty-the-next refrigerator…songs being played and songs being sung…debris of some sort or another needing to be sucked up off of the living room rug…bread crumbs sticked all over the stick of butter…and butter smooshed and smeared all over the sides of the dish…an every-single-stinkin’-time-i-turn-around wet towel in a heap on the bathroom floor…
and so on…
and…always…
and…even ever-so-much more…life!
#13
my sweet honey…
and my sweet friend…
and now my sweet sister…
…keeping my jar of nummy gummies filled!
