ah. there is so much to share sewing-wise but first I have to fill you in our long absence. we’ve been away in the wild, wild woods of pennsylvania (we go every year to a different PA state park and rent a cabin–it’s a beautifully maintained network of outdoor opportunities).
we have returned saturated with Thoreau’s ‘tonic of wildness’ a drink we all began soaking up the minute we arrived and smelled the clean air, dipped into creek water, and ran in the open spaces. we love taking this trip more than any other vacation. this year was the best yet because the boys are independent enough to play outside without needing too much care (enough that I was able to read two entire books “Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” and very appropriately re-reading “A Secret Garden”).
we hiked and swam every day, ate outside, played music and sang around a campfire, checked the log pile endlessly for the resident snake, and made friends with snails, bats, chipmunks, butterflies, daddy long legs, toads, slugs, and carnivorous pitcher plants. mostly though, we slowed down together and took in the mystery of nature.
school starts up soon, really soon. tomorrow preschool starts and on thursday….kindergarten (gulp). so, we are soon back in the swing of schedules and little bits of school anxiety are popping up in the form of brotherly bickering and motherly muscle tension. but, we’ve got a little tonic left in us and that should carry us through.
sounds lovely. excellent books too!
you are such a great commenter! I love hearing from you! it was lovely. the books were both great. It was especially sweet to re-read The Secret Garden. I realized that I think Dickon was my first true love (and perhaps who I was looking for in college leading to some disastrous results) and Mary Lennox might be my first role model.