Sydney is on vacation from HBHQ for the week and visiting Camp Janet and we sure do miss her around here. Maggie keeps trying to drop bits of food from her high chair and looks around waiting for Sydney to come charging out with her tongue out. The two are the very best of friends, but I’m sure it is nice for Syd to get a break from Maggie’s powerful pinches and kisses Last I heard, she was basking in the sun on the front stoop letting Sparky do his own version of relaxing, which really means digging in the field next to my parent’s house.
Last week while we were up in A-Town both Erin and Suzanna brought their kids out to my parent’s place to play for a few hours and it was so much fun. Suzanna’s son, Daxten, has the most edible legs right now and he was right at home rolling on the grass and munching on some treats. I could seriously take a bite out of him right now…
Erin and her family have FINALLY moved back to WA and it has been so much fun to get to know her little guys beyond the quick visits that we’ve become accustomed to over the years. Gavin is roughly Maggie’s age and has the exact opposite hair-do of Maggie, which is pretty funny.
The MagSTAR is up from her nap and so this is the….end!
Sometimes I feel like a bad wife. For example, last week when I responded to Barry’s comment about a rough day at work by telling him that Mondays are often difficult and was met with silence, I wondered what I’d said wrong. He paused and gently said that he thought it was Wednesday, which indeed it was. Good wives probably keep track of the days of the week and don’t blame a long day at the office on Monday of all days.
This past weekend I strapped myself into my newly acquired triathlon wet suit and accompanied Barry on his training swim around Cain Lake. Let me be clear about a few things:
1. I have almost no intention of doing a full triathlon.
2. Although I was in the water for just as long as Barry, he literally swam circles around me.
3. There was a time not too long ago that I could swim almost as fast as Barry. Not so much anymore.
I went with Barry at first because I knew he was more excited for me to try out my wetsuit than I was, but by the time we finished up our swim I was delighted that I’d decided to go. We made it out to the middle part of the lake and it was at that point that I realized that perhaps I’d pushed myself a bit too hard. I opted to do a bit of back stroke and Barry proceeded to swim like a seal. Go figure.
As I found myself floating there, with my tummy pointed to the sky, I pushed thoughts of fish nibbling my toes out my head and took in the scene around me: trees lining the skyline, cozy homes nesteled into the woods and my amazing husband swimming effortlessly through the water just ahead of me. We left Maggie with Greg and Linda and it was nice to have some time doing something active with Barry without the extra strain of pushing a stroller or hauling a child in a pack.
By the time we got out of the water and headed back to Greg and Linda’s, I thought to myself that perhaps I’d earned some points in the Good Wife Department because I knew the day of the week and I had finally tried out my wet suit. As turns out, I definitely earned some points, but it didn’t have anything to do with days of the week or wetsuits…it was more about the shared experience of floating in the middle of the lake together and truly enjoying it.
Truthfully, there isn’t really such thing as points when it comes to being married, but it is certainly fun to joke about. I’m just grateful that I’m married to somebody that I appreciate so much and I know it goes both ways.
Without a doubt Maggie and I were the luckiest of girls this week to get to spend time with all our friends and family scattered around Skagit Valley. It is so easy and enjoyable to be in Anacortes during the summer months and my parent’s house never fails to feel like a little pocket of perfectness tucked into Fidalgo Island. I only wish that everybody was so lucky to have a place to return to and feel such a strong connection to.
When I spend time looking at all the work that my parents have done to turn their home into the gorgeousness that it is, I can’t help but wonder if their talents skipped a generation (me) and will hopefully crop up in Maggie. Maggie’s love of plants and flowers is already so blatantly obvious, with her insisting on smelling every single flower she sees and digging in the dirt without hesitation. The girl also has no qualms getting in the mix of things, helping out in every way.
My childhood is partially sprinkled with memories of eatting vegetables from my mom’s garden, but now that I’m on the other side of the fence as an adult, I have a deeper appreciation for all the work that must have gone into making sure those seeds got planted and nurtured. Seeing Maggie and my mom wander the garden, filling colanders with freshness, washing the dirt off and taking bites off and on, was incredible to see. Maggie was fascinated by the process and I have no doubt that she’ll be a great ‘helper’ for future harvests.
I’ve got Ella Fitzgerald’s Summertime stuck in my head.
