July

July has been (in no particular order):

Long afternoons at the park, with a picnic basket.
Hot sticky nights, with the windows open.
Plastic toys in the kiddie pool, on the deck.
Diapers swollen three times their size with water.
Letting my hair go unwashed and wearing it up like Marmee from Little Women.
Sangria with a friend turning 30.
Walking in my mother's garden.
Kent playing happy birthday on the ukelele.
Freshly cut flowers.
Brats and corn on the cob.
The kids in red Saltwater Sandals, me in red clogs.
Talking with Sarah, and feeling more myself.
Staying up until 2 AM reading.
Being tired every. single. day... but staying up until 2 AM reading anyway.
Mint berry slaw.
Zerina, the Pirate Fairy.
Greta making leaps and bounds with her reading and writing.
Greta crying because her feet are growing.
Oliver saying "What-doing mommy?"
Oliver saying everything as a question.
Mornings with all of us on the couch, one in front of the other, like a bobsled team. Them eating bagels, while I enjoy a slow cup of coffee.
Taking the mornings slow.

There were also times this month where I was pushed to my limits, where we cried, said the wrong thing, wasted precious moments, and the kids behaved like total grump trucks.
But it's funny, as I look back at the month, I have to really strain my memory to recall those things.
Mostly I think of:

Long afternoons at the park, with a picnic basket...