Blessings.

Today is the last day of school. Having to drive the two youngest kids back and forth to another town and the high school kids in another, it has been an exhausting year.  I'm so, so profoundly grateful for the break summer is now offering for us just to breathe!  And we have so much to do this summer, beautiful family projects that include a lot of art, exploration and community.

The Snape is ending his first of four week summer classes and it's all going smoother for our family that I originally expected.  Between graduations and just one big life step after another, next week will be so calm that we will be able to get some water coloring done together.  It will revive us, nourish us collectively.

This week has been so mentally taxing, I feel worn out, depleted.  Nourishing is what we all need together. 

I thank God for the road map I finally have for the huge issues of this week, of the build up from the past months.  Possibilities have flared up for action to be taken that are encouraging and promising of hope, and Iv'e grabbed it all with both hands to propel my family forward.  It's a struggle, but struggle promises growth of some kind.  Whatever happens I will know deep in my heart that we as a family have done all we could for one another, and as a Mother, there we be no regrets for doing everything within my capacity. I can ask no more of myself, or of life.  There is big p thateace comes from this, even though a storm has no clear end in sight.

So, the Beast child asked me to go to lunch with him, and as I'm physically looking like I felt yesterday, I need to go pull myself together and get down to business.  Communication with each child is the most precious time, and the fact they ask for it at this point in the game shows me I've done something right.  Lunch with him, then we will go into town and pick up the Youngest Child and the Troubadour Child.  The Viking child is spending the night at his friend's, and the Eldest Child will be picked up later after her celebratory lunch with her girlfriends.  Later tonight, when we're all in our jammies and have a movie playing and munching popcorn, I know it'll be easier to breathe.  Thank you God for this coming time of rest, and for blessing me with this crazy, gorgeous, emotional, thinking, thriving troupe of artists, and for the endless tea trays of the next two months.