Prayer Request

I don't often share requests for prayers out of respect for privacy, but I recently found out that a dear friend has bone marrow cancer, and she reached out asking for prayers from our family. This seems the kind of situation that calls for a barrage of prayers, for being the squeaky wheel in God's ear. Right now the type and severity of the cancer are being determined, but her diagnosis is something of a miracle. And the fact that she is seeing some of the best cancer doctors in the world also seems to suggest that God has opened doors.

This friend is no stranger to suffering. Years ago, she lost her first baby, a little girl who died shortly after birth. The baby's death was unexpected; she was a healthy baby, but something happened during delivery, and she only lived a handful of hours.

Then just a couple years ago, my friend's mother-in-law was hit by a car while she was on her early morning walk. The sun was just rising and blinded the driver.  She died at the scene. The driver came to the funeral to apologize and to tell them she smiled when she died as he held her hand. I remember my friend saying she was just so glad her mother-in-law was not alone. When she told me about this latest cross, I told her that God must trust her strength to give her so many valleys to wander through.

We have known this family since our kids were tiny. This is the third time we've had overlapping orders, so they are like family now. They are part of what makes military life so unique and meaningful. They are a warm and loving family of four, all of them nice and smiley. My friend is the kind of person who always remembers your birthday and brings small gifts. She brings hostess gifts. She is a perfect hostess who thinks of small details without seeming to stress about having fifty people over. She has been very involved with military support groups and spouse mentorship programs and works tirelessly as a volunteer. At the same time, she is always available for her kids. Her son wrestles on the junior national team, and her daughter is a top soccer player.

This diagnosis is a surprise, but also a warning. She had been feeling sick all year, tired and forgetful and just not herself.  The doctor told her to take it easy. She went back and asked for blood work, thinking maybe something was wrong with her thyroid. They gave her B12 vitamins. Then finally a doctor ordered some expensive but thorough blood tests, just to rule out leukemia.  The blood work revealed the cancer. The type was originally misdiagnosed, but in the midst of all of this, the family had to move from San Diego to DC. The new doctors at Johns Hopkins ran more tests and rediagnosed the type of cancer.

In the middle of a time of intense stress and anxiety, my friend was pointing out the way she has seen the hand of God in all of this. She said she is not dying of cancer, but living with a diagnosis of cancer. She is openly asking for prayers and already experiencing an outpouring of grace and gratitude.

Great show

Part of the fun of having a low-key schedule for the past couple weeks is that we have had time to do something spontaneous and life-affirming and marriage-building every so often. One night it was attending a little fundraiser at the VFW with friends for an organization that helps female veterans transitioning from the military to civilian life with resumes and business clothes. This weekend it was going to a play at the local community theater. They are having buy one get one free performances on Fridays, - although my husband only heard the "free" part when he said at 7:15 on Friday, "Well let's go then" to the 8 pm show. Still, the show was so good, I was almost sorry to not pay for one of our tickets. So I told the older kids I would pay for their tickets if they can find time to go before the show ends.

A rave review from the local paper: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/theater/sd-me-review-lambs-20180609-story.html

The play was Once, based on the movie set in Dublin about an Irish musician down on his luck and brokenhearted who is given a new hope by the friendship of a Czech single mother also looking for friendship who recognizes his talent and the power of music - and the power of a community of music lovers -  to knit hearts back together. I didn't know the music, but my second oldest told me when I looked up the soundtrack on youtube that he had been to a Glen Hansard concert a couple years ago. Funny thing, this small world.

I wonder why we don't go to the theater more, but perhaps the rarity of the occasion preserves its magic.  This show had all of the transporting elements of live performances.  The players at our little community theater brought a Dublin pub to life (complete with a working bar where the audience could buy a Guiness on stage and mingle with the players before the show and during intermission) and they took my breath away with their ability to play multiple instruments and to sing (with fake accents, no less) the parts of struggling, talented artists.  I loved the way a song would begin with the Guy and the Girl alone on stage, him playing the guitar, her playing the piano. Then one of the supporting players would come in with the banjo, another with a ukulele, another on the cello, then the bass, then the drums or beat boxes. The amplification of the song with the added layers of instrumentation raised the emotional effect as the symphonic power increased. 

