Grief Is Only Love That's Got No Place to Go* (May 2024)

 

Maybe someday I'll be able to blog again without sadness rising. Maybe once I get over the hump of the past and into the present, and I start taking more pictures of the children still at home. Maybe? Everyone hopes.

Until then, you get more maudlin posts and a big ol' weepy baby on the other side. 
Sorry, girls. <3

Yours truly,
A Landlubber Still Afloat in the Sea of Blind Cartography  

*Stephen Wilson, Jr. hits another one out of the park. POW.

May 2024

 

October of 2023 began scrawling a line of demarcation, and May of 2024 finished it off with a flourish.

May-- the month of Mildred's marriage! Everything from May 1st to May 31st orbited around her wedding day, which was a beautiful, head-spinning event. It's been over two years, and John and I now have three grandbabies here on earth, two we'll meet one day in heaven, and one soon to hold, Lord willing. 

Talk about head-spinning! And we have many more children to grow and move away, with more change and lines of demarcation 'til the page is full. I don't think my head will rest solid on my body until I get a glorified one. 

It'll Come Soon Enough (May 2024)

 

Skylark brought me an artistically arranged snack one day. I had to inform her that I was 45 and not 54. 

Beauty in the Sunshine (May 2024)

 

Heads and Tails (May 2024)

Ransom in the bathroom after I asked him if he knew anything about Mount Toilet Paper.

Ransom grinning like the cutie he is. 

Helper Elves (May 2024)

 

Deirdre, Didi, and Wynn came to help Millie and Susannah fold wedding programs. 

As a bonus, Corynn disposed of diapers for us. 

We Would Need a Bigger Downstairs (May 2024)

 

I had to soak and stain-treat the chiffon from Annika's wedding before we could use it for Millie's, and it stretched through the downstairs. I was so overwhelmed by it all that Titi offered to take a bunch of it to wash over at her house, which was a big relief. Where on earth would we have draped the rest to dry if she hadn't rescued me?!

Bustling (May 2024)

 

Quite literally, in both senses of the word.

Putting a French bustle on Millie's dress required 13 (lucky) tie-up points! I finished it a couple of days before her wedding, and she held Mallory for me while I figured it all out. 

 

A Last Hunt for Wild Leeks, or, Salamander City (May 2024)

I figured that a rainy day the week of Millie's wedding was an ideal time to take everyone to the Big Woods to pick wild leeks. (Not really, but when else could we have done it before she moved away?)

I hope this wasn't actually Millie's last time picking leeks in the Big Woods, but if it ends up being so, I'm even more glad we fit in in. These woods hold my childhood within them, and they hold my children's childhoods, too.  Family memories live in these fields and trees, which is probably why I felt compelled with both Mildred and Annika to take a last walk together right before they moved far away. 

After getting thoroughly wet and muddy, we headed home weighed down with baskets of ramps and a sleeping baby.

...and there was just enough time to play hide and seek in the tall grass. (Hang loose, Piper!)