Good Nature, Bad Nature

We were at the cabin for the fourth, the siblings and our teenagers. J, the 6' 7" nephew noticed this lovely pink and yellow moth on the entryway into the cabin. It was shockingly fluorescent. When did nature get so high tech? I mean, it was actually cartoonish in its beauty. Then we saw this nasty spider in the tub. I know it is difficult to tell the size of this spider, but its body was the side of a quarter - not including the legs. Yuckorama! M, my 19 year-old niece took care of it with the back of a sandal. There was no screaming just a little surprise at the number of whacks it took to take it down. Happy fourth!

Energy Source

Cupcakes are the answer to our energy problems. Try eating one cupcake each day and see what happens. At the very least your piss poor attitude will improve. Come on, give it a try.

July 2

Today I got to hold this sweet baby R. He belongs to my friend B. B is a great mom and filled with joy over motherhood and her new boy. I loved holding him. He is small and compact and as he fell asleep I remembered the sweetness of my own kids. Thank you for that B!
This evening I took a walk around the local lake with my sister M. We talked about our kids and our worries and laughed about some old times. She always has good stories to tell and advice to give. I had no cake today, but I did have some chocolate ice cream with whipped cream. It is by no means a substitute for cake, but delicious none the less.

July 1 - It's Summer!

Remember those youthful days when you went to your summer job during the day, came home and napped, and then went out with friends until the wee hours? Well, that's the life of my kids this summer. This is J - going to work. He comes home and watches TV and naps and then gets up to party. The kids come home late and as my friend put it recently, "I'm having a hard time holding down a fulltime job with the kids' party schedule!" It's true. I pray that they are safe and making good choices. Before they leave the house I remind them to not drink, not smoke pot, and abstain from sex hoping that they might just take that extra moment to think before they act and make the smart choice.

Raspberries and Cupakes!

Yesterday I noticed the first raspberry of the season on the raspberry bush just outside my back door. Isn't it cool? I gave it to G, and he enjoyed it. Today I went to Cupcake with my friend K. I had a moo moo cupcake. It was chocolate with cream cheese frosting. Yum. So, it was cupcake day #3. Today was the first day of summer that I have not had to work so I felt the usual no-work anxiety creeping up. I did lots of laundry and hung it out to dry. I went for a long bike ride and took a short nap. I cleaned my daughter's room. But still, I feel anxious. What gives?

More Cake Please

Today was my nephew A's high school graduation party. Yesterday was my niece C's party. Three kids start college this fall. Two going to Wisconsin schools, one going to Minnesota. The best thing about these parties has been by far the cake. In the month of June I was inundated with cakes. There were retirement cakes, graduation cakes, end-of-year cakes, thank you cakes, I'm sorry cakes, we-have-some-left-over-cake cakes. It was cake everyday. So, I decided to start counting the number of cake days I could string out. I got to 12 and then there was a lull. Of all of the 12 days of cake, I think I only purchased my own cake once or twice. My favorite day was the day I ate four pieces of cake in one day and three of the cakes were different cakes. It was incredible. Now, I'm starting over. Today is cake day two (I had cake at C's party yesterday and A's party today) and tomorrow I'm having lunch at a place called, Cupcake, so it will be cake day three. So far all the cakes have been white or chocolate. That's perfect because any kind of weird cake would just put me over the edge. Just stick with the basics when it comes to cake and everyone will be happy.

She's A College Freshman!

So M and I went to her freshman orientation. In case you're not sure how it works, the day starts out predictably, with an hour long blah blah blah session on the importance of academics and maintaining school engagement and this is the best time of your life and work hard etc. Then after about an hour into it, they separate the students from the parents, forbidding each group to contact the others, i.e, no texting, phone calling, or other communication. Then they bring the students to an undisclosed location and continue the boredom with the parents. The best part of the day was seeing her dorm room - great view! And then seeing M at the end of the day all filled with excitement and anticipation. She got her ID (she looks darling) and her class schedule. On the car ride home she said, "I feel like a real college student now." She read out loud from a book she's reading for about the last hour of the trip then we chatted about her high school friends and how she managed through some difficult times with them. I am so proud of how she navigated through her relationships with her peers. She worked hard at being kind while pushing some of her friends to do better. She is going to be a great college student. As my friend L put it, "I can't wait to start missing her."