It’s that rambling from the weekend time.

I took two cups of those delicious sweet strawberries and made my first 2018 batch of strawberry jam – complete with the memories that come with the jam process every year like clockwork.  And still in that same old bowl.

Goodness, but that jam is delicious.  Maybe it’s the nostalgia that tastes so sweet.  (That and the copious amounts of sugar.)

I also bought our first watermelon this weekend – even though I know it’s not quite local yet.  But Mosely has been longing for watermelon for months and we couldn’t resist.  Sitting on the porch and enjoying the sunshine, the breeze and the bright colors of spring was like an afternoon gift I hadn’t realized how much I needed.

 

 

This weekend the three younger kids became one with the dirt.

They were disgusting but they sure were having fun with our neighbors – adding mud and filth and creating some sort of game out of chucking globs of mud at one another.  I just let them have their fun but didn’t let them come near me.

I’m grateful that they can be kids.  That they can laugh and get dirty and not always need entertaining.  I’m glad they don’t have all the heavy burdens placed on their shoulders just yet and that the heavy burdens that have landed on their shoulders haven’t weighed them down to the ground.  I like watching them live their lives and explore and learn and laugh.

 

 

This weekend several of my friends and I officially announced open registration for a homeschool co-op we are starting in the fall.  (You can see more at our Instagram feed for now at Meadowlark Collective.)

It’s been a long process that has probably sat in our hearts for more years than I can imagine – incubating and morphing, growing and shaping – until I think it’s ready to hatch, take on its own life and fly into something.

I’m hopeful and anxious and curious all at the same time.

We’re in the home stretch with finishing up this school year and that’s exciting and bizarre.  The exciting part is – summer break!! The bizarre part is that London finishes her first year of high school and Mosely prepares to enter her freshman year.

This cat still rules our house.  The kids leave their bedroom doors open just enough for Her Majesty to enter at her leisure.  They officially call that opening a “kitty cat crack”.  (Yeah, it’s funny on so many levels.)

 

 

The weekend was restful, although there were two soccer games and a birthday party, and our Sunday was leisurely like we needed – with pancakes with homemade whipped cream and strawberries.  We played Scrabble and YamSlam and drew and read books and I mostly feel ready to go out and live the week in front of me.

 

___________________________________