Grass stained knees

getaway

Last week at this time Jon and I were here, one of our all time favorite destinations.

It had been 6 years since our last escape, just the two of us. It was long overdue.

3 days, 2 nights, restful sleep, amazing food, savoring the breeze through open balcony doors while church bells ring all over the city. Window shopping, browsing antiques, breathing in the architecture, embracing the history of the Old South.

It was completely restorative bliss.

Thank you Nan and George for coming to stay with the boys.

I'm not sure who had more fun, us or them?

 

a dozen

Earlier this month Jon and I celebrated our 12th anniversary.

Twelve years.

One dozen.

A decade plus two.

Any way you slice it, to me, twelve sounds long. But somehow it has felt short, and busy and good, and full and blessed beyond measure. Don't get me wrong, it's not all roses, all the time, but mostly we balance each other in the very best of ways. And we are still buddies. And that feels like a victory for two kids who were a product of divorced families. 

(Photo credit: Will Kerner, Charlottesville, VA)

Look at how young we looked and so very happy. Our wedding day was such a wonderful one. It was not large, it was not grand, but we were surrounded by our very best of friends and family and the weather that June day was nothing short of exquisite!

Who would have guessed that a dozen years later we would still reside in North Carolina and be the proud parents of 4 amazing little boys, including a set of twins no less. If someone would have pulled me aside that day and whispered that little fortune in my ear I never would have believed them. Not in a million years!

And take a peek at this little bit of extravagance given to me by my sweetie. I have never even held real pearls much less felt their weight around my neck. It's enough to make a girl feel like a queen.

So if you happen upon me weeding the garden, don't be surprised to find them gracing my neckline, complimenting my muddy knees and dirty fingers, because let's be honest, I just don't have too many legitimate excuses to wear such things out into the world these days. Maybe sometime in the next twelve years my days and adventures will be more "strand of pearls" worthy, maybe not. I just hope that my buddy and I are still enjoying life's adventure, wherever it takes us next!

35

Yesterday I turned thirty-five...or as one of my best girlfriend's says....yesterday was the 6th anniversary of my 29th birthday.

However you want to slice it, I'm feeling a bit conflicted about this one. I really don't feel any older than two days ago, and most of the time I feel about the same as I did when I was about 18... well in my mind anyway.

But for some reason, 35 sounds like the opposite of young ( I will not say old ). It also isn't too far from 40 and for reasons I can not articulate, 40 is a number that I have always dreaded. Not that 40 is bad, I'm sure it really is the new 20, but in the crazy recesses of my mind, I have just always imagined if you could equate a smell with 40 it would be something like stale cheese. You know, you can still cut off the moldy, crusty edges but it is Definitely past it's prime, and by prime I mean that firm, well rested 26 year old we all were, once upon a time...

Anyway reaching this milestone has made me realize that the ominous 40 is indeed creeping, slowly but surely closer and closer. I know I need to snap out of it, really, I am a 35 year old mother of 4, words like firm and well rested simply don't apply to girls like me. But there's the rub, because I still feel like a girl, certainly not a grown up, although I'm pretty sure most people would say I probably qualified about a decade ago.

Somehow, I forgot to notice.

Well, 35, Bring It!

I welcome you and all that you signify. I'm reasonably sure when I am 75, I will look back on 35 and feel like it was actually the uphill slope rather than the down hill slope of my life.

And if life is indeed measured in seasons, I'd say that 35 feels like mid-summer, Bright and fragrantly full of life!  Yes, that's exactly like what this life of mine feels like right now!

June 7th...

The babies and our sweet god-daughter, their cousin Josie, were all baptised together in Baltimore. 

It was a beautiful, fun, family day!

(Yes, I know Caleb is picking his nose, but I think this photo is so the real us!)