Celebrated his birthday recently. It was nice to take a few minutes away from his siblings to just hang with him. He's so danged funny!!! And truly enjoys being on both sides of the camera. He has a tendency to fade into the background of this loud family at times, but when he's in the moment, he shines.

I love this kid.

A few years ago, I decided to try my hand at something completely new.

I picked out a small plot of land and made a little clearing.

In that clearing, I carefully planted a few little seeds.

After a few weeks of constant vigilance, life started to grow in my garden.

It was small, but it was beautiful.

It made me excited.

It made me happy.

As with most gardens, a few weeds sprouted here and there.

At first, I was diligent in removing the weeds.

However, after a short time of neglect, they became bolder, more plentiful.

I couldn't keep up, so I decided that a few weeds were okay.

I told myself that they were natural.

I said the weeds were pretty.
I even photographed in them ;-).

Eventually, I could no longer see my garden.

I had actually forgotten what I had planted there.

The weeds had taken over.

There were too many.

The weeds became the garden.

I didn't want to go to my garden anymore.

So I started to visit other gardens.

Their gardens were so well-maintained.

They had the prettiest blooms.

They had the best-smelling flowers.

Even the bees liked other gardens more than mine.

I didn't want to visit other gardens anymore.

I'm a terrible gardener.

Gardening sucks.

**********************

But I still like flowers.

I miss my flowers.

I wish I could dig up all of those old weeds and see those flowers again.

Maybe I should.

Ugh, but there's too many. 

I can't even face it.

What if I just pull one?

Just one.

Hmph.

That wasn't too bad.

Didn't make much progress though.

Tomorrow, I'll pull another one. Maybe two. I can do three--no, four.

If I can keep this up every day for just a week, I might find what I loved again.

Maybe.

Weeds aren't that pretty after all.

I love fall as much as the next person and I've done my fair share of complaining about this horrible heat all summer long, but when we had that short cold snap last week, I went through a sort of depression. I'm not ready for summer to be over. 

This has been one of the most amazing summers for our family as we fulfilled a silly, but long running goal - a pool in our yard. This is something I only dreamed about having as a little girl (and as an adult). I spent my summers hanging out in the horse trough with my little sister. Yes, *that* was our pool, and, sad to say, we were THRILLED about it. 

We are very blessed now to live out in the country with our kiddos, but that means no community pools nearby. A trip to a public swimming pool is at least 30 minutes (one way) and usually involves forgetting something important (like a swimsuit or snacks). Needless to say, we didn't go swimming very often, but I felt like the kids were really missing out on summer life. Plus, we're in TEXAS...it's hot!!!

So after much hemming and hawing, we finally bit the bullet and I'm SO glad we did. I'm very proud of our (maybe a little redneck) above ground pool, but gosh, those have come a LONG way. Doesn't hurt that my hubby is quite handy and built an amazing deck around it, complete with an awesome outdoor cabana bathroom/shower. We spent more time outside this summer than I probably have in my entire life. 

But it's soon going to be too cold to swim and I'm a little pouty about it. I'm going to miss those adorable "Coppertone" baby tan lines. I'm going to miss wrapping them up in towels warmed in the sunshine. I'm going to miss the sounds of splashes and giggles and "Mom....look what I can do! Mom...did you see it? Mom???!!!" I'm going to miss the smell of chlorine and sunscreen on their little heads at night. I'm going to miss those deep summer sleeps they get from pure joy and exhaustion--oh, I'm *really* going to miss that.

So, I may not be quite as excited as I used to be about Starbucks bringing out their pumpkin spice lattes and holiday cups, but I'll get there. Eventually. As soon as my tan fades...

What's to say on this subject that hasn't already been said? Instead of dwelling on how sad and tragic this day was (honestly, I'm not sure I ever want to relive that kind of depression again), I try really hard to focus on the incredible spirit and love that arose from the depths of this country to help each other get through that dark time. I'm proud to say I see it happening again as people are coming together to help the victims of the recent fires. Thank you to anyone and everyone who has ever answered the call to protect this country and the people in it--no matter what the cost. Just thank you.

Whenever I'm in the shower and she comes in, she says, "Draw a heart for me, Mommy." And so I do. I don't ever want to forget moments like this.