if i were even to attempt where i left off i could show this continuum of shiny happy people to changed lonely lost people. those people being this little family unit. oh how we are trying, and oh how somedays it just kicks our asses. i can no longer answer for folks if we like it here, or how we are doing, or if we want to move back, because the thing is that it's incomparable. its total disorientation, it's apples to freaking grapefruit, you know what i mean. so i find myself a bit of a broken record that may be boring you but the deal is, there is real goodness in this new. and when i say new, i mean a learning, a totally new experience, forget grapefruit even, it's like persimmons, you aren't familiar like at all. but that isn't all bad.

take today for example, i have really started to cherish our Sundays. we wake up (and it's cold out), drink coffee and read (or for HAO watch a show and drink warm milk), and then walk to church for the 9am service. we are continuing to really enjoy the teaching, worship, and kids classes at the church, then we head home and load up in the car for our weekly visit to the Ballard Farmers Market that is filled with color and sounds and smell. Stephen always buys teeny fresh out of the machine cinnamon sugar donuts and Hannah always looks for the man on stilts who blows up balloons for kids in the shapes of odd things. she always asks for a pink flower and drops a $1 in his bucket. we enjoy all the musicians playing throughout the market. i do a loop to check out what is in season that week and compare prices. it's so different from our market as it is almost all entirely local and entirely organic and if it isn't in season locally, you won't find it (i.e - avocados or bananas or things that don't grow here unlike my good friends at yorkmont). i relish in the joy of buying the most beautiful $5 wildflower bouquet that i could ever imagine. at that price and beauty i no longer buy for special occasions but for the sake of color and fragrance in the house. then i challenge myself to think of ways to make new things with the likes of rainbow swiss chard and beets and loads of carrots. and if i am lucky, we buy fresh sausages and salmon. and then we head home where i usually try to sneak in a pre lunch long run. i love the air or rain, the music, the challenge. i get back to a napping house and buzz around until i am ready to take my lunch outside and sit with a book and beer and enjoy a calm lunch. if i am lucky enough that my family is taking long naps, i curl up on the sofa for any minutes i can get of shut eye. once we all wake for the second time that day we fill the french press and enter into random activities. the evenings are simple and we usually cook and play around the house. the phone or doorbell hardly ever ring, there is no one to meet or turn down, it is simple and lovely but so very different. nevermind mondays. (:

i digressed a bit with the detailed sunday schedule, but all to say my disorienting goodness continues. since i have been back, my family has certainly helped keep me in good company and i have thoroughly enjoyed their visits. again, i owe SO many pics, but we were treated with a visit from the Wilson-Roberts crew and i cherished having them in my home. every space feels better in the house once it had guests and memories. even if that included a little pee pee on the floor and breastmilk on the sofa and endless water-filled tea parties in the "playroom", it brought so much joy to have them here and share life with them. shortly after their visit mom and dad came for their final summer visit before they return to the East Coast this week. it was a wonderful 24 hours together, we loved they came back to see us! and luckily right on their coattails was a 24 hour visit with Aunt Nanny. She is more officially now Great Aunt Nanny, which is the most suitable name as she is GREAT indeed and we loved having her in our home and sharing dinner and games and even So You Think You Can Dance with her!

And then we decided we should have a little family vacation before the summer ended... so we went camping. More to come, but the let me say i'd be hard pressed to write the words vacation and camping in the same sentence ever again. My poor outdoor loving husband...