a night at the marsh.

I am often exclaiming, broken record style, as we drive around our area, “Boys! Do you see how beautiful it is? Do you know how lucky you are to live here?” But there’s never a time when I am as certain to do it as when we’re driving along marshland. The placidly rolling waves of grass, the far-as-the-eye-can-see vista in an otherwise tree filled New England landscape. The sky against it. Such complimentary colors, the earthy green, and that gradient blue.  Sometimes it takes my breath away.

That incredible view, and our good fortune to live in and amongst it, is only made more poignant, when I consider the horrors currently facing immigrants in our country, or those trying to flee their own country. This post isn’t about that, but I can’t help but hold the two together in my mind simultaneously as I move about my home, my kids tucked safely in their car seats, or in their beds. It’s a little bit of guilt, gratefulness, sadness, all somehow and strangely combined. There’s no easy way to transition, but I’m going to do my best. The place we visited for dinner is a place I’ve driven past dozens of times over the last fifteen years. I’d just never stopped before. Foolish. I decided tonight was the night. A beautiful summer evening, no dinner plan. Fried seafood it is.We got to try out a bunch of the new Ello water bottles that are available right now at Target. With all the comings and goings of activity we do all year long, water bottles have a way of disappearing. Their last ones… where actually are they? They are wherever the single socks are stashed, and wherever my bobby pins and hair things are too, in the invisible black hole that’s inevitably found in every household. (But really, where?) So, we’re psyched to have a few more in our repertoire. The one Parker is holding is the Emma stainless steel water bottle and it has this cool new antimicrobial technology too: they call it Guardian Technology. You know how gross the outside of water bottles can get. I never knew this was a thing, but hello, Ello! Here’s a stat I didn’t know about before working with Ello–the average amount of germs on a pet toy is 2,937 CFU (colony forming units–had to look that one up), and the average amount of germs on a reusable water bottle is 313,440. Gross. We ordered the fried fish platter (comes with onion rings!) and Parker got chicken fingers. Anders chose mac and cheese, and I’m certain it was Kraft. “Taste this! So good!” Parker kept exclaiming. I still don’t understand it.  Their water bottles have this leak-proof locking lid feature too, so no spilling in backpacks.  I don’t have my own coffee thermos, so I’m excited they included one of those. It’s pretty too, if that matters. (It does.)The blue one in front of Steve is the Devon glass tumbler, which I love. But with a silicone outer sleeve to protect it in the event of a fall. “In the event of” sounds so optimistic, doesn’t it?See? That’s definitely Kraft. I’m sorry Kraft, but I’m team Annie’s all the way. I do recall a time when your orange plasticy cheesy noodle tickled my tastebuds though. Today is no longer that day. I’m that boring Mom who almost never buys drinks while we’re out. It’s always water, but I am trying to be better at having water bottles on us so that we’re not ever using plastic cups or straws (also, Parker has now become such an eco-advocate that he can’t stand getting a straw. On one hand, go Parker. On the other, he looks ready to throw down right there in the restaurant when he’s given one. We’ll find our happy medium soon.). Parker lined all of these up on the railing like this for a picture. I thought that was very cute. I sometimes can’t believe my good fortune to live in this place. I wish it were cheaper, that winters were a little shorter, but look at these marsh views! And within five minutes of my front door! While the taxes may force us to pitch a tent right here outside, we’ll have a great front row seat!   The whole time we were doing this, Parker was talking some Bear Grylls’ speak about thinking about your next move and them committing. We’ve been watching some Man Vs. Wild this summer. Another summer day and evening for the memory books.

Thank you to Ello for sponsoring this post, and thank you reader for being here! I’m grateful!