We rented an RV and spent two weeks in Maine

At the end of July, we rented a RV and spent two weeks in Maine. We drove first to New Hampshire where Razor and the girls hang glided. We ate dinner that night in Claremont where we unexpectedly met a cast member from a reality show that Licious is mildly obsessed with. Then we spent a day wondering through Vermont to our first real destination of Wells, Maine. Razor had the Untamed New England Expedition Adventure Race and he and his team departed out of Durham, New Hampshire. The girls and I spent those five days exploring up and down the Maine coast from Portsmouth, New Hampshire to Freeport, Maine. We saw breathtaking rocky, cliff shorelines and stunning lighthouses. We ate lobster and halibut. We were there right at the height of wild blueberry season and indulged in blueberry everything from soda to ice cream. Sushi in Portland. Sea glass hunting in Kennebunkport. Souvenir shopping at a billion shops. We had a great week together. 

Just the three of us had to move the RV once. I drove it like a boss and backed it right into the space with the two best helpers I could ever ask for. 

Sneakily, we figured out where the race would finish and made it there just in time to see Razor and his team finish. Tired but full of stories, we drove him and all his super smelly gear back to the RV where we fed him the best fried halibut before he crashed.

The next day we rolled out for a meandering drive to Acadia National Park. We stopped several times along the way to see light houses and search for sea glass. My favorite sea glass spot was Belfast.

Acadia was remarkable. The views. The landscape. The sea. The lobster traps. Bar Harbor. The food. Southwest Harbor and the boat ride on the RL Gott out to Frenchboro. We saw harbor seals, harbor porpoise, gray seals, bald eagles and cormorants. And lots and lots of other unforgettable sights, sounds, and flavors.  The 18 photos above hardly even scratch the surface.

I love my crew. We rocked RV living so hard. Everyday was a game of Tetris to get us in and out of that moving vehicle of family bonding. Countless quarters to shower and do laundry. Falling asleep each night with my feet near the kitchen faucet. The daily contortionist shuffle of bed-to-table-back-to-bed-again.  It really was one of the best trips.  And, Maine was gorgeous.

-dana

The spring break thing

As luck would have it, both girls had the same week for spring break. With one in college, and missing her so, Razor and I spent many hours planning trips in our head. Out west to hike in the Grand Canyon. Moab. NYC. Or Florida. But as the week drew near, we piled into cars and drove the familiar roads to my parent's house. The weather in March is perfect there. My brother and family live there too. It's far enough to feel like we get away, but close enough to make it only a day's drive. Plus, the situation is such where having the four of us on hand was helpful to them both.

I never made it out to the beach but looking at the photos that Razor took, perhaps I should have. Truth be told, I'm just not a beach person. The salty surf and air blown sand certainly have their place but given a list of options, the beach will always be last in line for me I think. Weird. I know.

Anyway. Being together as a larger family unit felt good. And though Razor and I have been married for almost 22 years, I always notice how seamlessly he fits in with my extended family. Every time we are all together I pause and am grateful that they all accept him and love him as their own. And our kids of course...but you know what I mean. My brother and husband spent many hours tending a burn pile. They joked and laughed and carried on in the dirt, smoke and manual labor of it all. I love that they are friends.

Now I'm feeling the constant push and pull of getting my hands into the dirt, creating new fabric combinations in quilt form and running here and there for high school sporting events. I've got lots of seeds started in the greenhouse. I'm making a new king sized quilt for our bed. And I've been to three soccer games and two track meets in the last two weeks.

Reading back these words. I really, truly, deeply love my life.

-dana

Tap. Tap. Tap. . . Is this thing on?

Here it is the end of January 2018. That went fast, didn't it? We rounded out 2017 with our oldest home from college, a ski trip with extended family, cold weather temperatures, and quilt making. Lots of things have been happening which has my attention elsewhere. And the longer that time goes by, the easier it is to not sit down and click at the keyboard to write something here. I've considered not blogging any longer. My children are older and I feel like their stories are their stories to tell. They have been so gracious with allowing me to share things about their lives here but it just feels like the natural stopping point for that. And so does that leave this space merely a place to catalogue the quilts that I make? Maybe. But I've been blogging here for nearly 10 years and though it really has served as a way to chronicle our lives and be a record for my family to look back on, it has been a space where I work out lots of thoughts rolling around in my head. Thoughts of motherhood.  Marriage. Travel. Aging. Time and how I want to spend it. Politics.... not really, though I have lots of thoughts on that topic.

