Mama Speak

I'll start by saying after a full morning of taking care of everyone else's needs I'm so happy to be sitting down for a few moments to write. Ah... I relish this first hour of the afternoon.

I feel Friday's Flowers drawing to a close. Participation has dropped off in past weeks, summer vacations and other priorities no doubt, and my own inspiration in this area is waning. Fresh flowers are still coming into my home each week but my creative energies are being spent elsewhere and taking photos of flowers seems like a chore. Can't have that now can we?

This will be the second last week and next Friday will be the last time (at least this summer) that I host Friday's Flowers. After which I will draw a name from everyone who has participated since the last drawing and send the winner a bar of my summer soap.

Thanks for you joining along. It's been fun meeting you all.

We're going backpacking this weekend so this week's flower photo is a bit contrived (I don't usually put flowers next to the packing box!) to give you a little picture of what getting ready looks like. I won't lie, getting ready for such an undertaking is a lot of work. But we get better at it each time.

This week we've worked hard in the evenings - all of us - so the packing, which is mostly food prep, doesn't affect my daily routine with the kids, something I find really difficult. It's so hard to regularly (we do this once a month) fit in packing with my full time job of feeding our family, homeschooling and doing all the usual summer stuff like weekly swimming trips, farm visits, berry picking and a little gardening. 

my backyard sunflowers towering over the garden path

I think we're improving at getting ready for a weekend of backpacking. The fact that I haven't experienced any stress this time around is an indication that we might be on to something.

This has been a golden summer. Warm and sunny with thunderstorms every once in a while to bring the needed rain.

We're doing our best to make the most of these beautiful days. To live summer and enjoy summer. Even when it means full days of school/crafting, work, swimming, meals and then packing before bed. Because making the effort to go to the woods, with a pack on your back, to camp at a pond and walk along streams is worth it. 

How are you making the most of your summer?

~~~

Welcome to Friday's Flowers! If you're just visiting today and want to know what's going on please read this post. Use the linky feature below to share your bouquet blossoms.

Pick some flowers, arrange 'em pretty, take a photo, post it to your blog, link to Friday's Flowers and share it with us. 

My camera lens seems to be focusing a lot these days on Laurent. Maybe because he was away for 2 weeks visiting his grandparents and I feel the unconscious need to "catch-up" that lost time.

Every time I look at him he seems to have grown. Sometimes I just sit and watch him, trying to take it all in. Hoping I will remember everything about him, in this golden age of boyhood.

My heart feels full of such joy and pride simply spending time with him. He's such a great kid.  He is still very much boy and I am a little scared of the journey ahead as he grows into a young man. It's a couple years away but I know it's coming. 

But for now (& always) he's my boy.

photo credit: Renee Sifferman

Most of the flowers blooming in my yard this time of year are either purple, yellow or white. I didn't necessarily intend it that way (in years past I've spent time planning my perennial beds) but as certain perennials have died and others have taken over those are the colors that remain.

The purple echinacea and yellow sunflower are two plants with particular poignancy for me. These flowers carry us through into fall and although they are blooming now, in the height of summer, they take my imagination to autumn. To a time of fallen leaves, cooler temperatures and new beginnings.

Why can't I just live in the moment of summer without looking ahead to the fall? Just thinking about it makes me melancholy. For Pete's sake, it's not even August and I'm already mourning the loss of summer!

It's not just the echinacea that's giving me a touch of melancholy though. It's my beautiful children. These blossoms of mine that are growing faster than weeds and in no time at all be taller than me, just like my backyard sunflowers. How did this happen?

I have felt for some months now a keening in my heart. A deeper awareness of the time with my children that has past and the few precious years I have left. I've counted. We're half way through this business of parenting our children till they are adults. Eleven years have passed with Celine and we have eleven more with Brienne till she is eighteen, nine more for Laurent. We're smack dab in the middle of this parenting-through-childhood gig and it's throwing me for a little loop.

This season of life for our family is lot like summer. The seeds were planted during "spring"; those baby, toddler and preschool years when we established love, trust and discipline (to name just a few).

Now we are enjoying the beautiful blossoms from those years of tending and weeding our children's hearts. These days for our family are mostly warm and sunny, a season of intense growth and fun with some rainy days in between.

I know that summer isn't a time to just sit around and watch the flowers bloom, metaphorically and literally. There is weeding still to be done and preparations to be made for fall and winter. And I feel that responsibility deeply as I look ahead to the young adult years.

However, even as I revel in warm days, fresh berries and trips to the beach, I know summer won't last. We will move into other seasons of life with their own unique beauty and treasures. And I look forward with anticipation to the years ahead when the relationship with our children will grow into friendship.

But right now the season is childhood and it's in full bloom. And it's beautiful, so much more beautiful than any garden flower.

My summer melancholy.

~~~

Welcome to Friday's Flowers! If you're just visiting today and want to know what's going on please read this post. Use the linky feature below to share your bouquet blossoms.

Pick some flowers, arrange 'em pretty, take a photo, post it to your blog, link to Friday's Flowers and share it with us.