In which the authoress realizes that in a blink of an eye they're a teen & tween

Well, it's certainly been a while...
...and time sure has flown. I have a 7th grader and 4th grader.
I'm so blessed. Of course I'm frequently feeling overwhelmed, like I won't able be able to catch up.  Do we ever? But really, life is good. So, so good. We have sweet, smart, creative, funny kids; great jobs; a lovely home; good friends & family.
Blessed.

Swim lessons

Magnolia & two friends are taking swim lessons.

They are so adorable practicing their kicking, over-hand strokes and diving skills. And so proud! Their instructor is really great with them.

Watching them yesterday brought to mind my own swimming lessons as a child- fun!

Many thanks to Sonja for setting up the lessons, and Joy for the use of her pool!

Home again...

We spent a lazy and rather wonderful weekend at the lake. We just arrived home a little bit ago, Chris unloaded the car and is lying down for a short snooze, M is snoozing still in the car- she fell asleep atop a pile of pillows and we didn't have the heart to wake her and bring her inside, D is playing in the den, and I'll continue to organize things in a few minutes...
As for our weekend...
After battling the cobwebs a bit, we made the beds and then walked down to the water. It was pure torture for M to wait even that long. We spent the majority of each day at the dock, D became addicted to the motor boat ("mo' boat, I wanna mo' boat!"), M practiced her swimming, C picked his guitar for a bit, and I got in a lot of reading. I even managed a long swim this morning. It rained a bit each day, but it was just enough to break the mugginess and let us enjoy the green-gold light among the trees for a while.
Lovely, low-key, languid weekend. So low-key, in fact, that I didn't break out the camera once.

Monday was our 13th wedding anniversary. (Still amazes me that it's been that long, time really goes quickly). I was scheduled to work that day, but a lovely co-worker asked to switch a shift with me, so C and I were able to steal away for a mini-getaway. We dropped the kiddies off at Mama's house on Sunday and drove to St. Augustine to spend the night at a B&B. It was a completely lovely get-away. We spent the afternoon at the beach (when did Vilano Beach get so crowded???), then ate supper at one of our very favorite restaurants, Caps on the Water. The next morning we attempted to sleep in late, but ended up waking up around 7:30am. So we lounged around, ate breakfast, and then strolled downtown for a bit before heading back home. Lovely, lovely couple of days. We picked the kids up (they had a glorious time... what grandkid wouldn't? Mama Dear's house is kid nirvana), and on the drive home both kids talked/whined/begged non-stop- they were both overtired and overstimulated. Welcome back to everyday life- it was as if we'd never left!

Naptime

His warm little body curled against mine,
his head resting on my shoulder,
feathery curls brushing my cheek.
Lullaby playing low,
and the sound of rain and thunder
outside his window.
Dim ambient light.
His sighs contented,
as are mine.
Precious boy.

Last month when Boilin' Oil played at Satchel's, Chris brought Magnolia up on the stage to sing her 'Baby Rides a Car' song. Unfortunately, I had gone into the main part of the restaurant to buy the kids some cake, so I missed the whole thing. Drat! However, a (small) part of it was caught on video and uploaded to youtube, tacked onto the end of another song. So here is a tiny snippet of Magnolia's fabulous debut. Chris said she brought the house down...

Boilin' Oil will be playing again at Satchel's this Friday, 2/12 (so come on out for great bluegrass music, pizza and salad!). Every town should have a place like Satchel's. Gainesville is really blessed. Hopefully if Magnolia is asked to sing again (hint, hint to Chris & Max), I'll be with it enough to capture the whole performance myself...

It's an awfully cute song and I'm absolutely amazed that it doesn't faze my 5 year old in the least to get up in front of bunches of folks and sing her little heart out. Perhaps having her pop right up there with her (and having watched him do it himself her entire little life), makes it seem like no big deal.

8 lives left...

I pull up to the stop sign to cross 10th Ave on the way to drop M off at school this morning. I look to the right- and my heart stops for a second as I notice my beautiful long-haired black & white kitty MagPie dead in the middle of the road half a block up. I gasp, and then the questions come from M and I have to explain that I'm pretty sure our cat has been hit and killed by a car. Not fun. So on the way back home I stop to get MagPie- I can't look at his little face as there's clotted blood coming from his head somewhere. Awful. I take him home and bury him in the backyard, getting a little teary in the process but trying to console myself that he's had a good life since we adopted him as a tiny kitten (he had been dumped in the middle of the campground at a music festival and I couldn't resist taking him home). I'm really wishing C were home so he could do the whole burying thing, but he's in South Florida for a workshop. Today was the first time I've ever buried a pet. Then I go to Lowe's to pick up a couple things and I have the horrible thought that I might have buried the cat alive! B/c he was still limp and I didn't check for a pulse and maybe he was just unconscious! OMGoodness! And then I remember that I did (v. briefly, like for a second) peek at his head and his eyes were open, so I'm not a cat-killer, just a cat-bury-er. And then I run back to the school to pick up M & Z to take them to the Medieval Faire, but before heading there I have to run home to gather snacks, etc as my organizational skills went to pot with the whole discovering-my-little-cat-dead-in-the-road-incident. I leave the kids in the car and run inside, and am on the phone with a friend making plans of where to meet at the Faire and get the absolute fright of my life as I see a little black furry streak running past me in the living room. It's MagPie! I start blabbering to my friend about how MagPie is alive! He's alive! So exciting! ...and then realize that I've buried someone else's dead cat. Another cat that looked amazing like MagPie (at least from the neck down, as I really couldn't bring myself to look at his poor little bloody head for more than a split second). Poor cat, and I have no idea to whom he belonged.