Down the Shore

We picked a last minute vacation this year, and we're down in Delaware at the beach.  It's really quite lovely and just the right speed for 10, 10, 3, 41 & 48 year-olds.

Don't think I can upload a thing until we get home.  I'm also quite paranoid about taking my camera to the beach after losing a lens mount last year due to sand.  Potty training has also gone on the back burner again, which does not bode well for my back-to-school dreams. 

Still three weeks of summer left though.  One child is actually nearly finished his summer assignments.  The other one, I have to give him a daily prod to keep it going.  Ugh.  It's reminding me of school already.  I'm not ready.

You are what makes it beautiful

"Beauty is no material thing.
Beauty cannot be copied.
Beauty is the sensation of pleasure on the mind of the seer.
No thing is beautiful.  But all things await the sensitive and imaginative mind that may be aroused to pleasurable emotion at the sight of them.  This is beauty."*

*from a book full of inspiration, "The Art Spirit" by Robert Henri.  This passage could be the caption of so many of the beautiful images posted by my flickr friends.  There are so many talented artists out who have the gift of seeing the beauty of life everywhere.

My husband thought the top painting was "pretty good" and thought it was one of mine. Alas, it's a detail from one of Picasso's paintings we saw at the Met.  The Blind Man's Meal.

miss her

Sometimes a night out in the city re-charges my batteries.  I have always had a city-girl heart, and I love the action, the whimsy, the chaos of the city.  I could people watch and eavesdrop all day long here, filling myself up with the latest trends without being noticed. 

But last Friday night, it made me feel a little too nostalgic for my younger self.  Maybe it was just having a birthday, and remembering my age, or just looking around at the crowd at the rooftop bar and realizing that I used to be one of those girls, and now I most certainly am not.  I'm not old enough to be their mother just yet (well, technically, I could be, but it's not like I have kids in their twenties), it's just the realization that ship has really left the port and sailed away.

Not that I really want to go back (ok, it would be fun for a day), but sometimes in the suburbs you forget that glorious beauty that is being in your twenties.  Enjoy it, kids.

Yesterday was my birthday.

Lunch with my adorable, hilarious friend John
Matisse exhibit at MOMA

Lemonade & cupcakes in Bryant park
Book of Maira Kalman's work to read on the train
Rolls of colored masking tape from the Japanese superstore
No carpool

Boys at a late playdate.  Hmmm. Came home bearing a freshly-baked birthday cake.
Japanese take out
Flowers and homemade bread from Alex
New flip flops from Sheila
Facebook birthday wishes
Birthday card from mom
Serenades from Grandma & Pop

Gardening books from Mark

I'm a lucky woman.

I'm glad every day is not my birthday though, or I would be really old.

August you? I hardly know you.

And, one of my favorite months begins.
Beach week approaches.
Summer rambles on.
Nights start to get a little longer.
Back to school reading begins in earnest.
The tomatoes finally, hopefully ripen (usually coinciding with beach week.)
Fall clothes appear in the stores, and a cardigan at night sounds nice.
Shiny new school supplies are packed up, getting ready.
Knitting starts to sound a wee bit appealing again.
Stone fruit fills the fruit bowl.
Everyone grooves on our summer rhythm.

(alas, I only did the plums.  peaches by Linda Hunt)