blessed beyond measure

School has ended. Deep breath. Then another. I think it's safe to say we limped across this finish line. Crayons broken, shoes in tatters, grades dipping, and patience waning. Who was most grateful for the end is hard to say. Brandon waving off his most challenging group of students ever, Trey and Aden screeching the advent of later bedtimes, and then me. Lunch packer, homework slave driver, bearer of bad-grade news. It was getting way old to everyone. We christened this much-anticipated season with a trip to the pool, a new one for us. The water slides were a hit. Three hours of up and down, climb and splash, never tiring and definitely not wanting to come home. So we find ourselves in the thick of summer, impending vacation and camps and birthdays galore. The bucket list is one of hard work and improvements to be made. In and around the house, and within ourselves. It will fly by, as always. But we'll be together. Good enough for me.

My apologies, specifically to Poppop, for the blog downtime. My guilt-ridden soul is juggling a not-so-sunny disposition, an uncertainty over what the boys might be ok with me sharing, and the sucker punch of a life no longer driven by adorable moments and baby book milestones. And I just have trouble bringing myself to write. But we cannot forget Aden's first baseball season as a pitcher. He's loving it, so much more than his catching days. And he's pretty good at it! He looks like a pitcher, solid, strong, and fairly tall for his age. Well, keeping it real, most people say he looks like a linebacker. But I shun football. He gets enough head injuries from everyday life. Pitcher it is. First inning he ever pitched, struck out three of four batters he faced. He hit the other one, but we don't focus on that. The kid ended up being fine. He's been slugging the ball too, and it seems the faster the pitch, the harder he can hit it. Played first base f...