We'll Take You

Inaugural Montrose afternoon by the lake postponed.

The windy city gave some gusto on Sunday afternoon.

Sheets of rain, dark as midnight skies at noon, and tree branches bowing at the waist to the wind.

With calls made to family and friends to cancel our plans of lakeside sunshine, 

I crawled back in between the sheets darkened by the shade of storm, and slept.  

And slept, and slept.

What could a girl need more than opening picnicking season at Montrose?

Her bed, I guess.

Eventually, a sleepy-eyed me pulled on rainboots that evening when the storm had cleared and had a nice park bench sit.

It was the quietest day I've had in ages, and I needed it.

Chicago, we'll take you in the rain, we'll take you when the sun shines.

We'll take you, always.

But Still

I had a 12-hour day at the office today, with more clients to see tomorrow morning.

This will hardly be the night for sorting through vacation pictures.

But still...

I had to look at one of my favorites.

Oh my.

I want that baby nephew in my arms right now!

I guess I'll have to settle for hubby, which isn't really settling at all.

First Day of Summer

I will be back here with pictures from our trip, but for now,

our first day of summer.

On the road trip back from NC, as the hours and miles closed in on Chicago, conversation started to move toward life after vacation.

It was a hard concept at the time, but we managed it.

Summer to me has come to mean not just Vespa rides and trips, but a time to pause and re-consider my life.

What's working?  What's not?  What do I want to stretch toward and learn?

What do I believe and why?

How can my life more reflect what's truly important?

How can I have a little more fun?
How many books can I read?

And such.

Amidst some of the old favorites like Vespa rides and Lincoln Park,

cooking new recipes together

made the list this summer.

There was nothing more fitting to do on our first day back then, than to make asparagus and ricotta pizzas from Real Simple's May issue,

after unpacking and a grocery run for our empty fridge.

As the recipe would have it, our first foray into cooking for the summer was a yes.

Oh, and we did take that Vespa ride to Lincoln Park after the pizzas. 

 Of course.
Who did you think was writing this blog, anyway?

 

In a House by the Sea

 

 

Finding Chicago to be home has been a bit of an acclimation today.
And tonight, it's sirens to lull us to sleep, not the tide.

For the past week we've been at a house by the sea in the Outer Banks, NC

with some of our family.

It was the loveliest week.

Mere hours after the semester ended, we drove through the night for the shores of the Atlantic, and I can't tell you how far away we felt from the stress of the past few weeks. 

And the dear ones we were with... they're like drinking sweetness through a straw.

We're home now, and welcoming our first days of summer, at least in terms of the way the calendar works for us.

Can't wait to share with you more, and be back here more regularly!

Heck

A Chipotle date from two weeks ago.

Two weeks ago, and the rest has been a blur!

This snapshot signifies to me that hubby and I have those two weeks behind us, and only two more to go of one of our "busy" seasons.

April/May gets a little insane around here with the end of the semester with Neal's job, not to mention the bridal showers, graduations, and weddings, and other good parts of life that find their way into the days of spring.

Not that it feels like spring around here.  But I've totally given up on Chicago with that one.

It's the path of least resistance.

Two weeks ago hubby and I brought our planners and pens to Chipotle with us, and mapped the rest of the semester.

Busy, busy, but a good busy.

We both are doing what we love, and even some of it we get to do together.

Love even more.

But heck!  This is nuts.

I want to blog.

I want to sleep.

I want to go buy fruits and vegetables.

I want to read about five books all at once right now.

I want to photograph the tulips.

Soon enough.