(...footloose and fancy free.)
July should be easy. We had a giant party for Piper 36 hours after we got home from Jim Thorpe, and the rest is a blur. Puppies, babies, and the county fair figured in there somewhere, too, but with scant photographic evidence (not counting the dozens of pictures the children took that are too unfocused to post here).
Also of note is the loss of our beloved cherry tree in a summer storm. The children from Millie down to Skylark still lament its loss, as they made many happy memories in and under its kind branches over the last decade. My mom remembers it from her childhood, so she, too, entered the goodbye with us.
And here I am again in July, the week of another big party, with the county fair looming straight ahead next week, just as unprepared for it all as I was a year ago. Posting snapshots from July 2021 almost feels like real time!
I'm still sad that your tree is gone. I am sure you are too.
ReplyDeleteAnd seeing those puppies has my tears brimming. We had to say goodbye to Ruby two weekends ago and it has been hard for us all. Adele and I, especially. But the poor thing was miserably and so cold all the time that her teeth chattered and body quaked every second of the cold days. It was hard to watch her suffer. And she wouldn't come in the house because she knew she had never been allowed- and it would have been disorienting to her anyway since she was blind and unaccustomed to inside. The head knows all the answers but the heart still hurts. We miss her terribly.
I really need to stop commenting at this point.
I have a Christmas letter to write and I am...well, at a loss of words and inspiration. The children love to read the Christmas letters and they are (admittedly) fun to read years later and many people comment on how much they look forward to them... so I force myself to do it every year. But it is not my favorite thing. How do you talk about yourselves without coming across as self-absorbed? How do you write a tidbit about each person and pretend it is representative of who that person is? How does a letter written every year about the same people not become dull and mundane? How can I keep it from being mediocre or trite?
And so.... instead, I come to shotsnaps and make dull and mundane comments on your blogposts! Two years after you post them, apparently. :-)
Oh, I am so sorry about sweet Ruby.
ReplyDeleteThat makes me sad, too, and she wasn't even ours.
Did I tell you that the pup who looked most like her lives right down the hill, and her owners named her "Ruby?" They told me that if you all would ever want to stop in and see her, they'd love to have you. If Olivia ever has pups again, I am wrapping a girl up with a bow and dropping her off on your porch. <3
Hopefully, you're making progress on the Christmas letter. I love receiving Christmas letters, including YOURS, missus, but stopped writing them many years ago for some of the same reasons....yet I have a BLOG. It makes no sense. A blog is far more self-motivated than a Christmas letter, especially when I'm writing about us FOR us!