Gretchen attends a parochial preschool and apparently this week they have been discussing prayer. Last night I sent the girls upstairs to brush their teeth, wash their faces and get ready for bed. A short while later I followed upstairs to tuck them in and read books.

Rather than hopping into bed, Gretchen was standing in the middle of her room. I asked what she was doing and she said she wanted to show me her prayer spot. On the floor next to the wall was a travel size pillow. She kneeled down and started right in, 'In the name of the Father, ..." then she started to say something and but stopped and said that she was going to say her prayer. Gretchen prayed "Bless us oh Lord and these our gifts..." You know the Prayer Before Meals, at 8:15pm, about 2 hours after dinner.

Sprinkle Jar

Growing up in my parent’s house, there was a shaker jar filled with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar in the cupboard between the stove and the refrigerator. For breakfast, or a sweet treat, we would toast a piece of bread, apply a thin layer of margarine, watch it melt into the toast and shake on an even coating of cinnamon-sugar goodness.

The image of the cinnamon-sugar shaking down onto the toast popped into my head yesterday. I wish that I could fill a shaker jar with tiny sparkly particles of patience, calm, warmth, a few deep breaths, a little extra time and keep it in my kitchen cupboard. The label would read “sprinkle to taste, refill as needed”.

This fall has been a particularly busy one, maybe I just need to slow it down and enjoy. I should take the time to open the windows and enjoy the crisp air, cook a pot of chili, bake a batch of anything, sing along to some 90s alternative rock and make a pot of tea. That ought to fill my sprinkle jar to the brim.

Gretchen really wanted to play soccer this fall but wasn't all that hot on it went it came to actually playing with a bunch of kids she had never met. She needed a pep talk from Daddy before agreeing to play during the first game.

Once she is convinced to join in she really tries her best. The balls for the 'Just for Kicks' league are soft foam so even though she kicked this ball really hard it just kind of rolled along.

Happy to be done with the game and ready to dive into that snack!

Gretchen was really excited to go to preschool and see some of her friends from daycare. She has had a lot of fun so far, though says that they do the same thing everyday - darn schedule! Here she headed out the front door on the first day. She calls this her "God save the Queen" shirt.

First day of third grade.

First soccer practice ever.

First picture of our puppy Rommel.

Gretchen had her very first soccer practice last night. After watching Katie from the sidelines for the last few years she was so excited to get her very own team.

The excitement wore off and was replaced by tears about ten minutes into practice when Gretch declared that she changed her mind and didn't want to play soccer. Twenty-five minutes and a pep talk from Daddy and Katie later, she was ready to go back out for the last ten minutes.

She promptly went out to the middle of the field and kicked the ball all the way down to the goal all by herself. When we got home she was pretty fired up and told Daddy that she kicked that ball "ka-pow!" right into the goal. Hopefully next Monday goes a little smoother.

The girls and I went on late summer adventures - mini-golfing at Blank Golf Course and a trip to the Blank Park Zoo. Mini-golf turned out to be a lesson in patience for us non-golfers and rather distracting to be so close to the airport. I don't know how anyone plays real golf with planes constantly landing. The girls' favorite parts were a little frog and fetching their balls (and mine) out of the fountains.

At the end of second grade Katie wrote a report about red pandas. She was so excited to check them out at the zoo and they put on quite a show walking all around their cage and one of them came right up to where we were on the other side of the glass. Gretchen's favorites were the fish at the discovery center.

This frog was about 1 inch long.

I have no idea what number hole this was - might have been 8.

Gretchen doesn't swing at the ball so much as drag it towards the hole.

So excited by the fish!

Crossing the swinging rope bridge.

When we sat down for a few minutes to have a snack and watch the gibbons swing and howl there were two ground squirrels (squinties), one eating a tomato slice and the other eating a french fry coated in 'cheese' sauce. I pointed them out to the girls as squintie-Gretchen and squintie-Katie - matching the squinties to the girls' appetites.

This year is my 15 year high school reunion. I doubt very much that I will go - haven’t been to a class reunion yet and not really my thing. It’s funny that though I will avoid the class reunion, I’ve had some really great mini-reunions this summer.

I have had the pleasure of squeezing in some time this summer to reconnect face to face, share a meal, a glass of wine, watch our children become instant playmates, and laugh over memories, including only the tiniest amounts of gossip. All of us have very busy lives, filled with family, demanding jobs, church and community activities and even live hundreds of miles apart. It calms the soul to be able to steal a few moments and reflect in the friendships that have been there all along – way before husbands, children, and careers and all the responsibilities and worries of adult life.

Many people move in and out of our lives and I think that we are drawn to retain certain relationships; there is something about this connection that fills part of your being. Life directs us in separate ways and we become so different and similar at the same time.

The friends I have been so fortunate to reconnect with this summer are truly wonderful women. Some of them I have known forever, friendships formed in kindergarten, middle school and college. I do get to see a couple of them fairly frequently but it is different though when you have time to relax and enjoy the company, rather than spend an hour in what seems to be fast-forward.

It is comforting to know that I can pop up with my brood in tow on Maria’s doorstep and feel so welcome, or dive into dinner and two hours of non-stop chatter with Jen and Angie, then on another night with Angela and Marisa. We chat and reacquaint so quickly, like we just met for coffee last week when in reality for some of us, it had been years. I am so thankful for these women, the beautiful friendships that we share and the brief moments that we have been given this summer.