so many hot, happy days

None of us are quite ready to lean away from summer. 

5th / 8th / 11th

Dear boys,

I watched the three of you walk down Glendale early this morning, like burros under your backpacks. While you headed toward another first day I wished I could read you to sleep and sing you awake forever. I know not every single dream comes true. 

This was the summer we put pimento cheese on chicken sandwiches on repeat, the summer we saw Canadian lakes the rarest, most perfect shades of blue, where, as humans, it felt as though we were merely hovering close to earth. This was another summer spent at ballfields and in swimming pools, another season when you could retreat from it all by reading a book. Or playing a musical instrument (piano, guitar, harp, saxophone, trumpet, drums, you name it). At home, some days felt akin to living in a spacious, well-decorated junkyard, with friendly, starving dogs. But this was also the summer that one of the things keeping me most from despair was the sound of your spoons against a cereal bowl, all that clinking, a kitchen full of healthy kids. 

As you embrace a new school year, remember that feeling uncertain is endurable, that you are designed to be resilient. That you can play neat tricks in your own mind, that you are well equipped for growth, to tackle the unseen and assume brilliance. You are all three so capable of being good company, inclined to create more than you consume, to convert the dross to gold. May your freshly structured days be filled with frequent small delights.

Go be students! Connect with others and care about ideas and wonder at all the not-boring things in the world! No one at school will be be collecting data on your heart, the secret chambers in which the most important things in your life will likely occur, but pay attention to the way it beats and notice what makes you feel twice as alive. For me, it's being your mom. I can't get enough of you, and I don't need a thing from you. 

a whirlWIND

In an effort to embrace experiences that add interest if not positive outcomes, we decided to drive to Chicago for two days. We needed to return Hank's rental harp, and rather than ship it back we used the deposit refund to pay for gas and a hotel room. It felt a little crazy to try to cram so much in, but somehow it all worked out.
All five floors of the Lyon & Healy factory were fascinating!
The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field!
Northwestern University's campus is gorgeous!
And, what truly elevated the trip were the Ted Lasso DVDs we borrowed from the library. The boys made it through Seasons 1 and 2 and are entirely invested.