check me out, i'm stylish!

or, i got caught between two stylish ladies, and the photographer was too nice to ask me to get out of the way.

in the woods

kevin and i spent a few days in the woods to celebrate our first anniversary / his 31st birthday. it was so much needed. i'm trying to be grateful to have had those days, but fighting some vicious post-camping depression. this life has me so deeply stressed that i've literally been clawing at my own skin.

i want worries i can handle, like finding good skipping rocks, diving off cliffs into pristine swimming holes. i want my entertainment to consist of watching ducks in formation sprinting upstream, playing dominoes by lantern light. wondering if we have enough wood to feed the fire for the night. telling jokes around the campfire.

& praying for peace, a clear mind. strength to endure.

kevin and i will be moving out of our house at the end of the month. i wish i could say that we are moving to a little homestead in the middle of the forest. i don't know where we're going quite yet.

& through hardship and struggle, i can only strive to be nothing but thankful, for all the blessings in my life. a kind and supportive husband, ultimately loving, faithful. friends who are good. our most basic needs are always somehow met.

for now i will try to keep the trees, the river. when i close my eyes, the river.

kevin is playing at the no depression festival today. so is gillian welch. i am very excited.

O God,
sustain us in the complexity of our humanity
as you sustained David--
playing the harp of youth,
throwing stones at giant problems,
loving our friends beyond wisdom,
dancing worship,
mourning children,
breaking our hearts in psalms, and
longing for warmth in our old bones. Amen.

from the revised common lectionary

summer is here, i've been swimming three times. once in green lake, once in rattlesnake lake, and yesterday in the freezing cold snoqualamie river. yesterday was the best, because kevin swam too. and he actually swam, what i do in frigid rivers and lakes is only mildly related to swimming.

i don't know what made me decide to read holocaust literature this season, but that's what i'm doing. it's depressing. i bring books of short stories to read when i'm on the banks of rivers. like cowboys are my weakness, by pam houston. most of the stories are great, but they're all kind of the same.

after the river we ate greasy burgers in fall city, and then went to golden gardens to help my friend lindsey celebrate her birthday. i played corn hole for the first time, and had a pretty decent case of beginners luck. we built a fire, kate made a pie. some guy was singing along to a personal karaoke machine down by the bathroom. lindsey, jen and i danced for a few songs, and then his batteries ran out.

i have a sunburn.

a full, happy weekend

vegetarian chili 

anadama bread

egyptian red lentil soup

a book and a blanket in a sunny backyard

shuffleboard at the viking (go team barrans!)

savoring the last hundred pages of middlemarch

friends in bookstores

lots of tea

a good storm (thunder and lightening, even)

a happy little house with a happy little husband

.