Meditations on Life and Parenting
“Believe with all of your heart that you will do what you were made to do.” – Orson Swett Marden
Mr. D’s 6th birthday fun
The ready position
Time to jump…and bloom
Cooper demonstrating the smile to go with the sign of the week.
“While the world is full of wondrous sights, inner peace comes from staying home.” The Tao Teh Ching
We returned from our week on the road. Seeing the Starbucks building always makes me feel like I’m in Seattle. And I don’t even drink coffee!
The cat didn’t bother to jump up and greet us. After all, she’s a cat and has an image to maintain.
Cooper on the other hand was so happy to see us that he pinned Miss O down. I think that’s his strategy so we won’t leave again. Miss O assured him that our roots are at home!
Miss O was able to join Mr. D’s summer sandlot baseball team so they are teammates for a few weeks and loving it! The featured photo above is the gorgeous old tree at one of the baseball fields. Nothing like summer time blue sky and early evening baseball.
I was walking Cooper early one morning this week when I was shocked to see this huge snail. On second look, it was just a compostable bag and a paper plate. But you see it too, right?
And the sign of the week is a little shocking too!
Do you have a landmark that makes you feel like you’ve arrived home?
“More journeys should have no purpose other than to discover more and more beautiful things.” – unknown
We have been traveling this week. We’ve seen so many beautiful and amazing things and had a fantastic time with dear friends. Here are our photos – a few in Washington and most from Oregon.
Beachcombing and balancing in the tidal flats off Jetty Island in Possession Sound (Washington).
Ski lifts and smiles on Mt. Hood (Oregon)
We loved staying at the historic Timberline lodge on Mt. Hood. One of the things I was amazed at was the repeated use of this squared off arch shape from everything from the furniture (left is a dining room chair) to the wooden doors and stone archways (not pictured). Timberline is famous for being where they filmed The Shining but there were stills of other movies filmed there too – like a Lassie film.
Biking and bucks in Bend, Oregon. Notice the osprey in its nest in the upper right of the biking photo.
Heart rock from 7,000 feet on Mt Hood, gap-toothed grins (Mr D lost a tooth on this trip), and the sign of the week.
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, be no one thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy
Miss O and Mr D celebrating earning a green belt and red belt respectively in Aikido.
Two different types of community building. The first is the annual neighborhood car show. We love attending because we run into lots of friends and see cool vehicles like old fire trucks.
The second is Cooper ringing the bell for the cat so someone will open the door for her.
I believe the soda display is showing the Mariner moose, our MLB team’s mascot. And I love the sign of the week – makes me laugh every time!
“You’ll need coffee shops and sunsets and road trips. Airplanes and passports and new songs and old songs, but people more than anything else. You will need other people and you will need to be that other person to someone else, a living breathing screaming invitation to believe better things.” – Jamie Tworkowski
Pictures from our trip to San Francisco. Riding a surrey down the beach to the Golden Gate bridge and Miss O trying oysters. I’m not sure which one was more brave – because that surrey was hard to pedal!
Big and small animals looking cute.
Water balloon baseball in the back yard. Please forgive the alignment of the second picture – the pitcher/photographer was in the splash zone…
Fortunately the sign of the week reminds me there’s a solution. 🙂
(featured photo is mine – the sunset over The Presidio and San Francisco bay)
“Do or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda
I promise this post is going full circle from quote to sign of the week.
Mr D had his last Little League game this week. We enjoyed the season so much we stepped up the play at home.
Cooper turned two. He doubled down on stealing stuff for his birthday to make sure we didn’t think he’d grown out of it.
Miss O and Cooper and the cat all looking down from their perches.
We visited Lucas Films’`offices this week and enjoyed the Yoda statue bringing the quote of this post and sign of the week together.
(featured photo is Mt Rainier and Puget Sound from a plane)
“And so with the sunshine and the great burst of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
When Vicki Atkinson and I podcasted with my meditation teacher, Deirdre Wilcox, last fall, she said something about our agrarian roots that left me with a huge a-ha. Her insight was that the feeling of “Have I done enough?” at the end of the summer comes from our centuries of having to stockpile supplies to last all winter.
It made me want to be intentional about how to get my fill of the summer time. Slowing down to enjoy time with my kids, in the water, and in nature would top my list. And we got plenty of those three this week.
Iconic scenes. In the first one, it was the first hot day of the year so apparently everyone wanted to see the Space Needle from the water. And the second picture – I’m guessing it won’t take long for someone to guess what song Miss O was dancing to.
We made new friends this week.
School isn’t out yet – but the academics are winding down so both of my kids had fields trips to a nearby Puget Sound beach this week. I tagged along as a chaperone for both of them and stockpiled a bunch of time with my kids, near water, and in nature.
The neighborhood skeleton and sign of the week. I’m not sure – is it is the brain or the heart that we need to start using more? Maybe both!
Hope you all have a great weekend filled with whatever fills your summertime cup, if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, of course!
“Choose the bigger life.” – Gretchen Rubin
There was some sentiment that the animals in our household hadn’t been featured enough in photos of the week recently. So here’s Cooper, caught in the act of stealing a sock puppet. And Simone the cat, in one of her less modest moments.
Mr. D is routing water through the new gap in his front teeth. And Miss O who can make hanging out while tilted sideways look natural.
The curiosity of an ant hole and the sign of the week which reminds me to focus on the right things!
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” – Albert Einstein
We spent Memorial Day weekend playing tourist in our own area. First at Snoqualmie Falls.
Then at the Boeing Museum of Flight. They had so many great exhibits but I thought the Apollo mission ones were really cool. We came home and watched the Apollo 13: Survival documentary on Netflix. So gripping!
Mr. D has been planting his apple seeds in the yard and is diligent about watering them. He’s demonstrating the creation part of the consume lifecycle!
“We might not have it all together but together we have it all.” – unknown
It must be that time of year because our project list has been long. This week was sanding and staining some furniture we got from a friend. Many hands don’t always make for quick work – but at least we were smiling!
Miss O after her successful performance filling for the lead of a musical with 24 hours notice. And Mr. D who has a wonderful Kindergarten teacher who has shown the kids how to make hand-washing fun!
When we were celebrating some family accomplishments this week, I gave the kids each a $25 gift card to Amazon to buy whatever they wanted. Nine-year-old Miss O used a portion of her gift to buy me the sign shown here. So, that’s the sign of the week – and a tribute to my kids who continually leave me feeling awe-struck!
Surprised By Joy 