let's call it a "squash"

Summer is upon us. Actually, spring is upon us, but that means warm bike rides and fresh produce. Imagine how delighted all the tomatoes and summer squashes and zucchinis (are those the same thing) are going to be to have a balmy breeze where they can be lazy and grow plump and succulent. The only way to describe a good tomato is succulent. You know the difference between good fruit and bad fruit and good vegetables and bad vegetables? Some taste the way they are supposed to taste, and others taste like they were beget of a broken world. I think when you taste a piece of heaven, you know it immediately; it is in its purest form a gift for broken people.

I had a thought the other day while nannying for my tuesday/thursday two-year-old. She's two on other days, but I only see her on tuesdays and thursdays. She's special in an eye-opening sort of way. We get to enjoy frustrating moments where we're both tired and want nothing more than a nap and maybe some chocolate milk. But we also get to go to places like the park or the animal shelter or Kroger to not only make the time pass, but to introduce Caroline to what the rest of the world is doing on her day off. We went to park on Tuesday (it was a perfect day), and lots of kindergartners were out and about, running after one another and gloriously shedding their coats as the day warmed. We sat to eat lunch in the sun, and Caroline stared warily at the rambunctious children, deciding whether or not this was a safe place to play. I wiped the peanut butter/banana concoction off her tiny mouth, and she said, "Ok, let's go play with them." Caroline frolicked, and two 5-year-olds begged me to let them take her down the slide. That's when it hit me: these kids were BORN when I was starting college. I don't know if it feels that long ago that I began college, or if I realized that my own 5-year-oldness seems not so distant from my 23-year-oldness...but it was a shocking moment. Maybe it's because I will vividly remember the feelings I had as I pondered my way through primary school. Either way, that thought encourages me to think for a second that I may be older, but I am definitely not more important, and despite my frustrations at the totally different mentality they use when doing anything, I was in that same spot not so long ago...

Philip and Mina and I went hiking last week, so I thought I'd record some of our adventure.

we had to get mina ready to go.



she is a great sport.








More musings later...