The Good, the Bad, and the Lovely

So far this summer I've only had the chance to sew one thing: the little mug rug you see above. It was a small project, but one that I thoroughly enjoyed. Give me rainbow patchwork and a whole lot of low volume text prints, and I'm always a happy woman.

I took the time to hand quilt this little piece with AuriFloss in a soft shade of raspberry. Quilting by hand is something I definitely need to do more often. It was a lovely, quiet pause in the middle of what has been one of the craziest times in my life. In this wild roller coaster called "settling in" we've experienced just about everything there is to see...

We've had the good times: scouting for fresh peaches in Fredericksburg, enjoying family meals at some great local eateries, playing tourist at the River Walk, having movie nights with the girls at home.

We've had the bad times: watching water pour out of the light in the kitchen ceiling due to an overflowing toilet upstairs, adjusting to the thriving Texas insect culture, and going three weeks straight with something in the house -- the dryer, the air conditioning, the plumbing -- breaking down every...single...day...

But then there are those magical moments, the ones so lovely that they don't seem real. Sitting in rocking chairs chatting with our neighbors as the sun goes down. Watching my daughters gasp in delight at their first encounters with deer, frogs, and all the other local wildlife that we didn't have in the suburbs of Southern California. Splashing in the pool -- our very first pool -- with the entire family while the girls hang around our necks and sing silly songs. Life has been going past me at warp speed for the last few months. I'm seeing my daughters grow up faster than ever before, and I know these golden weeks of summer won't last forever.

So I don't mind putting down the laptop -- and yes, even my hand quilting -- to catch these memories before they drift away...