The effect of playing together lifted up the talents of all -- and they were having so much fun! The joy of the cast and the enthusiasm of the audience were palpable.  They brought back memories of our trip to Dublin with our son, but also captured the ability of a kind word and a good tune to make a difference in someone's life.

Glad we went. Two thumbs up. I think I liked this live performance better than I would like the movie.

Reading review

Our house has been invaded this week:

There are books on the sofa, books on the floor, 

books on the table, books by the door; 

Books in the living room, books in the den, 

Books in the bedrooms, books on my Ben....

Ok, that last line is a stretch, but I don't have time to find a better rhyme. 

We've settled in to the summer schedule; a state of boredom is no longer being declared.  Trips to the library take place two or three times a week. The youngest and I are doing the summer reading club, and I'm trying to get the older ones to sign up at the teen desk, but they don't want to be official. The 12 and 14-year-old (we have had all the birthdays for the year now, and all the kids except the oldest are an even number) are doing the junior lifeguard program again from 9-2, so they come home exhausted, ready to collapse on the couch, and read. Well, really they want to play Mariokart, but we have negotiated a deal - an hour of brainwork (reading, writing someone a letter, a math page or critical reading workbook page) and a chore equals an hour of media time. The accord was accepted by all parties, and peace reigns --- for the moment.

What are we reading? The oldest is reading a variety of books given him by his Protestant girlfriend - surprisingly, they are The Benedict Option, Forming Intentional Disciples, and A Severe Mercy. Have I mentioned I really like this girl? She is a Program of Liberal Studies major after my own heart. I also picked up The Boys on the Boat for him, which I've heard good things about but haven't read. 

The second is slogging slowly through The Brothers Karamazov, while dipping into Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life. He has decided he is a Christian anarchist after listening to some podcast on his daily commute about anarchy.  We have had some entertaining conversations when he is not being an intern or making pizzas. 

Third son is reading The Kite Runner and Harry Potter in Spanish. He suddenly came up with this idea that he might double major in Spanish, even though he didn't want to take Spanish 4 last year in high school. He also wants to double major in Physics and Medicine or Science and Business or Science and Art. And he whipped out two pairs of winter handwear over the last couple of weeks: a pair of gloves and a pair of mittens in a Fair Isle pattern. This gave him the idea to sell handcrafts on the local facebook page, but I reminded him he needs a stash and the number of hours he spent knitting makes the profit margin slim to nothing unless he charges about $50 for a pair of mittens. His next entrepreneurial idea is to sell notecards he made for thank you notes. This is more likely to earn money than the knitwear but will see if this happens in the next month before he heads off to college. He still needs to sell his baby betta fish, who are thriving, while their father is wasting away. Something killed off three of our adult bettas (the girls each had one in their rooms), which makes me wonder if our water is tainted from the sewage spill in Tijuana... conspiracies...

More books: Fourth son likes to read but not to sit still. Big books don't interest him, but he is spouting trivia from Uncle John's Bathroom Readers, still sitting on the back of our toilet for 4 years or so now. We have three or four that they rotate. I also put Humility Rules: St Benedict's Twelve Step Guide to Genuine Self-Esteem back there, so we'll see if he reads that. Right now it is Paul Zindel's The Pigman and Hardy Boys books he's reading. Not challenging, but something.  The siblings are harassing him and me to make him read Great Expectations because they all had to suffer through it to get social media. 

What makes me happiest is my most reluctant reader, the 12-year-old, has been blazing through The Mother-Daughter Book Club series. Again, not challenging, but she's reading. And I told her I want her to pick one of the books they read for us to read together.  After months, she finally finished the fourth Harry Potter book, and really isn't interested in more. She likes real-life stories.

