Let's start with a book review, shall we? By Haven Kimmel, The Solace Of Leaving Early. Difficult. I really liked her memoirs. I absolutely and utterly loved them. Which, on reflection, is funny, because I didn't love them right away. They've grown on me over the past few days as I've thought of them more. The Solace of Leaving Early, like a said, is difficult. I hated some parts and loved others. I give it a 3 of 5. I do have a favorite quote:

"We are happiest, I believe, and God is certainly happiest, when we allow ourselves to fall into beauty. God is luring us there, even now, breath by breath." pg.33

You have people who have issues they haven't yet dealt with. In the end, they learn to accept themselves and the people around them and love each other better. Pretty simple? It took them a lot of beautiful agonizing to get there.

I have thought about the process of learning and beautifying oneself (however you want to take that, I mean more internal beautification) a lot the past little while as my lovely grandmother lay quietly waiting to be free of her body. She died on Saturday, leaving everyone in the house with the impression that she was happy and triumphant, and that absence, whatever it will mean in the days and years to come, makes me want to be a little like georgia and take stock of the things I am grateful for here and now.

There have been some beautiful things here lately.

In this case, wild strawberry guava. Dried into hard little sweet clovey hiking treats.

Avacados gathered on the side of the road by the trail we didn't have time to actually hike this morning.



Artwork left by someone at a construction site.

We spent some time with Julia while Yoko and Sterling went on a date.

She and Jacob raced around and jumped off of things while I tried for action shots

Fun and games at a Bon dance with Abby and Felix



Jacob and Felix won these Chinese Handcuffs (is that really the name?) while playing games with the keikis.


Abby put hers to good use as well.

We love our cousins.