These lists have become more of a "best of" list than a grateful list. But then again, aren't we all grateful for those little things that make our days slightly better? And, although I don't usually mention the big stuff - our health, our family, jobs, love, etc. - I never forget how blessed we truly are. Never.
The Summer Day -
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
-Mary Oliver (1990)
THE ARTS
*Watching HBO's Girls at Julia's House (during our power outage)
*Listening to Anne Tyler's The Amateur Marriage: A Novel
on the way to Snowshoe, WV (book on tape)
*Reading Ellen Glasgow's Virginia
*Watching the Olympics (esp. US gold metals in swimming and gymnastics)
FOOD
*TJ's quick cook steel cut oats
*Watermelon mojitos for playgroup
PLACES
*Spending 4th of July morning at the zoo
*Rustico spraypark all afternoon
*The end of the heat wave and a walk through Huntley Meadows
*Recording newscasts at the Newseum
*Waterflowers at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens
*Ft. Meyer pool (thank you Beth!!)
*The Artisphere
*Mini-golf at the National Building Museum
*The library (we've used it A LOT this summer)
VACATIONS (Snowshoe, WV; Williamsburg, VA; Rochester, NY; Buffalo, NY; Niagara Falls, Canada; Toronto, Canada)
*P and F both touching the button at the top of the climbing wall at Snowshoe
*Grandma's "house hotel" and going to the mountains to beat the heat
*The Frontier Culture Museum
*Colonial Williamsburg (this place is amazing!!); esp. with T in his soldier hat and F in her bonnet
*Indian Echo Caverns
*Visiting Rochester's National Museum of Play with good friends
*Buffalo's Botanic Gardens (esp. the kids' garden)
*Digging for dinosaur bones at the Buffalo Zoo
*The Embassy Suites Hotel in Buffalo (huge windows, gigantic suites, made to order breakfast, nightly manager's receptions with free alcohol, and a decent pool)
*Alison and Todd tying the knot
*The girls painting birdhouses at Kitty's house
*Watching the Olympics as a family every night (esp. gymnastics and swimming)
ETC
*Friends and family giving us a place to sleep while our power was out
*Electricity
*T proclaiming himself "bumblebee boy"
*T saying "I miss you when i at grandma and grandpa's house. i miss you mommy."
*No training wheels for the girls and a balance bike for T
*The kids all unloading the groceries for me
*T serenading us with "baby, you're a FIREwork!!" all the time.
*Dan coming home from work and folding the laundry (despite billing 250+ a month)
*F and Dan cooking dinner together
*P and her cousin playing "very serious business"
*Drinks and dinner with Shannon and meeting our tabletop neighbors
*Sharon at Elizabeth Arden Pentagon City(BEST HAIRCUTS EVER!!!)
*My cool new wineglass from Alison (best idea ever).
The Kids' Lists
F - that I'm going to be a 1st grader, reading books, the power coming back on, Junie B Jones, vacation with grandma [Snowshoe], Cybil Lily, the climbing wall, being home from school and spending time with P again, bald eagles, family, daddy, playgroup, drawing, helping out, pools, going behind [Niagara] falls, digging for bones [at Buffalo Zoo], cake, drawing
P - my family, dollies, Sabrina, that the power came back on, sleepovers with E, my cousins, Dunkin Donuts, my American Girl doll sleeping bag [from Grandma], going to Snowshoe, the climbing wall and touching the buzzer at top, the bouncee [eurobungee], Katy Perry, Huntley Meadows, the spraypark [at Rustico], seeing frogs and deer, Julia's birthday, cake, playdates, gymnastics, riding the tagalong behind Daddy, going to the aquarium with H, dolphins, sharks, going on fun adventures, painting, making pots [out of clay], miniature golf [at the Building Museum], making scrolls [at the National Museum of Play], Sara, Niagara Falls, going on vacation, coming home from vacation, double decker buses, the castle [Casa Loma in Toronto], gymnastics, Gabby [Douglas]
T - vacation at grandma's house/hotel [Snowshoe], pink sheet, my big boy bed, sleepover with J, sleeping with sissies, my pirate ship, the beach [the lake at Snowshoe], playdates with J, cake, going to the pool, my soldier hat, Niagara Falls, double decker bus, my family
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