June in Seattle

And I meet, coming through the dew

Another summer's Day!

-Emily Dickinson

Dear reader- where I live in Seattle people have warned us about the treacherousness of  June

"June is better known as Junuary... bitterly cold"  we are told

But June has come bursting with golden days.

Outside 

We spend as much time as we can outside

So many interesting things to discover in our city.  Its as though this city of constant rain knows how to make the most of the 3 months of summer - so everywhere you turn - there is a park and a lake and a little place to sightsee

And

R is nothing if not a creature that loves tradition and every evening we are at the park to swing and have a little picnic of junk food 

A Sense of expanded time

I tell people that my 30's will be marked with just one factor -

A  starvation of time. 

The 40's dont look like they will be much better 

Needing more time, wondering where the time went, gasping at how fast the weekends go by, trying to multitask ( which we all know does not work ), trying to do things faster, prioritising etc 

These days I have found a new way to expand time 

Which is to pretend that I have loads of time. 

This really really works 

Next time you have 30 minutes to go to the park, each minute act as though you have endless time 

I look - really look at what is around me

I notice the bits of magic and whimsy all around me

I notice, this child's endless love, how when I push R in the swing - he puts his hand behind himself so I can low five him each time he swings to me

I learn from R as he stops  and smells the roses

 Oh I have so much to write and so little time

But if I dont write, I will forget all about this special time and all the little things that made it special

1. That DH and I are addicted to "The West Wing"
2. The we eat a lot of mangoes and broccoli
3. That R loves to match his clothes these days - his blue pJ's with blue green socks and blue shirt and his pink shirt with his  Red PJ 's pictured above
4. That these days we read poems at bedtime. Since they are from the days before political correctness - they are really quite inappropriate
5. That we have drunk more Expresso these past few months than we have ever done before
6. That I no longer ache( at least not all the time )  for my small southern town and am starting to feel settled
7. That DH plays again ( squash )
8. That DH had a massive impressive meeting proposing homeschooling and the support we needed from them  ( by showing exhibits of his work - that in school R was counting 1-5 , while at home he was doing factors for multiplication )
9. That R loved butterfly cookies

And a million more things that matter ohsomuch to me

So here I am dear reader, writing from a W in Chicago after a 14 hour work day

For if I dont write, I will forget what happened

“If you want to live a memorable life, you have to be the kind of person who remembers to remember.” — Joshua Foer