Let's Go Fly a Kite

My friend Megan, at beachbungalow8, reminds me to slow down, pointing out that summer is already half gone. What? Where? We were slow in June, crawling into our summer cautiously, one trip to the beach, a festival here and there, plenty of sunblock, and then July hit. First it was the uncles, regular Independence Day guests, whose visits we love, and then two days later the grandparents, and the girls delighted in several days with people they just don't see often enough. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we were off, Jack on his annual golf trip, a male only excursion to places unknown, and the ladies and me to Kansas City, an 18 hour 2 day round trip that exhausts me to the bone to consider.

Speeding ticket excluded the trip down was uneventful. And then we arrived, Mary and Kate to spend a few days reveling in the non stop attention of their uncles who live to feed them ice cream and keep them up past bedtime, and me, to a tiring four day odyssey of my mother. I wasn't alone, her wonderful sister Diane, and Diane's friend Charles, met me there, all of us coming together, hoping to convince my mother that it was time to move out of the house that is falling down around her. She was not convinced, and she was not kind. At the end of the day, worn from all that was lobbed at me, I ran back to Uncle Kenny's house for a hug from my two sticky and exhausted children, and a promise to myself to never forget that they are my choice, my responsibility and mine to treat with respect.

Nine hours later we are home, to slow down and breathe, and enjoy all the good that comes our way, and all the good that we must find. Summer is baseball and the beach and warm days spent doing absolutely nothing more than flying a kite, and holding tightly to the hands of those you love.