a different kind of good.

The past few weeks have been full of all kinds of good things: birthdays, end-of-year exhilaration, our annual Harry Potter book (children get to read the next one after school work has finished), and a day trip or two.  I celebrated a milestone birthday, and M gave me some antique bottles he had found in a trash heap and cleaned.  It may have been my favorite birthday present ever.  They represent the attention and love that he has, but which are so often hidden by his silence.  Or basketball playing.  Boys are such a new territory for me, especially the teenaged ones that are on the cusp of towering over me.  M shows glimmers of the thoughtful man he will be.  (But also the slob.  His room is a danger zone.)

My violets are almost spent, but they were spectacular this spring!  I plan to split the larger ones like I did last year and to give them to my mom and sister.  It's funny how much I like violets, when purple is my least favorite color.  Something about them is so sweet and homely and inviting, like the geranium or the marigold.  They're not in the room to be showy.

One of my favorite summer activities is cleaning out the areas of the house that have been neglected over the school year.  I went through our sun porch last week like a tornado, gathering all of the trash and toys and tiny math manipulatives (I'm banning math manipulatives!) into a bin to deal with after I gave the room a deep clean.  It felt so good, and the kids are using the room more for their crafts and activities.  And banging on the piano.  Some things don't change no matter how clean the room is.  I have scoured the laundry room and am working on some changes that will make it more useful for our family.  I'll share more when it's ready.

We made a jaunt to our old town this past week on a really perfect day, the first time I'd been back since our crazy move almost two years ago.  The kids have been requesting that we stop by one of our favorite places, and so we packed a lunch and some books so we could spend the afternoon there.  It was a hard journey for me.  I really loved where we lived, the people we knew, and the pace at our last parish assignment.  "Pang" is the word that describes my feelings when I remember our life there and I couldn't bring myself to drive by our last house, even though we were so close.  We've heard recently that one of our beloved elderly parishioners fell and broke her femur, and then suffered from several complications.  Driving back there just made that all seem more real rather than remote.  We're praying for her recovery, so we can visit her when she gets back home.

All of that makes it sounds like where we live now is terrible.  It's not at all--it's wonderful!  One thing I realized this spring is that where we are now is a different kind of good.  We've had opportunities fall into our laps, our children are surrounded by good company, and, best of all, we are growing and stretching in all kinds of ways.  It's funny how the least looked for or expected circumstances transform into the best possible ones for us.  I'm excited to see what God provides for us in the next year.

I finished my birthday shawl on the day after my birthday.  It's raveled here.  I love it; the pattern, the yarn, the size, everything!  Z captured some ridiculous pictures of me wearing it the other day.  She'd wait until I made a ridiculous gesture and then press the shutter.  Still, I'm glad she let me rope her into being my photographer.

I hit the JoAnn jackpot yesterday, snagging $21.99 per yard linen for $6.60 per yard!  I wanted to trumpet about what a great deal I got, but everyone who would have been excited wasn't available to talk.  My husband was entirely underwhelmed.  If no one gets excited about a deal you've made, it's almost like it didn't even happen!  The black linen I found will become a dress for me, if I can finish tracing the pattern.  The gridded linen is to be curtains for our laundry room. The other three fabrics weren't a part of my amazing finds yesterday, but they all looked so nice in a pile together.  Grey linen will be pants for me, and the print and purple linen will be geranium dresses for little M. She really loves purple! I still need to trace the pattern for those, too.

So many tasks on my to-do!  Time to get crackin'.