My iPhone has a feature I haven't been able to disable which reminds me to simply breathe. Nine times out of ten I mute it. If you haven't experienced this feature before I highly recommend taking the 60 seconds to do so. The watch vibrates to match the rhythm of your breath and the data proves that your heart rate is lowered. I stepped outside this morning, Monday of Labor day, a coveted three day weekend and I clearly was present with the thought of , "I feel like I can catch my breath." I had nowhere I really had to be, chores were caught up, I wasn't packing for something, planning for something, I was just. . . present and taking a deep breath.
Labor Day signals the end of summer and the beginning of fall. A season of gathering and preserving before winter. Tomatoes are canned, firewood is stacked, and the freezers begin to fill. The 10 weeks of summer vacation are a precious commodity, but signal our busiest time of year. It's a complete blessing I don't have to go to work every day. It's been an incredibly full summer and understandable that I felt I couldn't simply take a breath.
We were able to go to the lake several times. Jet skiing with friends, boating, camping and even getting my mom up on water skis. Camping at Trinity Lake was easily a highlight of our summer.
This summer each boy had raised a pig to take to our county fair. Every morning required diligent walking, feeding, water, and poop cleaning. We still have the two wild feeder hogs at home and Miles's pig. All three are sold and we are pumping them full of all of the goodness from our garden and small fruit orchard in hopes of butchering them in the next few weeks. Miles made it into the Pee-Wee championship showmanship at our fair and Carter placed very well in all of his classes. It was another memorable week with friends at our fair complete with a Thunderstorm and a Redneck Roundup where Miles's garnered county attention when he helped a 14 month old across the ring to safety and earned box seats to the rodeo. He had dressed up for the event by going shirtless with ripped jeans. The rest of the fair he was known as "that kid with the mullet from the Redneck Roundup".
The beginning of the summer found us in the Bay Area at a Cal Berkeley baseball camp. We traveled with our friends, Air BnBed a house and took in our first MLB baseball camp of the season watching the A's at the Coliseum.
Mom did manage to take a few deep breaths this summer when she ran a 50K at high altitude in Ashland. While she took on 30 something miles the boys found a Caribbean colored lake in our local mountains and covered over 10 miles. The fishing was mediocre, but the views were incredible. Sadly, mom had to help everyone into the house and put away gear as their legs were more tired than hers were.
The boys and Joy also managed to compete in the annual 4th of July run and the local cross-country racing series. Miles finished the series by competing in the 5k event instead of the mile. Mom and Miles completed it together.
Baseball tournaments at the beginning and end of summer provided copious amounts of entertainment with nightly dress up contests. The biggest excitement was the improvement of the team. In their first year, they only won one game all season. Their second year ended with them playing in the championship game of their final tournament - the only game they lost.
Lots of baseball was enjoyed around the pool with many afternoons with friends and dinners with families.
We were lucky enough to head east for a family reunion in August. We took a few days in NYC before heading upstate. On the way we had an eight hours layover in Houston so we took in an Astro's game. We hit every major tourist attraction in NYC including a Met's game before taking the train upstate to enjoy nearly a week with family. Deep breaths in the city allowed you to take in the intensity of the smells and the humidity of the Northern region. Regardless it was a very memorable trip and one that we are grateful to have taken.
Once we returned from NY and survived the fair, Bradley and Joy celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary by covering 22 miles in 24 hours. It was a miscalculated hike, one that made for a lot of deep breaths, but allowed us a high mountain take to ourselves (minus the pesky doe in camp). One of our first dates was backpacking into a lake and although we are little older, we feel even stronger.
The school year has started and the boys are off to a great start. It's hard to believe that six year ago Carter and I both started at FJE as Bulldogs together. This will be his last year at FJE.
We have enjoyed this past weekend at home. Mom did a spring triathlon this Sunday. I first did this race 20 years ago and fell in love withe sport. I purposely went to CU for college so I could race with the team. It took me all across the southwestern part of the US and Mexico. I hadn't had a chance to do this same race since 2005 and I decided to go for it. Ironically enough during the first even - the swim, I found myself not able to catch my breath. My collar of my wetsuit has always been tight, I felt unsafe and I simply began to breath way too fast. I consciously told myself to slow my breathing to simply catch my breath. I did and I ended up 7th woman overall out of a large field. How ironic that on this Labor Day I awoke with the same feeling - a feeling I hope to embrace all of fall. I feel like I can catch my breath.