So does her big sister, who is reading Call The Midwife while we are watching the series some evenings. Love a good British series. I picked up the book from the Little Free Library for me to read, but I only got through the introduction because TIME, but I want to read it, too. She also is reading about a page a day of Portrait of a Lady in exchange for the three or four YA romances she read. I don't know if she'll finish it or not. She also is reading Unbroken and lots of recipes. Last night she made a homemade curry sauce that had us all sweating from the cayenne. But I have loved the help from the girls in the kitchen.

The littlest and I are reading stacks of picture books. She is picking out a few words on her own, and I have picked up some phonics readers, but we aren't being systematic about learning to read.  I've been trying to pick up some classic picture books and new books and books about real people and books about science things - Magic School Bus has been a hit lately. But she still loves Maisy and Princess Look and Find books.  I have noticed a trend in some of the new picture books lately to have high quality paper and retro illustrations with a mix of dull backgrounds and lurid splashes of neon color. It's an interesting aesthetic, but I can only look at so many pages before my eyes are maxed out.  Maybe it is our buyer at the library who is interested in them that makes it seem like more of the new books are in this style. They tend to be British or Japanese authors. 

Besides picture books, I am also skimming through a bunch of nature books. I am going to teach that class. It turns out that the university has a pre-school on campus that has space for LK, so we will go to school together two days a week. After visiting several little schools and interviewing a couple babysitters, I am happy with this option. It's are a Christian school, so they will sing songs and learn Bible verses, and college students who are education majors come in and work and do projects. And it was the only preschool with a decent outdoor play area, other than the one close to home that was full. And we'll have the drive time to spend together, too.

So I've been diving into reading material with gusto. So many good things! I've never read Silent Spring or A Sand County Almanac, so I've been skimming those looking for selections. The previous teacher assigned Frankenstein and Oryx and Crake, neither of which I think of as "Nature Literature." I haven't read the second, though. So I think I'll assign one full-length book and the rest essays and poetry. Need to decide the novel soon - I keep thinking of children's lit and Wendell Berry, but still exploring. Have been rereading Berry's poetry and picked up Gary Snyder for the first time. Excited to revisit Mary Oliver. And I need to pull out my Romantic poets to review.  I may assign Nathanial Hawthorne for the novel, but or should I just assign one of these "classic" nature writers? Annie Dillard? Jack London?

Another book I skimmed was Laura Vanderkam's I Know How She Does It recommended by Modern Mrs. Darcy, and while most of it was geared toward women who work a lot more than me, I have been keeping a time diary this week, and being more aware of how I spend time. I have become cognizant of how I don't really waste time - I am usually doing something, - but I don't work efficiently.  I need to set limits to email/social media reading and set a routine for times where I'm distracted by different choices of what to do. If I have a set work time, then I need to stick to those limits. I also need to set up a routine for chores - one thing a day (except laundry, dishes, and sweeping up). So vacuum day, dusting day, scouring bathroom day.  Watering plants takes a long time because I fiddle around. And I'm going to try to outsource more dishes to the kids, although during the school year, their time is limited. Schedules don't work really well for me, but routines do. So the book was interesting for highlighting the need to recognize the good things you already do.

These last two weeks have emphasized what a blessing it is to build in wasted time.  Another book I'm reading is Patricia Hampl's The Art of Wasted Time in which she writes in praise of contemplation, but she recognizes the struggle between being an active or contemplative person or a pilgrim or a tourist - most of us are something of both. It's a good read so far.

I also picked up Wild by Cheryl Strayed. I wasn't interested in reading this book because I don't really like reading about someone's drug and sex problems set as a memoir, but I picked it up because of this article.  Nonetheless, I read the first fifty pages about her mother's death, and I can see why people really like this book. I think I'll be conflicted about this book. She reminds me of a friend I had in high school who went from obsession to obsession, all in every time, passionate and emotional about each new project, but many of them ended in heartbreak or fizzled out. I tend toward stoic on the emotion scale, so I may put down the book in frustration, but I'm going to give it a fast read.

