summer.

I feel like I should say so much has been going on as an excuse for my absence from this little internet space, but the truth is, I forgot about it. These days I'm mostly reading in my spare time, and everything else has gone to the back burner. That poor little sweater I was knitting for Alethea's first birthday, for instance: sleeves are still not finished, and it's way past April now.

A few things we've been doing and a few we're looking forward to:

- We spent a week in Blowing Rock with some of our favorite people. Pictures here. Ransom could have spent hours uninterrupted in that mountain stream. He was in heaven.
- Josh and I have been switching off teaching summer school. It has been so good to get out.
- A billion of my friends are pregnant. I do admit that a wave of relief washes over me when I remember I am not.
- Elisabeth started a blog where she writes her thoughts on raising bilingual babies, from the perspective of a non-native speaker. Share it! (Go to the "about" page and scroll down for a picture of me surrounded by my little Peruvian students. That all seems like such a world ago.)
- We were recently hit with the worst stomach virus known to man. I went to the ER. Thank goodness for family nearby, because I couldn't walk or speak, much less take care of children. How do people with little kids live away from their families? No, really, how?? Our families are always saving us.
- The second week of August we will all be chrismated into the Orthodox Church. Words cannot express the peace and excitement and joy that goes with this. And, truthfully, relief. I haven't written much on this subject because it's too big, too all-encompassing and anything I write seems trite or reductive. But, maybe I'll share pictures from the chrismation service.
- Ransom, Calvin, and little Alethea are growing and changing so much I can't keep up. The old challenges are fading and the new ones are coming in with a vengeance. But the joys keep piling on...
- Our garden is a success, and that feels good. Though, if anyone has a good way of staking tomatoes, I'm all ears. Half mine are simply laying on the ground because nothing I've done has kept them upright. We've been talking plans for a fall garden...

A few other pictures below from Blowing Rock. All courtesy of Bethany Kern, who takes the best pictures...

Ransom, Calvin, and Alethea, ages three, two, and one.