Reflection

August is the last month of summer before school starts around here. It's a month that both goes by too fast and too slow. Too slow for the kids as they always look forward to seeing their friends again, meeting their new teacher, and growing into yet another year. Too fast for me, cause with the start of school, there comes additional expenses, new schedules, and sadness each day for a while on little Tayton's face as his best buddies leave each day. I know this year will be even harder on him as they have all gotten so close playing every day together.

Tyler is planning to play bass in orchestra and on the school basketball team. Katia will be in dance again in September and said the other day, "I'll never quit dance, er, well when they tell me I'm too old for it, then I'll have to." She has music in her feet each day.

And then in August, it's a time to reflect on what we did as a family during the summer. This summer we fished more than ever, the kids had camp, and we were able to stay home more. As odd as that sounds, it was nice- a true summer break. Later this month, Paul will have to travel to Chicago for a week for work- GM training and we're hoping to be able to go with. He was gone for most of this week down there as well. There's a museum, zoo, aquarium, and Navy Pier all within a couple miles of his school. So we'll see how the month pans out and pray its within our means.

My best friend from High school has a birthday tomorrow- I always remember it although we've lost touch over the past five or so years and I haven't an address or phone number for her anymore. I was thinking of her today, she was my maid of honor in our wedding, and she's the only one from my wedding that I never see anymore. It makes me sad that time changes people and sometimes never replaces those voids. A friend for a season I guess, but it still makes me sad.

Our Tayton will have his second birthday this month. We've determined that he gets cuter everyday and that is our downfall for sure. The terrible twos have started in the sense that he's into everything he's not supposed to be- like sugar, razors, coffee grounds, etc. You name it, he's into it and unfortunately most of that started around 18 months. We're still discovering more foods that he absolutely cannot tolerate. He's been sick since Wednesday morning from fresh Michigan cherries- he only had about four of them and that poor kid has been suffering for three days. Other fruits that trigger him are pears and grapes. Last week he had some juice that we thought was okay since it was strawberry/raspberry juice- well after only a couple sips, he started crying, itching his eyes- and low and behold there was pear concentrate in it. He cried nearly the entire day over that. But on the flip side- despite this latest chronic diarrhea from the cherries, he's actually still wanting to potty train and even went tonight for Paul. He's a good boy and always brings a smile to all of us. Hard to believe two years have passed since I had him.

And August appears to be a harvest month from my garden efforts. I have several tomatoes growing on vines, my cukes really took off, and I think the green onions just might make it too. The corn was munched down for the most part- there's only one stalk left!

So one month left to enjoy this great Michigan weather we've had and we'll soak in each day hopefully to it's fullest.