Happys

Tonight we walked over to the track by our house.  The temperature was cooler today and I felt a little cold in my tanktop and skirt. Tim and the boys were throwing Frisbee on the football field.  The sky was a cerulean blue and had high clouds that looked brushed, which were a warm yellow that reflected the setting sun, and the bleachers were a cobalt blue that looked so vivid next to them.  I wished I had my camera, but just framed it with my hands and said "click".  And then the sky was fading to pink, and the warm brown bulk of the school with its red framed windows looked so pretty against the green of the field and the waning pink-blue of the sky, and I wished I had my camera.   And Layla was joyous and laughing and running with her legs churning and her hair bouncing.  And the baby was happily pitter-pattering all around, with her feet making little smacking noises on the paved track that circles the field.  I took the baby back early to give her a bath and put her to bed, and dusk was falling and I could hear the sounds of life around us, and see my garden burbling with life and greenness and hear the crickets singing.

It feels like summer is starting to wane.

That's not a bad thing.  I like the change of seasons, and the summer has been SO HOT!!!!  I like things changing and having a variety of things to look forward to.  But I will really miss having the kids home and around.

Caroline is getting more opinionated.  She really wants to argue about how she should buckle the belt in her carseat while I am trying to buckle her in.  And she screamed her head off about having to take a bath tonight.  From little tiny on up, she has HATED to have her hair washed, and screams bloody murder with real terror if any water gets in her face.  But she got thoroughly washed and lotioned and fluffed and puffed and tucked right into snoozing.

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This evening I rearranged our living room.  I actually never rearrange stuff.  I like to find "the perfect spot" for things and then enjoy them looking "just right" to me.  I recently bought a new-to-me chair for the living room, thinking that we were going to use it to replace another one that has seen better days, but we all liked having an extra chair in the living room, and I decided that since we do have seven people in our family, it might be nice to have seating for at least six of them. :D  After all of my rearranging, I settled on something very similar to how it looked originally, with the new chair angled beside the couch.  It makes me happy.  I love to see my house come together, slowly, in bits and pieces of things that I truly love.  We've lived here for six years, and things always flex and change according to what we need.

Right now I love my multiple bookcases in our living room packed full of kid's books, and the hooks that Tim put up beside them to hold the many coats and bags of seven people.  And I love having soft and cozy chairs, and how my curtains are a little bit red while my walls are a warm yellow.  And I love having a basket to hold cozy blankets to put over you while you are watching TV.

I love yellows and reds with the occasional orange or green or blue thrown in and cozy things.  I bought a new picture at the thrift store today that makes me happy too.

I really disliked the house we owned in KY.  I hated the bathroom and I didn't like the exterior and it never felt like home to me.  When we were looking for a house in Delaware, I prayed and prayed that God would give us a house that felt like HOME to me; one that I could settle into and love.  I wasn't sure how that could happen, since most of the homes in our price range were a bit TOO dilapidated (a lot of them are now condemned!!).  I thought that we had found a house.  It was a small two storied house with three bedrooms and a small basement, and we put an offer in on it that the seller had rejected.  We were deciding on a counter-offer, when I bolted awake and sat straight up in bed at 5 AM the morning before with my heart pounding, KNOWING that we could NOT buy that house.  Don't know exactly why, but we didn't, and the next house we looked at that day was the house we bought, and besides four bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths and an awesome master bed/bath/walk-in-closet, it has that elusive thing that makes it home.   And I like putting my fingerprints on it, alongside all of the marker that is on the walls and the messes on the floors.  I'm patient.  One day I'll get it all like I like it. :)  Meanwhile there is a jumble of life going on inside, and a backyard we squeeze every square inch of use out of.  We have a small shed, a swingset, a big sandbox, a clothesline, a garden, a grapevine, a (cheap) pool for the kids, a tree swing and ladder and a basketball hoop.

It makes me happy.