saturday.

...sara and I were up early to visit the union square greenmarket (we'd planned to cook brunch and needed some vegetables, cheese and eggs to make a strata, plus fruit for salad). it didn't disappoint. only wish I'd had more cash so we could've taken home flowers, too!

in the afternoon, we walked to the park and enjoyed the people watching. sara and katie got a decent start on a crossword and I made a little more progress on a sock.

we dressed up a bit for dinner out at a voce - no more photos after we left katie's (just a clutch means no room for a camera), but trust me, it was all good!

we're getting pretty good at the mirror shots (and I kind of like not having my face in the photos!)

p.s. I'm trying to get photos uploaded to flickr every day, but the blog posts are probably going to be few and far between!

three of us.

...love how quickly we settle into being three.

tuesday was spent traveling, shopping for food and wine, watching four(?) episodes of parenthood so we were caught up for the season finale (which was sadly a bit of a disappointment - boo!), and eating in. sara and I made mexican while katie worked.

not sure what's up for today. katie just left for work and sara's still asleep. at least for now, that means knitting time for me!

live well. laugh often. love much.

...I've stamped this message inside nearly all the cards I've made since I acquired that stamp (2003?) and that really is the motto I try to live by. so it seemed especially fitting to grace the cover page of the travel journal I've planned for nyc (beginning tomorrow - or if I take too long to type this post - beginning in just a few hours!)

these are the blank pages I've printed to capture the details of our days, my thoughts, and special memories, decorated with pieces and parts of my favorite five pages of american crafts patterned paper. leveraging the journal I created for paris (wow, over a year ago!) - hoping this will help me document our trip - probably our last to nyc (at least for a while) and our last as a threesome (until italy, 2014, to celebrate sara's college graduation?)

a bit sheepish to admit I hadn't even thought about this trip as one to document...until I shared my three NYC scrapbooks with beth (I owe her a huge thank you!). and I knew I wanted another journal to capture the details. because this is for sure a trip I want to remember. forever.

p.s. yes, this means the knitting I'd hoped to finish before the trip (a pair of "no purl monkey" socks) is still not done. and yes, in the spirit of all this, I am completely ok with that!

celebrating sara.

...one last (at least for now!) "way to go, you!!" post to celebrate sara's graduation. despite the rain, the day turned out perfectly. beginning with a late morning walk while the rain took a break, we proceeded to lunch at bistro vg.

then visited cast-on cottage to check-in on our latest KAL (this photo doesn't capture all the drama - that's another post for another blog!).

got dressed (smiled! and posed!).

and did the ceremony in perfect style. I wrote to several friends today that the rain was really a blessing for us. graduation was in the high school gym - a very small venue (sara gave away two of her four tickets...I was glad it was just marc and me...) and how cool that we made eye contact more than once! I surprised myself - no tears (maybe it was knowing I'd forgotten tissues and all marc could offer was a recycled napkin?)

the best surprise for me was finding this photo on my camera. cloud nine. life is a blur. focus on what's important. . . .

one last "official" photo (that's her real diploma hidden in the green folder)

and then to sage for a very (especially by marc's standards!) late dinner. more good food. and the million dollar cake for dessert seemed fitting.

sara, we love you, we are proud of you. and we wish you the very best in all you do. xxoo - mere.

(p.s. I cried editing the photos and typing this post - and now really have no idea how I managed dry eyes last night :-)

scholarship night.

...one more event that didn't make my list, but should have (this should be the last one - sara's actual graduation has been on my list for months now!). senior scholarship night was last night. we weren't at all sure why sara was invited - not that we're complaining about Hope, but it's common enough that all the students who receive it don't get honored.

good thing we took the invitation seriously. marc and I were both there to see sara receive the female scholar athlete award. this award recognizes the two seniors (one boy and one girl) who play a varsity sport and have the highest gpa.

way to go, sara!

and after last night, I've completely revised my expectations for myself for tomorrow's graduation ceremony (shoot, maybe even for the just us two celebration lunch at bistro vg tomorrow afternoon). I'm hoping to simply maintain a bit of decorum. and I'm bringing lots of tissues.

counting down.

...to graduation. to the end of our high school routines. sara has her final for "lunch" tomorrow (gotta love that, right?) and seniors don't have school on friday. so today was our last before school breakfast. of course I took a photo!

I'm knitting spring green bandit and sara is re-reading a cooks illustrated from a few months back.

tennis banquet.

