MISTY'S MORNINGS

It's official.  Soccer season has begun - again.  And this year holds a whole new weight to it as RW and ZJ are each on an academy travel team.  When tryouts came up last Spring we wrestled and wrestled with the decision.  It seemed we were at the end of the "little leagues" of soccer and it was either go big or go home - literally.  With much trepidation we went ahead and let them try out.  They each made a team.  RW in the U12 and ZJ in the U11.  They each have three nights of practice a week and games on the weekends - most likely in different cities.  Add the fact that our five year old, KC, wanted to start soccer as well and now we have more practices and an additional game somewhere else on Saturday.   This was a huge decision for me and my husband.  He travels a lot so the idea of then going in separate directions on the weekend seemed like a ridiculous sacrifice.  Then the idea of me hauling all three boys to...

Visiting California as a middle-schooler I was surprised to hear that many locals rarely went to the beach.  When you live close to it you aren't as thrilled by it as the tourists I supposed.  Back then, while growing up in landlocked North Dakota, I never imagined I'd wind up living four miles from a tourist destination beach like we do now and I can see how one slips into "been there done that mode". Between October and April it is a rare occasion that I venture to the water's edge.  It's too cold, too windy, too chilly, too much effort.  May brings a renewed vigor for beach days but by August it has become old hat. While lying back in my beach chair one day observing my boys, the waves and the beauty of it all I thought of my trips to California and how precious they were to me then.  Scanning the visiting beach families, obvious by their flaming red sunburned shoulders or Quebec license plates in the parking lots, I realized that many...

These pics are all from the Big Picture Classes Phone Photography Project in July.   So July 2013 is in the past. Once again I have gathered all my favorite moments in the Project 365 app photo calendar.  August is here and brings the daily countdown to an early start to school on August 19th.  I have officially purchased the school supplies, uniforms and backpacks.  We have yet to find comfortable black shoes that my newbie middle schooler will deem "cool" enough that I can also tolerate buying for him.  These pre-teen years are truly a roller coaster ride of finding the middle place where he and I can meet.  Thankfully he has a gentle spirit so our disagreements aren't so bad. (Do I need to add "yet" to this sentence??) Anyway, in honor of the boys going back to school I have decided to go back to blogging this month!  2013 has been such a growing year for me yet I have shared so little of it here in my sharing space.  So when Susann...