We have a new church ladies book group! I have started reading our first book, The Alchemist: A Fable about Following Your Dream by Paulo Coelho. I've only read the introduction and the prologue and already am enjoying the truth there. I adore self help books written as stories--I have several on my shelf already--and was excited to try this one out. From what I have read so far it will be an easy read, but one I will go through more than once and mark up like crazy.

Yesterday we had a fun 4th of July. Aside from visiting with my friend Julie's and the neighbors' families a few times over the years, this is the first time in my married life we've really done something other than staying home and watching the big Seattle fireworks on television. It's also the first time my husband and I have initiated a get together for the 4th. I entertain a lot, just not around Independence Day I guess. We called up a few people we thought might be without company and told them we were going to to the big park on the bay for dinner and to watch the fireworks show. We ended up with just us and four other people but it was fine--we had a great evening! The fireworks were gorgeous and the weather was absolutely perfect.

This weekend we are watching a 2-year-old daughter of a woman from church who is in dire straits. 7-4 yesterday, today and tomorrow. Since we don't have a car big enough for three little kids, I'll be walking to church tomorrow with them all in tow! Princess has loved having someone else to play with and it hasn't really complicated life (except for the transportation bit). The little girl is pretty easygoing--a definite two, but well-behaved.

The garden is happy! We picked another dozen strawberries for lunch today and a few peas. We have more pumpkins, yellow squash and zucchinis and the wax beans and growing well. The corn just keeps getting taller and we have open blossoms on the pepper plants! Lots of tomato blossoms but only 2 actual toms. I have got to figure out what to do about the cabbage! Something is eating the heck out of it and it won't last 'til the first frost at this rate. The celery amazes me. I am amazed that I can grow real celery that looks like celery! Now, I don't LIKE celery, but the rest of my family does (as do the Wonderpets who come and play at our house occasionally) so it's good we'll have a nice supply.

I'm finally telling people that I have a blog. Like, people other than the people who randomly found it because they have a blog too. I figured, I've been doing this a year almost and I should fess up :)

Baby Bear had his 9 month check up today--he's only 3 inches shy of 3 feet tall! We saw a new doc, not our regular one, but I liked her . . . she kept cooing at him and saying how perfect he was :) As a mom, that tends to get people on your good side!

We hit Wal-Mart after that and I found nifty storage boxes for the kid's room that came filled with my favorite wipes! Happy me! I also found a purple ruffled basil plant and some wax bean and cucumber seeds. I've been looking for bean and pea starts with no success--maybe I am just too late in the season for them. On the way out there was a fundraiser for a local resource that feeds the homeless and when Princess saw the semi-preciousness of the stones in the key chains, bracelets and necklaces, she wanted one so badly and I gave in. She now owns a citrine turtle key chain. We talked about where the money was going and why we were doing it and she enthused about getting to help others and getting a turtle in return.

Then we all three schlepped off to the chiropractor for our Official Evaluations post fender bender. It was nice to be done with that. Now all I have left to leave this disaster behind me is to send the papers back to the insurance company and be done. This particular experience is just another thing to help me learn to relax and go with the flow.

For quiet time we read Leaf Magic by Margaret Mahy, and Princess was terribly upset at the end. I finished the final sentence and was enjoying that delicious warm feeling that you have after reading a wonderful, touching story and she began to sniff and then snuffle and then launch into full blown hysteria. I finally got her calmed enough that she could show me the page that had upset her so much and it was the page where the leaf was trapped in a dark box all alone. She had fallen in love with the leaf and was devastated that it was shut up in a box and then truly distressed that it had been turned into a dog.

She has such a tender heart and she sees life in everything from rocks to paper dolls to the crispy worm she found on the front steps this morning ("he's just tired mom"). I tried to help her see that it was like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly--a happy thing, a good thing, but the loss seemed too great to her . . . despite my attempts at comfort, diversion and explanation, the poor dear cried herself to sleep. I hope that as she grows I can help her keep the empathy and compassion she was obviously born for while teaching her how to handle change with as much flexibility and grace as possible.

"The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail."
Lao-tzu