milestones of summer

Big news. Sarah played 1'st base last night. She seems to be over her fear of "The Evil Baseball". Now I know to most this isn't earth shattering information. But my earlier posting of evidence of damage to my lovely's beautiful face conveys the approximate angst we have experienced. My role as a coach of 13 little softball whirly birds is a success. This is no simple feat as the amazingly diverse personalities of these little girls has been interesting, to say the least. Stomping feet and complaints of "not the outfield again" have finally turned into a glowing pride at their continuing emergence as a "team". YEAH!!!

Raspberries are raining in our backyard garden. Tonight's dinner features vanilla ice cream smothered in raspberries.

We are off to spend the holiday with all 19 of us. The beach house will be filled to capacity, but for only one day. It gets more difficult every year to get everyone together in the same place. With various schedules we will actually only have one day with all 19. When my father died it bothered me that I had to recount how many we were. We are now a new number, over that of my dad's presence. We would have been a nice round 20.