Finally, my book club book is The Long Loneliness, Dorothy Day's autobiography, which I read before and just loved. Here is another person who was all in, but she lacks the self-centeredness that the Strayed has. Day's center is God and the people in His image.  I read this a few years ago, but am happy to revisit it. I just finished reading about her home life and education, and am reminded of two things - one, her love for her baby brother who arrives when she is a teen is a reminder that siblings are always a blessing - and two, her parents discouraged too much socializing. The Day children spent a lot of time home with books and coloring. They did wander the neighborhood a lot, but they also had plenty of daydreaming time. They read lots of great literature - she talks about Dickens and Tolstoy.  They also lived at times close to poverty and at times very comfortably because of her father's newspaper job, so instability was something they learned to survive. I know resilience is a trendy word lately, but it's easy to see why. Hovering parents are everywhere, including inside of me.

We have another evening with nothing on the schedule, so we'll sit down again amidst the piles of books to read and read, some leisurely and some with speed.

July celebrations

Remembering some recent blessings from the first half of July. What is not captured on film: some days at the beach, lots of time in the pool, a playdate with friends at the park, early morning walks with the teens, conversations over coffee on the back patio. The days have been warm and slow this week; we've settled into summertime.  The older kids are working, three at the pizza place, one at the candy store, one has a second job interning at an architecture firm. The kid who loves video games unplugged for a week on an island with the boy scouts at camp, where they snorkeled, hiked, kayaked, shot things, learned photography skills, and played a lot of gaga ball. When the kids aren't working, they have been painting and sewing and cooking. These are the moments that make a life.

Visiting the coast

A teen's picture of the Point Loma Lighthouse. 

Fourth of July exuberance

A highlight of the parade on the Fourth: Pearl Harbor survivors waving to the crowd.

Watching the show from a friend's rooftop deck.

A patriotic field trip: Visiting the Midway

Trying to pick out our house from across the bay

Last iteration of the pumpkin. Temps over 80 finally did him in. Almost made it a year.

Cake decorating contest

Difficult decisions

We are coming down from two months of excitement and celebrations. Last week my cousins spent the week with us, and we had a wonderful stay-cation that gave us time to reconnect as a family and to recover from all of the busyness of the previous months. We still had a full week: two birthdays, the Fourth of July, visits from other friends and another set of cousins. But the pace was relaxed, and the kids were mostly happy. Lots of pool and beach time. I loved seeing the four-year-olds, our daughter and our goddaughter, play so happily together. Pictures to come.

The happy week was a welcome break from decision-making. Or perhaps the observation of my cousins' family complicated my choices. I am faced with a decision and self-doubt and haven't found a satisfying solution.

This latest moment of self-doubt is related to another job offer. I re-submitted a few applications a several months ago when I got spooked by the reality of having three kids in college and a rent payment well over our housing allowance.  But financial motives were only part of the reason - pride, ambition, plus a sincere desire to be a part of an academic community sharing in the joys of teaching and learning all contributed to the thought that I might want to go to work. I love being on a campus. I lose track of time reading essays and researching teaching materials. I have daydreamed about having a job and have envied people who are able to go to work and experience the satisfaction of doing a job well. I have more than once confessed to envy, both of my husband and peers, of those who can point to work well done or an achievement they have accomplished. I wonder how the woman almost nominated to be a Supreme Court Justice, Amy Coney Barrett, a mother of seven who was one of my classmates, manages to have a family and a career.

The fact that I had trouble finding time to fill out the application perhaps should have been an indication that maybe now was not the right time to look for a job.

Nonetheless, I got a call last week from a small, Christian, liberal arts school here in San Diego, and went to the interview and then the second interview, and now have an offer to teach a Culture and Literature class on Nature Writing on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10-1145. It's an eight week course that repeats during the semester, so I would teach the same class twice in one semester. That means fewer classes to prep.

