Joey’s senior recital

One of my favorite songs (Seasons of Love) from a musical I’ve never seen (Rent) asks how do you measure a year?

Sometimes we move through life as though we are checking off a “to-do” list. Get this done, get that done and then we will be “all set.”  But we are never really “all set.” Life is quite a journey. This year has been filled with endings and beginnings, highs, lows, moves in and moves out (or is it move ins and move outs???)

From all of Annie’s senior year high school events and graduation to my son’s college graduation to moving three of them into college and a whole lot of living in between. From the high of seeing your oldest child graduate from college to the depths of losing someone very close, we move through life filled with emotion.

This year, some of that emotion was processed in the car! It seemed to be a year of driving for me and I put quite a few miles on the car, listened to a lot of Malcolm Gladwell books and shed a few tears. So if I measure this year in miles, it would look like this:

300 son’s senior recital
300 son’s college graduation
300 funeral service
300 memorial service
500 deliver daughter to summer job
120 set up and capsize sailboat
120 family party
120 family reunion
500 Sarah Bareilles concert
80 deliver daughter to college
500 deliver daughter to college
(700 deliver son to college – I didn’t take this trip….)

2640 – like driving to California!

Gosh, I was like Jack Kerouac! (Except without all the booze, high speeds, and women!) My husband and I both read “On the Road” this summer and, well, we’ve had a lot of family jokes about it. But that’s another story….

A few highlights….

Dad hugging Joey after his amazing recital

Grandma

A few of the family and friends who came to the recital. I think we had about 21 people and we hosted a dinner in this practice room after the recital.

Billy always finds a tree to climb.

Sheer joy!

Sunset over Cedar Point parking lot

Labor Day sunset