summer

Day Camp Days and Mama Worries

/ Katie / 26 Comments

Brave, sweet Lucy – Our Lady of the Bright Blue Eyes, Chaos Goblin, Merlin Friend, and My Best Girl – started a week-long summer day camp today.

It is a new era.

Five days, 9:00 to 3:00. The theme for this week’s camp is super heroes and fairy tales, and I think she’ll love it. I’m a mess.

Drop off went okay this morning. Graham and I both went, and I dressed her in her favorite shirt, and packed her a lunchbox with some of her favorite foods, and told her before we left how much fun she would have at “school.” When we got there, she was a little intimidated, and wanted to be carried by her daddy. She was big mad that we couldn’t play on the swings right that moment. But she eventually discovered a table full of counting toys and as she sat down with the other kids and started to play, Graham and I snuck out.

We ran a couple of errands. Got home, made coffee.

I’m sitting at my desk, in a quiet room, with Merlin snoozing away beside me. And I’m a mess.

I hope she has so much fun. I hope she makes new friends and loves everything she gets to do, and that she’s excited to go back in a couple of weeks for another adventure. I think she needs this, being an only child. I think it will be good for her.

I’m a mess.

I’d share a picture of me, but…I’m a mess, and no one needs to see that.

If I’m being honest, I’m handling this really well. I haven’t cried (yet) and I’ve made a list of things to do with my free time (I don’t remember how that works, actually, that free time thing) and I’m pushing aside my list of worries (what if she hates it, what if she cries, what if she gets hurt, what if the other kids are mean to her, what if, what if, what if). I know that one of the many hardest things about being a parent is that if you do your job right, your little kid (your baby, the light of your universe, your reason) will learn to live in the world and do things and have a life without your help.

Oh, my heart.

It’s going to be an interesting week. Please send good vibes for Lucy and for me. And check back on Saturday for another Ten Years collab post. It’ll be a good one!

Now, where did I put my coffee cup?

Tides (A Poem)

/ Katie / 9 Comments

Our lives ebb and flow
like the tides,
cosmically connected
more than we know.
We rise and then fall
and the dance goes on,
eternal.
Our hearts beat in that
rhythmic roar,
deep and vast and
powerful as the sea.
And though we must go
one day,
always we stay –
a drop of soul
in an everlasting ocean.

Becoming a Beach Person

/ Katie / 14 Comments

I’m a mountain person.

Always have been.

Graham grew up by the water, and spent pretty much every summer day of his entire childhood on the sand. He’s the first person I’ve ever met who actually lived at the beach.

Before we got together, I think I’d visited the beach, like, five times, maybe?

All of that to say, the beach was never a huge part of my life, and it’s taken some getting used to.

It’s silly, I know, to say something like that. Lots of people love the beach – they visit every year, they make plans to retire there, they dream of owning a house and staying in it as often as they can. And I totally get it! It’s just never been my thing.

But y’all, sometimes, you gotta get over yourself.

And in this case, you is me. I am you. Because, as it turns out, Lucy loves the beach.

She’s a little intimidated by the all that sand and water, sure, but she’s a fan. Graham is elated. 😊 And me?

Well, I guess I’m finally, slowly, and for the best reason ever, becoming a beach person.  

I Wish You Water (Another Drought Poem)

/ Katie / 15 Comments

Today, I could say
I wish you well,
and in a way,
I do.
I wish you a full well,
and flowing rivers,
babbling streams and
shoes sopping wet with rain.
I wish you well,
and so I wish you water.
I wish for you green, green grass
and heavy, rustling leaves.
I wish you clouds and fog,
evening storms
and drizzles in the morning.
I wish you water.
I wish water for me, too.

Dry (A Poem)

/ Katie / 20 Comments

Dull,
brown,
dry as dust,
the trees and ground
cry out for rain.
The skies tease and threaten,
rushes of wind
and clouds of gray.
How long, I wonder,
can it possibly go on this way?
But the drought
goes on
another day.

The Coming and the Going (A Poem)

/ Katie / 11 Comments

I can feel it, even now,
in the cool night air
and the subtle shift in the evening light,
and in the gentle way the leaves seem to sigh
and say,
“We are tired, and ready to let go.”
As one season waves goodbye
and another prepares to cross the threshold,
I breathe it in and wait,
and know:
All things come in their own time.

A Case of the Post-Vacation Mondays

/ Katie / 19 Comments

I confess, I’m just not feeling very inspired today. I’ve spent pretty much all morning and most of this afternoon waiting for something to come to me – a poem, a funny quip, even a good picture to take – and you guys, I got nothing.

This happens.

This especially happens, at least to me, after a vacation. Anybody else? And any ideas to kickstart creativity?

Coming off of time away, it’s just sort of hard for me to get back into the swing of things. My brain’s just not in it. But it’ll get there! So, in the meantime, I shall ponder ideas for July’s short story, and hopefully come up with something more interesting to write on Wednesday. And Friday.

Sigh.