Around Here 7.6.15

Life path with a sister | Grammy and Pop-Pop’s Philadelphia homestead | Blueberry picking at Reilly’s Summer Seat Farm | Teaching statues to read outside The Pressroom | Revolutionary War soldier’s grave | Four peas in a pod watching fireworks | The ordinary moments of play | Green grass and grape pruning

Summer isn’t summer without some green paper baskets packed to the brim with sun-happy blueberries.  We checked that item off of our bucket list before heading to Philadelphia for the weekend.  We dressed in our red-white-and-blues for the 4th while thoroughly enjoying front row seats for The Fulton Theater’s production of Wizard of Oz.  We dined far below an umbrella of locust trees at The Pressroom for dinner and made it back to the Philadelphia suburbs in time to catch a local fireworks show, from a distance, because Little C actually likes lions, and tigers, and bears, but her fear list would go more like thunder, and vacuums, and fireworks, OH MY!

With some swimming and steak-grilling and some good old Fourth of July relaxing, we called the weekend a well-rounded success.  As easy as it is to write about the highlights and headlines of the days, I found once again that the moments I cherished most were pauses in between breaths.  The kind of moments that don’t even make for good footnotes:  The girls playing beside one another at a kitchen within a kitchen.  Little I sobbing on the diving board about not wanting to dive but then forcing herself to do it.  The minutes of reading a good book before turning over to sleep.  Touring a revolutionary-war cemetery in search of lightning bugs and war medallions.  The grass-plastered feet, ice-cream drips, midnight-firework-pops moments mattered most.

And now Monday.  And July.  And grabbing these heydays of summer before they too quickly dissolve into the school year. And carrying on life and liberty and the daily pursuit of happiness in all its swimming pool/grass/grandparents/fireworks/blueberry glory.