Chloe's Mama is doing a favor for me today and so Chloe is spending the day at our house. She and Annaliese are double trouble, BFFs, all those things. Caspian is only occasionally the third wheel.

That being said, I don't see nap time in the near future so I am taking my own quiet chilled rest while they play some complicated game involving sand, water, and dogs. Outside, thankfully.

The house has many, many finishing touches yet to come but what's really beyond nice is that it is at this point, less than a year after we moved into an aesthetic hellhole covered in asbestos shingles, a house. Our house. The structure is done, it's just the wee things that will pull it all together left, and we're only 9 months in. I think in another 2 years, time enough for the landscaping we plan to do this fall to soften a  bit, it's going to be fabulous. I am really proud of us. We thought this house with its bizzarre floor plan might be a tear-down and instead, for relatively very little money, we've made it the house we've always wanted. It will be never be the American Gothic farmhouse I longed for, but the cedar siding will gray and I can see it being a very whimsical and romantic place in a few years.

Single parenting continues. We've had some fun times-- a lazy cool morning at the farmers' market (kids above), a pool party, family snuggle time, and fortunately for me, the girl I hired to nanny during the day has been a roaring success-- but we need K to come home. I need K to come home. Life is on pause until he does.

In the mean time, there's always the pool.

Caspian at Natalie's wedding took a bunch of pictures. He's got a true eye:

Isn't that hilarious? love that boy. And my uncle Mike too :).

I was surprised this year by how much fun it was to be at the cabin with my family. One room, a loft, K and I sleep on the screen-in porch, no real activity beyond tadpole hunting and a tree swing, but next year we're going to spend a solid week there as a four-some. It's a really lovely place. I was thinking about how the property taxes are kind of expensive, but then on the other hand, what else would I do with that money? I want my children to remember long days at the cabin their parents built with their own two hands, the freezing water, the bathtub you build a fire underneath. Rainy days playing charades and pictionary. The feeling of being completely away.

Now, some tired babies want to lay on the couch and watch a movie. More later.