1. I think I can't thank you enough for all of your kind words and comments on yesterday's post. I have been beat down this summer, no lie. Some of it is situational, and some of it lies within my heart. And these are simply the things we have to work out for ourselves, I suppose. And I did want to clarify that it's not really fall and winter that I dread. I love fall, and I could easily crawl into Erin's Swedish winter. It's not the season change, exactly. It's here, right now, these present weeks with school starting and Callum's birthday looming and Neel's schedule at it's crazy peak. This right now is the time of year that asks the most of me, and I feel like I'm not going into it with my A-Game. And yet I can only go into it with hope that the changing of the seasons will bring me a fresh start and a new perspective.

2. I think Neel and Callum had an absolutely amazing time on their little getaway at the beginning of the week this week. Shot up to Philly for a quick trip to a Phillies game (and Praise Jesus, they won! It was the first time Cal got to see his beloved team win, and one of the game attendants told my guys it was the best game she'd seen all year) and on the way home they took a detour for a four-hour canoe trip down Neel's beloved Brandywine river. Neel's determined to make a master paddler of Callum yet, and Callum seems just as determined to become one. They floated in crystal clear water, saw snowy egrets, herons and even a bald eagle. All that and home before 9PM. Not too shabby.

3. I think this article is one of the most powerful things I've read in awhile. David Roberts, energy and environment writer for grist.org, is taking a year off. From everything. Twitter, email, news, phone, computer. Everything. He's going dark. I'm impressed. Not as much with the type of change he's making, although I could certainly stand to curb my online life, but with the simple fact that he's making sweeping changes at all. If you could make a sweeping big change in your life, what would it be?

4. I think I'm having fun pushing myself photographically this summer. I'm so sorry, Erin, but a post about the Lensbaby is surely in the works! I'm a totally digging that lens. My Thursday Morning Photo Group has been working on a scavenger hunt that has really had me thinking creatively, and that's been both challenging and fun. I wrote a few weeks ago about David DuChemin's Photographically Speaking, and in it he talks about shooting during "the blue hour." This is the time of day between sunset (which is coming earlier and earlier these days) and full darkness. During the Blue Hour long exposures give the sky more color than the naked eye would see. Long exposure, plus motion plus Lensbaby was a tricky combo to play with by our river Wednesday night, but I had fun.

5. I think we'll do our best to make every moment count this weekend. Callum was actually pretty okay about school starting on Monday until we had dinner with friends on Wednesday and that boy was all "boo hoo, school's starting, I hate school." Only then did Cal start the "three and 1/4 days left..." bit. {wink}

We bought all his books (and a $110 calculator, which, so help me God if he loses....), and he found his locker. Good settling in stuff. A Separate Peace. Much Ado About Nothing. The Odyssey. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I always get excited about what they're going to read. But school is not until Monday, and until then, Cal's having a sleepover, and tonight is Movie Night at The Hermitage. We'll try to squeeze the beach in somewhere, and I'm sure there will be lots of lazing about going on. That's what summer is all about, after all.