Home!

We left Wrightsville Beach on Friday morning and headed northeast a couple hours to visit friends in New Bern. They live on a creek, and it so resembles the bayou on which my parents live that I nearly gasped in familiarity. Isn't this beautiful? There is even Spanish moss, boatloads of it, like in LA. 

We paddleboarded, kayaked, picked blueberries, experienced a walk-up only Dairy Queen for the first time, swam, talked, laughed, and caught most of the continuation of the INCREDIBLE Djokovic-Querrey matchup at Wimbledon. Seriously, did y'all see that game? Holy smokes!

This morning, we packed up again, but this time to head home. 

There is something so liberating about being elsewhere, about shedding the daily to-dos of regular life. But after a while, I always start feeling a bit unmoored and itching to soon throw my ropes around the cleats on home's dock. We pulled in this afternoon just as everyone started to dissolve in car-bound craziness. Long road trips really test the love, you know?

Tom hauled ass inside, changed his clothes, put in his ear buds and raced to isolating zen of the lawn mower's loud engine. I checked on my garden -new leaves on both blackberry bushes! tomatoes! squash! OKRA BLOSSOMS!- and then hauled ass to the market, the words "No, I will not buy a storm trooper costume. Make your own!" trailing from my mouth as the boys begged.

I returned home to this masterpiece, a delightful repurposing of ninja wear, old Tae Kwon Do gear, a Rebel pilot bib, and the storm trooper mask we already owned.

See kids? I knew you could do it! That is not, by the way, a diaper!

Tomorrow, Jack turns 10, and somewhat to his dismay, I am sending the boys to day 1 of camp. We have celebrated J three times already, and really, this mama needs a day off. Tom promised to assist with additional costume making tomorrow afternoon, and I offered a (yet another) blackberry pie.

Double digits for my firstborn! I remember his birth with total clarity, not least because even though my contractions started at just minutes apart, I plugged in my curling iron and fully planned to style my hair before my mother intervened and, wisely, told me to get in the freaking car instead. 

happy Jack at 8.5 months

I have missed this space and hope to settle back in to my regular routine now. Happy 4th everyone!

Stream of consciousness catch-up/catchall

Taught another class today - Canning 101 - which was great fun. 

Went to dinner with girlfriends- also great fun.

Mulched and tended the now-two blackberry bushes from Papa that comprise my "blackberry patch." I love them. Number 1 is thriving. So are my tomatoes.

Blackberry 1

He thinks he's totally hidden

Spent another 90 minutes sorting and building Legos with Jack. We spent a marathon 6 hours yesterday sorting and free-building an X-wing. It was the weirdest sort of sedentary fun. 

Took a run this afternoon, and boy did it feel good to sweat. I haven't exercised in weeks; this is not a good trend, not good for my psyche at all. Pounding the pavement today, making that soft-clop contact with the earth felt so good.

On Saturday, we are heading to NC for our annual family vacation at the beach. It is always wonderful to see the boys with their cousins, and to have no concerns greater than the amount of sand we are or are not tracking inside. We will also get to spend three days with one of my dearest-ever friends and her family. #giftsallaround

Brexit looks like it will happen. This is not, in my opinion, a good thing at all. The Pound is already plummeting. The EU has been beset with problems from the get-go, but I still find this probably departure sad, and if the UK splits afterwards, well, I find that even sadder. Nothing is permanent. That, in many ways, is sad too.

One of my dear friend's parents were just in Louisiana. Her mother, a very talented photographer, took this photo of Lake Martin, a gorgeous swampy area. This picture captures it perfectly, and I am grateful she shared it with me. #myhome

As always, I am hopeful that things feel slower soon. At least my core feels calmer. Baby steps, I guess.

On the night she is finally well

They celebrate their last night sans kids
with cocktails
on the deck.

applejack rabbits

It is a humidity-free night, a breeze whispers past their shoulders and through their hair, a full moon hangs low and pregnant in a clear sky. The heady, earthy scent of newly laid mulch is subtle and lovely.

tonight's moon

Inexplicably, but also because it makes complete sense, chicken stock simmers on the stove, liquid amber redolent of leeks and celery and a happy bird. The bones leave each other, the skin slips, the broth is golden; never having boiled, it is not cloudy. 

A pizza sizzles on the grill, another round of cocktails boogie with icy cubes in a silver shaker. They show their age by dancing madly, wildly, happily, freely to the Summer of '69 and You Shook Me All Night Long stations on Pandora.

Fat Bottomed Girls, Jessie's Girl, Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now, Right Now, Dream On, Paradise City, Your Love, House of the Rising Sun scream from the speakers; anthems for two who came of age in the 80s, that time of awful hair, leg-warmers and great music. 

Their cat watches with gimlet eyes. What does he think? He flicks his tail imperiously, knowing he is beloved.

They dance and twist and spin and breathe heavily; they are not in their twenties anymore. They are glad. 

Their boys are coming home tomorrow, and they can't wait to wrap their arms around their tan little bodies but they will also miss this sort of time. 

The Mamas and the Papas sing about the leaves turning brown and winter's days. The Stones paint it black, the cocktails are drunk, the stock starts to cool, tired bodies take to the couch, the cat joins, purring.