Summertime of Life

Today Anders turned six. As the anniversary approaches, I think increasingly about the events of six years ago this week. This year was especially strong in my mind since July 25th fell on a Saturday, as it did in 2009.
"You never know what's going to happen." -Anders
He loves this phrase, and it's so fitting.
"Remember the good times." -Anders
He uses this phrase when Anna and I are bickering or if he's getting in trouble.
"Get out of here, Clowns!" -Anders uses this when clowns appear in parades, and he fears that they might threaten Anna. It happened today at the Nordic Fest Grand Parade. Anders and I were on the curb, while Anna was a few rows back with Henrik. Anders had to find Anna and make sure that she was okay.
Anders has turned into such a sweet and thoughtful kid. He's also quite perceptive. Anders is even finally warming to the idea of Henrik, and even Henrik the person, in spurts.
I had this whole thing I was going to write, but then Anna and I started talking about the Andrik Project, and now I'm exhausted, that and two days of Festing. I love seeing all the people I knew or still know in Decorah. It's also fun to see the boys interact with them, or not, mostly not, at this age. Anyway, at least I enjoy it.
The summary of what I would have written is that what I can now see is that I entered the summertime of my life six years ago. Spring was over. That's fine. Spring is volatile with wild extremes. You might have snow or 90 degree temperatures. There could be blooms and flowers surrounding you or days of uninterrupted rain drowning one's spirit.
Summer, and I'm talking about summer in Minnesota, is more stable than spring. It's between 80 and 90 degrees, mostly sunny, chance of rain. That's life in your 30s with young kids. It's good. The days are long, but it's honest work. Sometimes you'd like a break from the heat, but summer is fleeting. It will be August soon, and you will be thinking about the next season. While it's July, you live in the moment because there is too much happening all around you. There is no choice. Life is so unrelenting that I'm happy to have July 25th to force me to reflect.
One final thing, we are the luckiest people I know. I hate when people say that we were "blessed" because were we not blessed when the boys came prematurely? In other words, did we go from "unblessed" on July 25th to "blessed" later when Anders was fine? Same exact thing with Henrik? I don't believe that line of thought.
Well, that's should clear out the Hashtag Blessed Crew from this weblog. I get cranky when I keep writing after promising to stop hundreds of words before.
I'll spare you the cliches, but all of those life cliches hit us like a ton of bricks on and after July 25, 2009. Some days, I'd like nothing more than to come home and fall asleep to a "Seinfeld" rerun, but if I did that today, I'd have a Period Table of Elements block thrown at my head...that's life in July.