2 little monkeys jumping: July? Already?

Yep, and the summer is rolling right along, as it were. Garden is starting to look copious and lush with cucumbers, peas, tomatoes and beans all sprouting happily; we have a cardinal family making daily use of our milk jug bird feeder, and then there are the other sprouting, flitting, goofball creatures who live here.

cool baby

curly girly

this is what happens when you ask your 4-year-old
to make his funniest face

We did finally cut Rudy's mop top. Boy that kid has some thick hair! I do so love the short look though, because it makes those huge blue eyes jump right off his face. Josephine's crazy curls on the other hand, I am in no way ready to tame. Long may they bounce and twirl!

So a little retrospective of the summer thus far:

In early June I spent two weeks at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, an artists' colony in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was such a gift and a blessing to have the time and space to work on my writing, and Paul survived single-parenthood with most of his sanity intact. I owe him big.

The Colony Barn houses all the artists' studios

It was hard to be away from the kids (& Paul!), though. Rudy in particular had a really hard time letting me go. Driving away while he was wailing my name was one of the worst parenting moments yet, and Paul told me that after I left, he threw himself on the front lawn and wept for 15 minutes. He does have a flair for the dramatic, that one. But once we got settled into our routine of Skyping every night, things got easier from an emotional perspective, anyway. At a certain point the kids didn't even really seem interested in seeing me on the screen! Fickle little monkeys.

Other than that, we have been moseying through the days since I've been back. Lots of little fun here and there--at Millbrook Marsh, in the back yard, at the park...it's just a quiet PA summer so far. But we like it fine.