Birthday trip! [Seattle]

I disappeared for a bit. One word. Vortex.

I had a glorious (my daughter's favorite adjective) trip to Seattle. Pictures will litter this blog through the weekend.

Also, I started an Instagram account for this blog. At some point I will figure out how to link from this blog, but not yet. If I haven't mentioned it before, I'm really a pen and paper sort of girl. Decidedly old-fashioned. I know I don't live in an old-fashioned world, nor it is the world I write in, but I avoid what I can. So, those pesky (probably simple) updates and upgrades for this blog and social media accounts are quite slow in coming. 

The Instagram account will essentially be an ode to books. I don't always have time to review or highlight the myriad of books I read, so this will allow me to do so, at least in part. If you are so inclined, you can follow me: @literaturethreads .

In other news, this weekend my husband and I are headed to the mountains for a hut trip with four other couples. This entails backpacking to the hut, which is really up to the hut, gaining 1,221 feet over 2.6 miles and ending at 10,878 feet. In case you are wondering, this is high...like hard to breath high. Especially when you have a pack, snowshoes, and lots of layers. Other details: unplugged, no electricity, a mountain stream for water, with the necessary being an outhouse. Oh, and I'm sure it will be gorgeous and stunning and serene, but right now I'm exhausted and getting buried in packing supplies.

I had a moment of weakness several months back and I agreed to this. It's out of my comfort zone big time, but it's good to do those things that I secretly believe I can't do. I think so at least. Ask me on Monday.

Pictures to come!

In the meantime, enjoy Seattle!

summer moments~mountain meadows

summer mish-mash

I know, you haven't heard from me in awhile. I have lots of excuses. Included in those excuses would be the words "crazy" and "freight train." A friend of ours was giving announcements at church and while welcoming everyone said something to the effect of, "Remember when all of those summer things looked like a great idea a month ago? And now it's more like, 'what were we thinking?!'" Yeah. I get that.

starting the morning right...coffee in fresh mountain air tastes better than about anything...

While I'm at it, why do house projects seem like a good idea in the summer? Some people like the process of projects. I don't. I like planning them and I like when they are finished. The rest is Purgatory and I have lines from this book running through my head.

Also, this week we said goodbye to dear friends and sent them with our love and prayers to Tokyo. It was rough. My so very sweet son wanted to cheer me up so he took me to a movie and said he would pay for the movie and whatever snacks I wanted. LOVE HIM. We saw Inside Out. SO good. I was pretty much crying the whole time (I may be a little on edge). I'm not talking silent, peaceful cry. I'm talking silent, super ugly cry. The kind that almost hurts to keep in and the kind where you're glad you are in the very back of the movie theater sitting in the dark. Cece said, "I knew you were crying." Anyway, a great family flick. My husband loved it too. He was cracking up and there is nothing I love so much as to hear him laugh.

What else? We swim, we walk, we read, we don't cook, lots of normal stuff and the days fly. Can it be near August already? We have frolicked in our mountains, kayaked, fished, hiked, ATVed. We took an impromptu detour to the Sand Dunes--spontaneity feeds the soul sometimes. This summer has walked briskly when I've wanted to stroll. We've hit hard and good, stressful and joyful. We'll take it all from the hand of God.

Am I in Africa? Not going to lie, I wished for a camel on several occasions.

Last week, I bought this book simply because it was pretty. Don't judge. I may have a new addiction to Penguin Threads. A copy in hand is even prettier than this picture can portray.

I was craving some teenage angst and grabbed The Stepsister's Tale by Tracy Barrett and Little Blog on the Prairie by Cathleen Davitt Bell. I really liked The Stepsister's Tale (Don't let the cover art discourage you, I felt it to be an inaccurate representation). I don't tire of fairy tale re-tellings, but they are not all created equal by any means. I thought this version to be unique and lovely. The story felt akin to the movie Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister which I enjoy (present tense) greatly. The movie is based on the book by Gregory Macguire which I have not read. I'll read Little Blog on the Prairie next.

free range kids...I saw visions of the Canadian frontier as they ran

The kids and I (D included) devoured When Calls the Heart (season 1). Set in the Canadian frontier, it doesn't much resemble the Janette Oke books that inspired the series, but can call itself a kindred spirit to Christy and Little House on the Prairie. We'll be watching season two shortly (FYI season one is on Netflix.) The kids haven't watched many television series and when D watched the first show and it ended in a "cliffhanger" (new vocabulary word) as shows are wont to do, he was offended. It went something like, "What!?!?" along with another exclamation about how "they" could do such a thing. I was laughing.

Ahhh, unfiltered sunset (from a moving car no less!)

I know all this is random. My brain is a little bit scrambled. Mish-mash, but an ordained mish-mash. Summer has not been what I have thought, but has held great beauty also. I pray that you all take each mish-mash day from God's hand, whatever it brings.

my mountains

I admit, choosing between the mountains and the beach, I would choose the beach. Why? Not sure, that's just me. But these are my mountains. Removed from the 14er that towered over my childhood home and gifted me with a bedroom window view to covet, I claim these. I lived near Estes Park, CO for one summer in college and it is still and will for always be my favorite mountain town. Rocky Mountain National Park feels like home. That summer, I decided to learn to love the mountains for more than my window view. I didn't want to waste my mountain summer. So I hiked and hiked and hiked. Nearly every day or every other day, I would drive into the park and explore. Long hikes with a friend or friends, short hikes or strolls on my own. And these became my mountains.

Recently my husband and I got to spend a weekend back at the YMCA of the Rockies where we had worked those many summers ago. We drove into the park to Sprague Lake, an easy stroll, but at lower elevation so it wouldn't be buried in snow this time of year. We walked, conversing some, observing much, and I took pictures. It is calming and stress relieving for me. I love photography. And after nearly 14 years of marriage, my husband understands this about me. He'll wait for me, let me fiddle with the dials on my camera, capturing the same shot again and again until I like the artistry. I am amateur, but that's okay with me. It was a nice afternoon.

This looks like liquid water, but it's all ice...