...this event didn't even make my "looking forward to" list. but it certainly should have. this was definitely the best one of the six I attended (two for katie and four for sara)... and the only thing that made me (just a very very tiny bit) sad was the realization that I've finally figured out how to enjoy stuff like this, now that it's ending. of course it didn't hurt that the food was good. and that sara won the first-ever scholar athlete award for the girls varsity team.

thanks to another mom for a lovely photo of me and sara

and to all the girls for a wonderful team photo

thinking this is a great way to kick off the last week of high school. which is really only four days because seniors don't have school on friday. yes, I will be soaking up every bit of that breakfast table time!

in training.

...karen & I had great plans to participate in the official 2 day training walk yesterday, but those plans fell through (imagine a puddle of water in my basement, ruined cardboard boxes and a bit of very wet carpet...I had to be home to wait for a visit from the air conditioning repairman). instead, we did training on our own. four laps at hembree park. enjoying the sights and sounds of almost summer - baseball, concession stand grilling, honeysuckle, a band at the church that backs up to the trail and finally, enough sunshine to see our shadows. but best of all was time to simply talk and catch up. six miles is good for that!

p.s. I had hoped this would be a post about the boys mexican...but not a single photo turned out - really, those who were there will thank me for not sharing any of them! but it was fun seeing everyone. the food and margaritas were delicious as always. and it was especially good to see katie & rob.

new routines.

...I'm sure I must've blogged about this before (but honestly I'm not sure, and I'm not willing to take the time right now to pore over posts from the past 4 months to check - so if you have read this before - sorry) - it's certainly been a theme in my journaling and my weekly postcards to my mom.

27 years in the corporate world spoiled me for routines. monday through friday were spent working. "regular hours". I never had to check my calendar to see if I was free for coffee on a random thursday afternoon. of course I wasn't - I was working. weekends were saved for Plans. and I did routinely check my calendar to see what they were so I didn't overcommit (not that I didn't mess up every now and then :-). but I remembered most of them without even looking. they were Plans, after all.

but now - ask me if I'm free on any day for any thing and I have to check my calendar. because every day is different. some days I teach. some days I work. some days I have errands to run for marc or for sara (or for me). some days I meet friends to knit. some days I have things to do around the house. some days I have [fill in the blank]. every day is just different enough that I feel a bit ... un-centered about it all.

and adjusting to that has probably been the hardest part about these past (nearly) four months. I'm trying to embrace the flexibility, but a deep part of me really (really) craves the routines. four months in, I'm getting better about not being able to make plans for certain things until I have my teaching/work schedule set. and my friends seem more flexible than I about our plans. but I'm grabbing onto every bit of time that I might get ... routine?... about.

like early morning time.

today sara had to be at school early and I faced the reality that sara has just a few more "early morning" days to share. so I tried out something new. 8am on the deck. coffee. journaling. and despite the birds, the kind of quiet that clears my head.

...this could be a good new routine. because 8am is nearly always "free". perfect to be me time. something I can count on. and I know I do need that.

thank you.

...to katie. to sara. for a perfect mother's day!

the food was delicious.

sara baked strawberry rhubarb crumble, topped with homemade frozen vanilla yogurt

the company was fabulous. I'm especially glad our plans for nyc are finally coming together.

and I even managed (I think??!) to be pretty low-key about the mess. because katie is so good about cleaning it up!

the flowers are beautiful too - saving a photo of them for later...
thank you!

so much love.

me and my mom. february 10, 1963.

...my mom looked this good in the photos taken a few months earlier, when I was just a week old - but I chose this one because it shows both of us looking our best.

happy mother's day to my mom - who showed me from the very beginning what real "mother love" is all about. so much love indeed!

fair enough.

...finished. and photographed. and seriously loved (despite many hours of finishing - time spent kitchenering underarms, picking up and knitting button and buttonhole (twice!) bands, weaving in lots of ends and sewing on grosgrain and ten buttons).

I had forgiven it those hours before it was even dry from blocking. because it is just too pretty.

it fits perfectly. although if when I knit it again, I'll make it a tad shorter in the body and the arms. (more notes on ravelry, here.)

thank you to katie for the photos. and to the rhododendron for blooming at the perfect time.

journal 8.

...finished. true to the tradition I started back in early 2008, I closed with a snapshot of me (today). knitting. hembree park. looking forward to sara's graduation and our trip to nyc. enjoying starbucks knitting time with lynn and virginia. wearing my hair curly some days (but always with mascara, lip gloss and earrings and often with pearls).

and building on a tradition I started in journal 7, I documented 24 finished knitting projects - just the pattern and the yarn I used - a snippet of which I've tied to the journal elastic.



I love the memories that jumble of yarn evokes. and look forward to seeing what journal 9 looks like!

not knitting.

...as in I took a few moments yesterday to do something different (not knitting, not walking, not talking about knitting....) and celebrate the rhodie in our backyard. may is definitely its month to shine. and I think this year is going to be stellar.

what an amazing difference since january!