Mish Mash Mind

You know it's bad when sleep is disrupted by ideas for blog posts. If that isn't creepy enough, then consider waking up to a mind overflowing with multiple snippets of blog posts swirling around in a caffeine depleted mind only to become an overwhelming number of bigger ideas that don't gain good traction because they are just that: "small plates".

I've decided to post my Mish Mash Mind today in the form of photos (and words) that have been ping ponging around my heart and mind these last three days.

The weather, ever since the grand family/friends picnic in Discovery Park last Saturday, has been overcast, rainy, and unseasonably cool. Is summer gone, we ask? I've resisted starting up the furnace in the mornings but we have the down comforter back on the bed. The new bank of Leylands revels in the much needed natural moisture and I imagine their microscopic rootlets pushing out into the soil, exploring a new home. It feels like autumn in late August.

My Birthday came and went. It was bittersweet all around. Visiting Mom and Dad and posing with them while Catie snapped this picture (notice the extra clothing; it's chilly) reinforces the feeling that each day with them is precious. Time is running out but the energy and ideas and enthusiasm to make more of the time is a great challenge (see Rockbridge Times post).

Sharing a Birthday evening out for dinner with D and the kids was a romp through calorie overload but still delicious. The blackberry shake that accompanied this burger was over the top and by the time we got to cake later in the evening, I wondered why we were continuing to eat. Thanks to Denny who baked the cake. We didn't have the proper candle numbers so figured the number 5 was just fine. The porcelain "August Angel" figurine on the left stands by all August birthday cakes if we remember.

One of my birthday requests was to watch a movie at home, just the 4 of us. D and I introduced Animal House with John Belushi, one of our favorites from ancient days, to the uninitiated. I think they enjoyed it; we did anyway. Some of the lines in that movie are priceless; D and I quote them frequently. Thanks to Laura for the dozen red roses. Very sweet. I'm looking at them now from my bed as I write this post.

The view of these lovely roses segues into the fact that you, Ms. L are leaving very, very soon for an eight month trip to Europe and studies abroad. I'm so excited for you but at the same time coming to grips with emotions so powerful that I can barely write about them. The feelings manifest in our push-pull dance of preparation, packing, purchasing, and running through never ending lists of "to-do". Although the leave taking looms large, I see you infrequently, making our time time together burdened down with tension and anxiety. God grant me grace. I'm in such need.

Packing and organizing and hoping that things forgotten can be easily replaced and things unneeded are kept to a minimum. The bags can weigh no more than 50 pounds; we have a scale handy to confirm. There is so much she wants to take and no amount of wisdom from the packing gurus means much when "stuff" is so important.

Which brings me up to present day. Saturday. I don't have many plans but would like to fill a basket with blackberries and make a cobbler before the month of August passes. This year, the unseasonable chill and wet, has made berry picking a challenge. Unlike most years when cobblers, muffins, ice cream and mojitos garnished with blackberries abound, we've had none.

I'll go in search of ripe blackberries and try to clear out this tangled mish mash mind.