summer is gone

Ahhh, with the arrival of September, my life is creeping towards some basic organization once again. The second part of the summer has flown, and to catch up- I am going to be typing in a few of the events from this last part of the summer...

1) lovely vacation with my family. Watched my sister race in a half-ironman in NY. She placed 3rd in her age group and qualified to compete on Team USA in the World Triathlon championships in Australia this Oct. Amazing. Our Dad also competed in the sprint triathlon the day before and he did really well also! I loved getting to see them both compete and support them.


2) Saw Niagra falls on the way back to Ohio for the first time in 10yrs. Interesting family trip- Falls were beautiful. My son was starving during the whole hike, my sister was limping along, completely exhausted from her race the day before, my mother seemed very moody and kept getting ahead of everybody else, my dad sort of bounced between all of us trying to keep the peace. There is no family picture. :)


3) Rest of time in Ohio goes pretty well. Lots of time with my sister- who has become one of my best friends as we get older. Mother seems very emotionally fragile lately. This is stressful for me. :(. We did go to a wonderful museum in Columbus (Franklin Park, I believe?) that had a butterfly observatory and many greenhouses dedicated to different ecological systems all over the world. Gorgeous.


4)Home again. All of my grains, plus pretty much everything else in the pantry becomes infested with weevils while I was out of town. Bf did not notice this as he does not cook. YAY. Spend rest of week cleaning out entire kitchen.

5) Good news from weevil infestation- I discover my cookbooks again. In my newly clean kitchen, I am cooking up gourmet food like a storm!

6) Triathlon training for me too!- working hard to overcome new psychical challenges like swimming and biking. Doing well and am finally getting back into really great shape. Got completely out of shape during school last two years. Feels good, but takes time.

7) Emotional talks with bf. Heavy- like marriage and children. Feel like annoying stereotypical woman. We have been together for years. We both want this? but the question is when is really the right time. Not on the same page. Still not resolved. Still emotional.

8) Even more emotional fight with my ex. He seems to think that he does not need to ever read the signed agreement to find out when/what his visitation is. Misses it, and is angry at me for holding him accountable. Transitions from holidays always seem to be especially difficult. He sends me incredibly ugly emails that has me reeling for a bit.

9)My son is going into the 5th grade! How did that happen already! He continues to amazing me with how smart and intuitive he is. We still have the teenage years to come, but the young man he is slowly becoming is pretty impressive.

10) Not making much art during this time- feeling incredibly guilty about this. Can't seem to get organized. Can't seem to get ideas organized. Constantly finding other things to do. Distracted.

11) I can finally swim over a mile, bike over 30 and run after it all. Race is September 7th, and I am nervous!

12) Bf is on vacation from work. When he is off, it is like living in a constant music video. He walks around the house playing guitar, or is recording in his studio. It is both wonderful and sometimes wonderfully irritating :). in the best way, of course.

So now the end of summer. Something just hit me this week and I am able to get organized again. I finally wrap my head around how I want to practice my ideas (though I have missed the importance of daily regimented practice lately) and develop latest work. I don't know why this has been so elusive lately. First couple of tries are not so great, but giving me a starting point at least. I am going to try to log in at least 20hours of actual studio time a week this fall. Working and with my son, this is a challenge, but I need to at least get as close as possible. The house will always need to be cleaned and the laundry will need to get done. Work on managing my time more effectively.

Thank you for reading this- and for staying with me when I have so neglected my blog lately! I am looking forward to spending time this weekend catching up on all the blogs I have been missing. I hope your end of the summer has been a sweet and productive transition!!