Tag: summer

Summer’s End

Posted on

It was a summer of exploring wild plants in the garden, standing like statues to make perches for butterflies, playing in forts and tents, rollerskating and bike-riding, dressing in capes and masks to bring superheroes to the neighborhood, riding the train downtown in a sea of grown-ups, swimming in pools as mermaids and sea creatures, burning old sticks in the firepit, and late-night lightning bug chases.

We sang in the kitchen, in the car, in the yard. We made art and staged plays, learned about the Beatles and the Eagles and Pink Floyd. We got messy and laughed and yelled and made a lot of noise. So much noise.

I love the simplicity of Summer: the long, deep breaths without a schedule, the last-minute movies and ice cream runs, the freedom that only comes when routine is wiped away.

Summer is extra-ordinary time, outside the ordinary–when the everyday is magic for kids pretending to be explorers or zombiehunters or aliens or fairies. And summer nights are the the golden treasures of childhood, when moonlit nights add to the magic. During the rest of the year, night is regulated–managed by parents with bedtime routines and homework vigils, but in Summer the night is broken open like the Undiscovered Country.

As adults, when we have children in or around our lives, we get a hint of it–the magic of childhood summer. It radiates off the kids, a glorious reminder.

So when the children finally roll into their beds, too tired to complain and exhausted from the bright, messy, fun of their imaginations, that’s when adults get their chances to enjoy the flipside of summer night magic. With a cup of coffee or a glass of wine on the patio, we can sit and savor the stillness and silence, smiling from the earlier antics and remembering our own twilight bubbles and midday puddle-jumping.

Then it ends, and it seems to end just in time–when the children are on the edge of irritation, when games lose their magic, when exploration seems like work, when the circle of friends has grown too small for new ideas. School becomes the new thing on the horizon. The excitement of new teachers and reconnecting with friends becomes more appealing than the time spent hanging out with mom or dad. The wheel of the year turns, and the children rediscover the joy of recess and the treasure of weekends.

All three of my children went back to school this week. We got back from our family holiday on Saturday night and bid farewell to the freedom of summer: the mornings of sleeping in, the late nights playing in the backyard, no homework to do or nag about, no afterschool activities to schedule around. Freedom replaced with routine, play replaced with structure.

The official start of the season is a few weeks away, but for the kids, Fall began on Monday. The mornings are more hectic as sleep schedules are adjusted, and the kids are a bit cranky as they once again have homework.

But as the temperatures cool and the kids go to bed a little earlier, these beautiful late summer nights have a magic all their own.

I hope that you have a beautiful summer’s end.

 

Now there’s a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky

Posted on

So many updates, so here they are abbreviated in lieu of a proper post that may never come.

The summer is nearly over, and while I’m not a summer person I do enjoy the freedom from schedules and routines afforded by kids on summer break. I still sometimes feel as if I’m grasping at the wind while is rushes by. Only a few weeks until they go back, schedules will shift again and one kid of freedom (from classes and activities) will be replaced by another (a few hours to myself for the first time in years as Lana goes to preschool).

Alison and the boys are back in Paris. It was a wonderful visit, and we were sad to see them go. We’re already looking forward to the next time, probably on their side of the Atlantic.

She left me with wonderful memories and this amazing spread, Speculoos by Lotus.


(Sorry for the fuzzy MacBook photo)

Speculaas is a type of shortcrust biscuit, traditionally baked during the winter holidays, but in recent decades it has become available all year round. I fell in love with these cookies while living in Germany, and now Alison has introduced me to a spread made of this stuff! It’s lovely on crusty bread (or at two in the morning eaten directly off a spoon as I did right before this photo was taken). Good stuff!

[info]Focals kindly agreed to help me to hand out vouchers last Sunday at the Borders Benefit Day at the Michigan Avenue store. We handed out nearly 400 vouchers. I’m hopeful that we were able to get quite a few people to turn in their vouchers and raise some money for CWA and the Hall of Fame. Also had the chance to meet three other Chicago writers: Gary W. Moore (Playing with the Enemy), Michael Weeks (The Complete Civil War Road Trip Guide), and Arnie Bernstein (Bath Massacre). Lovely men signed my books and were in good spirits even when most of the hoard that swarmed the store passed by their signing table.

I toured a print shop this morning thanks to a connection from my friend Melissa, and I learned about the modern process of printing and binding. Fascinating! I love the sounds and sights of the print shop: all the machines, the paper, the potential! I wished for a camera (and the skill to use it) to photograph some of the machines, especially the older ones with their gears and levers. They fed my imagination.

Many recent projects have been revolving around the release of The Silence of Trees. Working with the talented Madeline Carol Matz on the cover (I am confident it will be the first of many projects we will work on together).

Chicago Literary Hall of Fame ceremony planning is in the works (did I mention I’m now on the Board of Directors for the Chicago Writers Association?) as we contact special guests, entertainment, and hopefully sponsors. This deserves its own post at a later date. I hope that some of you can make it to Northeastern Illinois University on November 20, 2010.

I’ll be teaching an online Writing course this Fall, so I had to rethink my syllabus. I’m excited to teach again, but a wee bit nervous about the change in media. So much of my teaching was in the delivery and discussion. We’ll see how to translate this into an online experience.

Mark and I continue to work in the yard. Recent rains left us with a pond over half our property. We’re trying to figure out the best ways to deal with recurring water issues. The current plan is to plant many water loving trees and shrubs. We’re ripping up grass and planting things most nights after dinner before putting the kids to bed. We’re also planning a rock garden for the back near the shed. Slowly it begins to take shape.

If globes were square

Posted on

I should know better than to write that I will update my blog more regularly.

I returned home from Arizona into a whirlwind of cleaning and rearranging. After the wide open spaces and skies of Arizona, the flow of the living room felt off, cluttered. We moved one of the bookcases up to our bedroom and shifted the furniture of the living room around so that it now feels more airy.

My friend Al and her two boys arrived from Paris, and the older kids attended science camp, while the younger three went to summer camp. This week we have free to explore Chicago and have random kid-generated adventures. It’s good having them here. I miss our lazy sleep-deprived afternoons in Frankfurt from oh-so-many-years ago, and I’m grateful for this time to reconnect.

Then the Fourth of July brought family aplenty at a bbq/family reunion hosted by my parents. Good to have chats with cousins I haven’t seen since the last family shower. Kids and cat survived nightlong fireworks well enough, although I fell asleep in my youngest daughter’s bed with contacts in.

This week brings decisions about the cover and release party for The Silence of Trees, calls and emails to secure special guests and entertainment for the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, and preparation for an online class I’ll be teaching it the Fall.

I also plan to start reading my next book to the kids (S.C.). It’s the first that’s age appropriate, and though I tell my children stories randomly on walks, at bedtime, and so on, I am excited to share my written words with them. We’ll see what they think.