Bridge

One of my and J's favorite fiction series is the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. The lifetimes of two friends unfold over the span of twenty books. Twenty! And that's not even a lifetime.

As I write, my ankle is wrapped in ice and popped up. Because after the "Europe Semester" chapter of our story is finished, the narrative continues. A night hike up to Mountain drive to watch the July 4th fireworks was--I still think--a great idea, but it was too much for the ligaments I ripped up at the Louvre. I sit here on July 6th, with an ice pack and a bit of discouragement mixed with gratitude that I can walk at all.

And so here I am, decidedly past the Europe Semester era but still the same person who went and came home, with many of the same joys and memories, and still walking (!)  through the same story. So I am going to keep this same blog going (and perhaps give it more attention) as we strike out on our next cross-cultural adventure next month. But more on that later.

For now, I am remiss in sharing photos for grandparents...and perhaps also in communicating the stretching and growing that can take place in my own neck of the woods. Or at least my own time zone.

Here are a few pictures:

At the end of a long Lent, Easter Sunday!

Pixie in her school's Spring Sing

Bud after his "Scat Cat" solo 

Wombles with his Froggy friends (also at Spring Sing). Don't be judging his hair.  He likes it lofty.

Bud was given the opportunity to be a bat boy for Westmont's baseball team. He joined them for two different pivotal games. They went on to be conference champs for the first time in a long, long time. They gave him one of their team conference champs T-shirts. He was thrilled. 

Nutmeg wrote her name for the first time!

J and I had an overnight away. It was work-related, but to a beautiful place where we felt pampered. I am so grateful. Even though it made our hectic month o' May a bit crazier, it was worth it!

Also, for those of you not on FB, here's an album of a delightful day we had in May (click here).

We have had an exciting summer, and we are not through all of the fun yet. While I often default to thinking of life as a series of projects tackled, completed and shelved--one after the other--I am grateful that really we are moving through a story (or rather, perhaps, a story is moving through us). In a real sense, during this life--therefore--we will never really be through with the project.

Like Patrick O'Brian must have believed, there is always more growing to do, more learning and twists in the road. His protagonists were still changing and getting to know one another twenty novels in. Perhaps not unlike them, I am trying to pace myself while still looking for the way forward. At this point, we are taking our history with us--but I think we are not beginning the next chapter, but the next book. And so as we say around here: Buckle up.