If all the kids were in school, I would be turning cartwheels. Teach a class on Nature Writing?! At a small, Christian, liberal arts school?! Yes,  please!! It's a literature-based class, not creative writing, so even though I'm not a specialist in the genre, I have had a special interest in the topic. At one time, I thought I would write a thesis on Wendell Berry and rural literature of the Midwest. I can already envision a reading list, probably starting with a chronological survey - beginning with Aristotle and Genesis, and then addressing Copernicus and Galileo, then jumping up to the Romantics then the Transcendentalists, followed by another jump up to the beginnings of the environmental movement represented by Rachel Carson and maybe Aldo Leopold, and then spending a good chunk of time on contemporary writers.  The challenge would be to keep the reading list to a minimum. And I would assign student presentations to take some of the prep work off of me.

The choice would be simpler if I hadn't just decided a couple months ago to homeschool the four-year-old. If she wanted to go to preschool and I had signed her up, all would be nice and easy. But I went through all that angst a while ago and chose to homeschool her at least another year or so and see how it goes.

Then I spent time with my cousin and her beautiful, happy, well-behaved, homeschooled children.  Other encounters with homeschoolers and the votes of my previously homeschooled children assured me that I should return to a home-based education for our four year old.  My cousin loaned me Sarah MacKenzie's Teaching from Rest, which I devoured in a couple hours. It made me see how essential an eternal perspective is and question my decision to send the other kids to school.

But I also had just finished One Beautiful Dream by Jennifer Fulwiler, which gave me the hope that my desire to work can be balanced with teaching children at home.  I like her perspective that mom's work can be a part of the family mission. She also has a long-term perspective after a revelation that she was living a life "ruled by the tyranny of the immediate." I think that limitation led me to put the kids in school. She has this insight after witnessing a Mexican family enjoying each other's company and getting a family photo after church.

Here is her quote about creative work that identifies some of why, even though teaching would complicate our lives, I have trouble turning down this opportunity: "Being part of the creation of new life was an experience of God. Yet I also felt something similar in my work. It astounded me whenever I considered that only the creatures made in the image of the Creator can create. Among all the animals on earth, humans alone have the gift of creativity -- and, as people had experienced through the millennia, to use this gift is to experience something of God.

"Now I wondered: What if all desires to create -- both with children and with work -- are, in fact, all pointed in the same direction? What if both are different but complementary ways of getting in touch with the ultimate Source of creativity? What if following your God-given passion is not just okay to do during the baby years, but actually something that has the potential to enhance your whole family's life?"

My children also think I should teach at the college. They don't see the conflict. Just find a babysitter. It's only six hours a week. (Plus prep and grading...) Easier said than done.

I have both selfish and idealistic attitudes about teaching at the college. I also have idealistic attitudes about homeschooling, but they are contrasted with very real concerns about the souls and attitudes of my two younger children, whom I sent to school earlier. Would these children be different if they had been homeschooled longer, or would our temperaments have been in conflict? The old nature/nurture question haunts me.

As a parent, I note my failures more than successes. Maybe those words are the wrong choices to use. I liked Mrs. Darwin's recounting of the unique individualities of her children a couple weeks ago. Our kids are all different and unique, and our situation with moving made life complicated for a few years. We know homeschool families whose children have dropped out of college and floundered a bit. My husband reminded me of Mother Angelica's quote that the past is past and we can't change it, so there is no use in regrets, but I still wonder if the decisions we have made have been for the better or worse. For example, we could have chosen the tiny, conservative Catholic school up in North County, but my husband would have an hour commute, and tuition was pricey. Should we have made that sacrifice? I wonder. But disrupting our situation now would cause resentment. The kids like their school, despite my reservations.

Perhaps I can somehow incorporate some of what is best about homeschooling into our home life? Reading aloud more at night? A "Finer Things" night once a month?  (Combining Sarah MacKenzie's suggestion of a family symposium on truth, goodness, and beauty with the humor of "The Office.")  