I don't know.

I guess I don't really feel done with this space just yet even  though my posting habits will undoubtedly be even less consistent. It's just the stage of life that I'm in where my children are older and my parents are older and it all makes the everyday things feel so fleeting.

So, I'll still share my quilt making with you. And gardening. And probably baking or cooking or canning. And occasionally those thoughts about it all that are rolling around in my head.

I'm still here. Are you?

-dana

Graduation. Sunset. Procrastination

A few weeks ago my oldest graduated from high school. Family in town. Parties. Hiking. Rafting. Sunsets. And me procrastinating. Procrastinating about cleaning up after the guests left. About pulling the photos off my camera. About finding a place for the giant cut out photographs of her head that we waved around at the ceremony. About flipping the page on the calendar or booking a hotel for orientation.  That girl makes tears flood down my face with pride. I get so deep into my ugly cry that my heart is inside my throat making it very hard to breathe. And then I do that thing where I enlongate my face in order to make the tears go back into my eyes. You know that thing, right? It's followed by a deep sigh, a nervous giggle and the resolve to get stuff done.

Such good things. Really, really good things.

-dana

Excuse me one moment while I

Excuse me one moment while I brag on this amazing daughter of mine, won't you? At 15 years old she is proving to be a remarkable young woman. One to be remarked upon. Recently friends of hers were at our house. A few are new this year and as I talked to one of them she said that she really wanted to dislike my girl because she is just so good at everything but impossible to dislike because she's just so nice.

Isn't that one of the most wonderful things you can hear as a mother? I've known it all along. I mean, if you've read my letters to my daughters each year that I post here (and here and here and here and others,) you know that I've been talking about her special way with people for years.

Also, she competed at the State Track Meet Finals last weekend.

And that woman you saw plastered against the chain link fence in front of the sign that said "Don't stand in front of the fence" who was snapping dozens of photos and yelling crazy things like "Run! You got this! Go! Go! Go!" who nearly forgot to breathe for the entire two mile race and tore through the crowd to be the first to fist bump you at the end?

I have no idea who she was.

-dana

Last hurrah

We spent last weekend with my brother and his family. In tents. Along the lake shore. Roasting marshmallows and swatting gnats. We cooked over the fire and listened to ducks quack in the darkness.

We swam and tubed. I introduced Oreos to my niece. (Your welcome, Jeff!) We hiked to a beautiful summit. Ate yummy food and plenty of junk.

I always feel a profound sense of gratitude when someone chooses to spend their precious free time ... vacation time ... with me. What better gift is there than time? Getting this time with my brother, sister-in-law and niece? Awesome, awesome sauce.

-dana

Unexpected day

Razor is off work this whole week. This whole week! That is unexpected in and of itself. But yesterday he asked if I wanted to drive to a neighboring town and look around. On a total whim!

There were at least five or six antique shops and though we saw lots of great things, we were just looking. 

Well, we were just looking until we spotted this door on the way out of one shop. It was behind another door. I asked if we could take a closer look. And if the shop owner had a tape measure. He told us they brought it over from England. It's 32 inches wide. And standard exterior doors in America are 36 inches wide. Our shoulders sank a little bit at this news. But I took their business card with the measurements written on the back.

The girls were already home when we finally pulled into the driveway. I immediately started dinner. Razor immediately grabbed a tape measure.

Guess how wide our front door is?

Guess who is getting a new/old front door??!!??

Three cheers for unexpected days.

-dana

Just us

We camped. Rode the loop. Spotted bear. And deer. And coyote. Lazed in hammocks. Gazed at the campfire. Ate junk food. Considered splashing bat researchers as we drove trough the river crossing. We didn't. We hiked. And teased each other. And laughed at silly things only we think are funny. We slowed way down. It was glorious.

-dana