TO THE END OF A MONTH BURSTING AT THE SEAMS

I am breathing in the fumes of the aftermath of an incredibly full month of July. I was right to get all excited and worked up about this past month, which was filled with so much of family; I couldn’t have been happier or busier.  I wrote up this quick and cursory (and probably not that all-encompassing) summary in an email to my family, but I want to include it here so that I can record it in my catalog of memories:

Dad and mom came into town, Joe and Lois (my cousins) came into town, Val’s family came over from Romania, Eunice and Val got married and had a beautiful and meaningful wedding (!!), Dad celebrated a birthday with all of us, we got to go to the beach with mom and dad (my first time in two years, and Sloane’s first time everrrr), mom and dad ran up and down the east coast and made a visit to NYC and Baltimore (and CT), Paul celebrated a birthday (happy birthday Paul!), I celebrated my 30th birthday (Sharon, Eunice, Sloane, Mom and I had ourselves a girls weekend in DC), Joe arrived in Switzerland, Lois found herself in a lab identifying mosquitos under a microscope, Ken went to Chicago for work and saw his first MLB game (go Cubs), Val and Eunice successfully moved to their place in Alexandria, Sloane turned one year old, Sloane had her first experience at the pool (which she loved), and yesterday morning, family from Atlanta, Bulle, Peru, Seoul, and Richmond got together on Google hangout to celebrate Aunt M’s life and commemorate her death. 

I had a moment of quiet this morning and I used it to take a breath and read one of the morning entries from ‘The Diary of Prayer’ given to me by my mom who had just left for the airport. My goal is to have daily moments of this kind of quiet, so that even during those time that seem like the dessert, I will feel the fullness and gratitude that I feel now. I also resolve to go to bed earlier more often.  I went to bed at 9:30PM last night due to utter exhaustion, and even with Sloane waking me up twice in the middle of the night, I feel clear-headed and contain genial feelings towards even those that usually get on my last nerves. Note to tired future self: go to bed early ! 

I am going to post a few more photos for Sloane’s birthday party on Saturday because I love these ones here. I had made her an applesauce spice cake for her birthday (using applesauce instead of sugar) and a frosting (also with no sugar: cream cheese, apple juice concentrate, vanilla), and hey it was actually pretty good for having no sugar but she was only somewhat interested in it. Plus, she ended up bursting into tears right after we sang her Happy Birthday (I can’t remember why now), but she kept poking her finger into the icing to taste it and as we were singing, and threw her arms around my neck to squeeze it tight and oh it made my mama heart swell.