Summer is fleeting

and so we take the time to remember:

* thanks to Michael D. for the photos that I snagged from Facebook*

Someone went to Idaho for two weeks. The event was Hill Abbey, and she had the time of her life reading Augustine with a great group of friends. The rest of the family is happy she yanked herself away from the fun and came home to us.

We were blissfully reunited, via a flight to Portland, at the home of friends. It is one of my favorite places, filled with thoughtful and kind people, hard truths, good food, and beauty around every corner, inside and out.

(The family pic on the right requires a "click to enlarge" to appreciate. Photo credit goes to the very talented NP.)

A beautiful Idaho traveling girl turned nineteen and her mother managed to make a cake that did NOT look like a volcano replica. It was a win/win moment.

It was a gloriously beautiful day in San Francisco

A Schola classmate became a family friend/adopted daughter. The only problem? Alabama is WAY too far away. We miss you, Mandy.

Ice cream and friends is a combo that is hard to beat

Two of my favorite people hopped on a plane for Spokane to see a beloved nephew and a now-beloved niece get married. A first plane ride for the younger one on the left, a stay with friends, and a God-honoring ceremony made for a memorable weekend.

Since then it has been lesson planning, speech camp, junior college class adding, speech writing, and the making of many, many, MANY entrees in hopes that we can eat and do school this year. Never a dull moment around here, unless you are ten and consider the list above to be dullness personified.

The temperatures are rising again, giving the false impression that summer is lingering, but the work before me says, "Fall" without a doubt. That's okay; we're ready.