Winding down the summer.

It's so hard to believe that we're in the end of summer! Well, given that I put my kids in long pants this morning, I guess I can see it. We've got more than 2 weeks until school starts. This week is pretty mellow - I think we'll squeeze in a visit to the Science Museum this afternoon. On Wednesday, my husband's office is doing their annual picnic at Steep Hill Beach. Next week I think we might try for a day trip to RI to see some friends, so we've got lots of fun stuff to do. Back to school shopping is just about done, though I realized that all my daughter's clothes don't fit, but all her new clothes are way too big. Hmph. In a way, I'm sad to see summer end, we've had a good but very busy one. I'm also looking forward to getting back into more of a routine. I started my new job, and I think it's going to be good! Though a big adjustment. It also really really limits how much traveling I can do with the kids, which is a bummer. I hope the Saturdays won't be for more than a couple of years though.

In terms of crafting....I actually finished something!!

This is a baby blanket for a friend. Honestly, I'm a bit unsure about the colors, if they're too 70s, but I wanted to do something fun and bright and not typical for her, as she's a fun, bright and non-typical kind of woman! I hope she likes it! The pattern is Lyn's Round Ripple afghan, which is really easy and once you're in the groove, doesn't even need a pattern. I know the Yarn Harlot scorns the ripple blanket, I think it's cute. I like the more circular blankets, and the crochet is so much faster than the knitting for blankets! I did a pinwheel blanket and while I love it, it's just long. So anyway, the Round Ripple, it's 12 point *counts anxiously* star, really, crocheted in the round. The yarn is KnitPicks Crayon. It's really lovely, SO soft! And cotton, which I like for babies. Since this little one is due in October, I think I'm going to do a pumpkin hat too.

Since I finished this blanket, and I had bought an atrocious amount of Crayon, I promptly started another! This is for a friend in CA who is due with her 4th, a little girl, sometime soonish.

I don't feel like the colors are quite right on my monitor - the red is really more of a dark pink. This friend is sort of a super-woman, and I just can't picture her ever being frazzled or yelling at her kids. So soothing colors for her!

And then, two more friends both announced they're pregnant, and there's another one pregnant with twins, so YIKES. I'm thrilled for all of them (and glad it's not me!). I guess I've got to get working!

It's hard to make sense of it all, sometimes.

Our community has been rocked by a tragedy. A 10 year old girl was killed in a terrible, senseless accident. I didn't know her personally, but I have friends in common with her and her family, and they are just reeling from it. On the same day, I learned an incredibly joyful piece of news from another friend, so it's been an emotional few days. I'm not someone who believes that tragedy is inherently meaningful. I'm not sure if I've talked about this before here, but I'm not someone who believes "everything happens for a reason." I think random terrible things just happen sometimes. Sometimes people choose to do horrible things to one another, and that's also very very hard to comprehend, but sometimes in life, things just go horribly wrong. There's no silver lining, no saving grace in this instance. At least, not one that I can see. This is not to say that I think everything is meaningless. Just the opposite, in fact. I believe you can grow and come to grace through unbearable pain, and I believe that life, love and our connections to one another are The Thing that make it all worthwhile.

So, I'm hugging my dear ones closer to me tonight and trying to figure out how to create something from this. Not that it will in anyway make it better, but what can I take from this? And the big thing I take is "SLOW DOWN." Take the time to really pay attention and notice all the things around you. Don't miss them.