Last week was a doozy. I think we are all still recovering. Sweet Aunt Dixie had been sick on and off for the last month, and the last week of July she rapidly deteriorated and passed away early on August 1st. We were expecting her passing for a few days, and yet it all seemed to happen so suddenly. It was a hard week of hospital visits, tough conversations, and impossibly hard decisions for her family to make. We had cried and mostly made our peace with it by the time she went to Jesus.
But later that day I had the fun job of keeping Whit and Alice for the day while Jen and Grant had their first back-to-work day. Whit just wanted to play play play and Alice just wanted to walk walk walk. We had a great time! (Until naps, and then Whit wouldn't sleep, so he had to go home early)
Typical for Idaho, although I seem to forget about it every year, smoke from fires around the PNW and California drifts into the valley and we get the grossest weather ever. It's awfully hot and just so nasty out that you don't want to leave the house, not even for the pool. Thankfully it hasn't been as bad or lasted as long as in past years. The smoke went away for a few days, but it seems like it's headed back again. I'm calling this month "Blahgust".
Dixie's memorial service was on Friday and afterward the family was served dinner at church, then we all ended up at the pool - thankfully Friday was a completely clear, beautiful day. The family napped, chatted, swam, ate corn picked from the backyard, and pies from the blackberry patch. The sunset was so, so beautiful.
All week long, the kids had been going to a "Summer Musical Adventure" camp at church - to learn parts of "Beauty and the Beast". The production was Saturday evening and it was so fun to watch - I just couldn't get good pictures, but Carolina did ask me to take a picture in her SMAK shirt afterward when we went out for ice cream (I should've made Liam go stand with her but he was off running around being weird). Both kids were townsfolk and Liam did some narrating as well. They liked it - I'm pretty sure they will want to do it again next year. I'm just grateful for any opportunities like these for them to try something new.
Oh, then I found these on my phone...
Sunday was Dad's birthday - he took us out to lunch (I know, it's backwards), then we had brownies and gifts back at his house and we stayed for a while just talking (or napping in Todd's case). It was another beautiful day, and on the way to the pool we got a quick tour of our pastor and family's new house - just look at the view! Uh, Nampa, how did I not know about this?! You can clearly see the Owyhees and Lake Lowell back there - not so much in the picture, but man, in person it's a stunner.
It was a contradiction of a week - part of me wanted it to go on forever since summer was running out, but certainly part of me wanted to move on from the heaviness and hectic-ness. I think by now we are mostly recovered, but we felt seriously fried all weekend.
Comments
Post a Comment