july.

tomorrow i’m back on a plane, leaving the chicklets and wen for too many days. i often do a little calendar with piper before i go on a trip, and she can then x out the days as they go by and know how many more sleeps until mommy comes home. i can’t bring myself to do the calendar this time, as there are just far too many days waiting for those x’s.

but i can’t be a complete martyr about it. while the trip is for work, there is a also a lot of play to be had. i’m heading back to the motherland, the west coast, for the first time since we moved. the x’s will go by fast, i’m certain, as there are beautiful and precious people to squeeze and far too many stories to tell and hear. the days will fly by, which is both my comfort and my fear.

as my wakeup call tomorrow is for 4am, there are a million other things that i should be doing right now. packing, organizing, plotting how many trips to target and baja fresh can be squeezed into the next 2 weeks. but instead i want to just take a moment to remember july.

it rained. a lot. i worked. a lot. we played. a lot.

we had a few long weekends away planned for july – vienna was supposed to happen, as was berlin. but as i traveled quite a bit in june, july felt like a time to simply be still. as an expat, there is a certain pressure we put on ourselves to GO and SEE and EXPLORE. any weekend spent at home feels like a missed opportunity for something amazing. but i’m learning to simply embrace the amazing ordinary of home. on the weekends we were supposed to be away, i heard god whispering, just be still. so we cancelled hotels and enjoyed nuremberg.

we wandered through the alstadt, ate pretzles and ice cream and waited out rainstorms.

we met up with friends at the local beer festival, and rode ponies, ate fried food and watched the girls squealing on the rides.

july was lazy sunday mornings in bed, a tangled mess of arms and legs and piper finally dragging us all out of bed to hit the bakery across the street. it was me working too much, but being thankful that i’m doing so with some amazing co-workers who have become even more amazing friends. july was wen’s new scouting business taking off – late night skype calls w clients and huge grins as the puzzle pieces continue to come together. it was bitty mastering the potty (yiippee!), and sushi dates with piper lane. it was bitty’s first and second movie theater movie (ice age 4, ugh, the lorax, fab!) and a bajillion other movies at home.

hope your july was filled with the ordinary, amazing little things. sending love from nuremberg. xo.