Bright Spots in a Dark Week

I started this blog in 2008 as a way to share photos and stories for the boys - who were by then in college - and for our parents. This was before social media really monopolized the sharing of photos and stories. In the beginning my blog felt kind of cutting edge (oops, editing error, that should have read "cutting edge") and then after facebook and Instagram took off, the blog started to feel tired and behind the times. Now lately I feel like what's old is new again. I love the privacy of this space and I love that it's a record of so many photos and stories. My hope is that it will always be. (Note to self: I really need to work on figuring a way to host this somewhere safer than blogspot.) My focus in the 2024 era of the blog is the grandkids. I write this is in great part so they'll have a journal of their grandparents, themselves, their parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, etc. And so today is a day I need to remind Lloyd, Rosie, Freddie, and unborn baby Harrison-Phelps, that this was a grim and dark week. Not just in history but in the hearts and souls of your parents, your grandparents, family, and friends. Not just grim and dark because the wrong candidate got elected to run our country, but oh so grim and oh so dark because of what the selection says about our fellow citizens and how we treat and respect (or don't respect) each other. I feel a sense of loss, sadness, grief, and doom like I've never felt before. And I'm not alone in my feelings. Talking to you three little cutie-pies yesterday and today really lifted my spirits. And so for today's post I wanted to share some of your specialness as a reminder that there's hope and there's love and there's you - all three (and a half) of you. Just writing these words I feel lighter. I love you and your parents very much and having you all in my life has made this week so much easier to bear. In the picture above we have Lloyd - about to turn two years old at the end of the month - showing us the joy of riding a bike on a brisk fall day.

And here's 17-month-old Rosie trudging through the dry November leaves of Warsaw. I love that she has a leaf in each hand too. I'm told that she carried one all the way home.

And little Freddie, who's about to turn four months old, has found that all he has to do is look to his left and he can gaze upon the most interesting and adorable baby in the room. I think his is a good lesson to me and to all of us, which is to say that the best things in life are right in front of us.