And I know my own faith life needs to be deepened. My relationship with Christ is often pushed to the side while I focus on a to-do list. Time for prayer and contemplation is rare. I lose track of the centrality of my relationship with Christ - and family - easily. Will finding a creative outlet keep me focused on what is important at home?

Some people have the gift of being able to clearly see what their role in life and responsibilities are.  They are strong in their faith and clear about what is right and wrong. They can make a decision and stick with it. They have principles that guide their decisions, and their actions are in conformity with their beliefs. They don't second-guess everything.  I think I used to be this kind of person. I had a pretty clear picture of what I wanted our family life to look like. I remember going to a retreat based on that book "A Mother's Rule of Life" and filling out worksheets on our family mission. I wish I could find that page now because I feel like I've lost my way a bit.  Dante's "Midway through life's journey I found myself in a dark wood because the straightforward path had been lost" keeps echoing in my mind. 

My husband suggests trying out teaching for a semester. I think he would be happy if I could be content to stay at home. I know it would be hard to start something and then stop. Every morning I wake up wrestling with what to do and every night I go to sleep wrestling with the same questions. I don't feel at peace when I imagine saying no to this opportunity, nor do I feel at rest when I imagine doing it. I'm giving myself one more week to consider the options. May the Lord give me clarity. 

June ends too soon

 I can't believe the end of June is right around the corner. Since I haven't managed to sit down and update this all month, I'm again throwing up some photos to represent the events of the month.

June was a month of parties. It began with our twenty-second wedding anniversary. We celebrated by helping friends from the east coast host a west coast retirement party. They used to live here and came out for a visit and to organize the Wear Blue: Run to Remember mile at the Rock and Roll Marathon. So the beach bonfire was followed up with a very early morning of volunteering to hold flags during the marathon.  We also were hosting our oldest son's girlfriend, who came out a couple days after her return from a semester in Ireland to cheer him up from his recovery from ACL surgery.

The next weekend we hosted a twelfth birthday party with a cooking competition theme that was inspired by our daughter's love for the Great British Baking show.  It also made buying gifts easy: a big mixing bowl (a good size for making bread that I have always wanted), a new pyrex measuring cup (oh, mine just shattered not too long ago!), an apple slicer (I've always desired one but couldn't justify the drawer space), and wait are those new measuring cups and silicone spatulas in cute colors! Perfect! Just what she wanted/I needed!

It was nice to give the newly minted twelve-year-old some attention because the following week was devoted to promotion/graduation activities.  We've attended a variety of end of the year awards ceremonies and celebrations, but the actual end of the school year was until June 14th. My parents arrived on the 12th, and celebrated our son's promotion from middle school to high school the next day, which happened to be the warmest of the year.  That event had a lot of pomp and circumstance, but the ceremoniousness was interrupted first by the fainting of a middle school student cameraman, and then by watching two or three light-headed choir members being led retching from the risers on the football field to the sidelines. Then during a long, predictable speech about working hard and having a good attitude by the superintendent, a couple seagulls swooped down to the field to clean up the mess. It was good entertainment.

The next night was the high school graduation for our third son. The emotion wasn't quite as high this time, but I still caught myself feeling sentimental and nostalgic for the years that went by so quickly, especially as I pulled out old photos from albums (which also made me miss prints).  The high school graduation, even though it is an hour longer than the middle school one, was much more fun. The speeches were better, the students threw beach balls and blew bubbles and cheered anytime someone said "Class of 2018," and some random kids were mock kung fu fighting on the far side of the track for added entertainment.  The final perk: the ceremony was held at 7 pm, so we got to watch a glorious sunset over the football field. 

Both of these celebrations were followed with dessert fests. We hosted a graduation open house for my son's friends and dropped in on a couple of other students' parties, but having my parents here made the events feel more like celebrations, too.  It always helps to have family to celebrate with.

