full celebration

Summer has really only been in full swing for a week, but boy have we greeted her with ferocity.  Spent all of last week moving and organizing and purging and focusing and celebrating our little, "rainbow house", getting her ready to be enjoyed by others.  And in one wild swoop, somehow found myself sitting around a table explaining a lease to three lovely twenty-somethings, twenty-somethings that very much resembled me and Jeff and our little Missoula crew in the early days.  They cut us a check, signed their names and, boom, wild role reversal.  I'm now the landlord.  I'm making the rules that they promise to follow.  Full circle celebration.

In the midst of this tremendous burst of work and responsibility, my husband left for a week long conference.  My go-to guy was gone and I was in charge of finding answers and making executive decisions.  And I still have two little, creative, loud, loveable people to care for.  So the balance has been a bit tricky.  They have definitely enjoyed the ipad while I've shown the house and scoured the cabinets.  So when Kay suggested we take a day away with the kiddos, it seemed like very appropriate and needed family fun.

I don't know why it's taken me this long to go to the garden of 1000 Buddhas in Arlee, but it has.  Wow.  This place is amazing.

Absolutely gorgeous and wild and so other worldy right there off the highway.  A perfect place to celebrate the solstice, the full moon, the move forward, a day with my girl and our babies -- just slowing down and savoring.  The kids spanned three to ten, but somehow the dynamic worked beautifully with Kay's olders taking care of my youngers.  Hayden even managed to shower Solomon in the men's locker room after our soak at Quinn's hotsprings...Jeff and I can barely manage to shower our bath-obsessed boy.  Kids rise for their own kind.

 The children passed out after our very full, sun-soaked day, skin soft with the mineral rich waters.  I felt a deep sense of safety and calm, mama-ing in tandem, taking the time to hold this moment in our story.  Eliana is changing so fast.  I feel her six-ness coming on; the way she rolls with it, asks meaningful questions, tries to be her best self and represent us with poise.  Solomon is a bit more hit or miss, his three-ness a walking party foul replete with sweetness and soul.  I held him in the water and felt his sweet lips on my cheek, the way he finally trusted that his life jacket would, indeed, allow him to float on his back, the look of serene calm that met his face when he finally settled in.  And Eliana, her swim strokes finally settling into her body, finding her confidence and stride in deeper waters.

This summer feels much less challenging, me home all day with the two of them.  I've had a few years of practice and now know what to expect, what I need to do to hold steady and surrender to meandering days and moment to moment goodness.  So bring it on.  Bring on this full celebration of now, of change, of shifts in light and space.