In addition to these momentous occasions, we've had a half a dozen going away parties (we only hosted one last weekend, aloha themed, for about 30 people). It is PCS season, and again this year, we are staying put instead of leaving. This year it seems like my whole group of good friends is  leaving - four families from our friend group, the family we've been stationed with three times, friends down the street we have over to dinner, my daughter's best friend, the women I have coffee with to talk about teenagers, my one other friend with a big family who was my partner in organizing our pre-school co-op. . . . It's a sad time for me. It's easier to be the one going sometimes.  My daughter was crying big, gulping sobs the morning her best friend left - which happened to be from our driveway where they had spent the night in their RV.  I know we'll see them, and probably some of the other families, too, again, but it means readjusting what next year will look like --- which will happen anyway as we send another kid off to college.

More decisions and celebrations to come...

  

The almost 9th-grader (in the jacket he picked out).

High school sunset 

Almost graduate with grandparents

Celebrating!

Concert in the park

The cap illustration - future home

A much needed familiy getaway to Mount Palomar for some vitamin N

The baby betta fish are growing! 

New hand-me-down bike trailer

Midsummer sunset

Greetings and good-byes

Life has been roiling around here. The big boys are home, so more bodies and voices are taking up space and driving away in cars when I need one.  They also have been helpful with finishing off leftovers and piling up laundry.  Best of all, they have been generous with hugs and watching baby sisters, so it has been a true delight to have them home despite the increase in dirty dishes and laundry.

We have had a lot of celebrations in May - the boys coming home, two confirmations, several birthdays, Mother's Day, award ceremonies, end of the season potlucks, prom, Memorial Day weekend, farewell teas, and feasts with friends visiting from afar.

This time of year is always full of comings and goings, but this spring the Navy is taking several good friends away from us.  I can't bring myself to go to library story time this week because our best preschool friend left this past weekend, and her two little boys won't be there for LK to sit with. And my middle school daughter is dragging her feet every morning because her best friend who usually stops by each morning to walk to school with her has also moved out. There are still two weeks left of school, but one by one our friends are saying goodbye.

This is the peril of military life.  Usually, it is we who are leaving after a couple of years, but this time we are watching our friends here pack up.  I've tried to pay forward some of the help we received in the past - watching kids and dogs, bringing by baked goods, washing a few windows, taking bags of half-finished condiments. Inside I'm quietly dreading the summer months and then the school year without them.  It seems like we had just crossed the boundary between acquaintances to friends to good friends when it is time for them to go. And it might be a little easier if it were just one family, but multiple of our favorite families are leaving.

The only consolation is that this week also brought visits from friends we knew from Navy life elsewhere. First, last Sunday we met up for a quick coffee with friends we met 12 years ago in Norfolk. Their oldest son is stationed here, and they came out to welcome him home from a deployment. I'm hoping they'll visit again because we didn't have enough time to talk about all the things that came tripping out once we got going. It was like no time had passed at all. Too short of a visit but wonderful to catch up in the flesh.

Then we welcomed our son's girlfriend for a week's reunion. She had been in Ireland this past semester and came out to surprise him after he had his ACL repaired in his knee. He's been laid up since he came home from school after this injury derailed his plans for the summer.  She's always a smiling face and welcome visitor

Finally we hosted our best friends from Guam who came out to celebrate his pending retirement with west coast friends since they used to live here, and to run the Rock and Roll half marathon with the organization Wear Blue: Run to Remember, which honors fallen service members, in memory of our friends' son who died in an incident just as we were leaving Guam.

We had a great weekend reconnecting while roasting marshmallows at a beach bonfire, drinking coffee, and picnicking at the Sunday night concert in the park.  My only complaint is that because we had so many people to visit with, I felt a little like I had ADD; I was always thinking about catching up with the next person. Yet again I found myself wishing for more hours in the day to spend with the friends we have made over the years and across the miles.