The Rambling Nest: Hello, Monday {pinks & blues}

Hola! It's hot hot hot in SoCal today, especially out here in the Inland valley where I live. I've already kicked off the summer season by earning my first sun-rash -- anytime I spend too long baking outdoors without sunblock, I get these slightly raised bumps on my inner forearms and thighs the next day. Weird. It started about 5 years ago -- another benefit of aging, I guess.

Anyway. I titled this post "Pinks & Blues," in honor of how I spent the weekend. It was a really, really nice one, beginning with the Husband letting me & Lily sleep in on Saturday and not have to hustle out the door for Tucker's early soccer game. I didn't actually sleep in, but not having to be dressed and out the door at 7:30 was huge. I'm so not a morning person...

Instead, I enjoyed my leisurely coffee and then went out to the backyard to tend and prune my roses. I so don't have a green thumb either, but somehow these roses keep thriving year after year. (We didn't plant them, they came with the house.)

Hello, gorgeous pink and apricot roses. The bees sure love you, too.

Just look at that color --- these pics are all shot from my phone, but I didn't use any filters. Bonus: these roses actually smell like roses, too. Not like the scentless varieties usually sold in grocery stores.

After an hour of work, I had this big pile of dead and fading blooms. Clearly I need to prune much more often, but they don't seem too worse for my neglect.

After the gardening, it was time to clean up and get to Lily's soccer game...where she scored her first goal in three seasons. Whoop whoop! It was a big moment. Fist bumps and high fives all around. This photo celebrates blue (her team is the Blue Thunder) and pink. Just look at her sweaty, blotchy face. It was hot out there. (This is when I sat out in the sun for an hour and earned my sun-rash.)

Hello my proud and happy, hard-playing girl.

Afterward, it was time to cool down by visiting our HOA pool for the first time this year. See this below? Me and my toes in the shade, watching the clouds float by while the kids played. Big life change in Mom-World: when I don't have to hover and be in the pool to keep anyone from drowning. For years I've eyed those moms in the shade, with their cold drinks and magazines, with jealousy. And now it's my turn!

Hello to blue skies and aqua blue water. Do those palm trees below look familiar? They're the same ones I use up there on my blog banner.

Hello, sweet children. I came upon them drying off and holding hands. Not a staged pose, I swear. A scene to warm any mother's heart.

Finally, hello to pink and pinker bougainvillea, growing on an arbor above a white-picket fence. For Mother's Day, we drove across the Ortega Highway to the old town of San Juan Capistrano in south Orange County.

After my hints about Mother's Day, you knew we were going go somewhere. More on our trip to SJC soon.

Hello to a hot Monday. Hello to only 4 more weeks left in our school year! I better get that cleaning-out and organizing I want to tackle done soon.

Hello to iced coffee this morning and flip-flops and walking to get some fro-yo tonight after dinner.

Hello to getting back to writing again. Just a short break last week, and it's hard to pick it back up.

Hello to another week that's going to fly by too fast. So Gather ye rose buds while ye may/Old Time is still a-flying: And this same flower that smiles to-day/Tomorrow will be dying.

Don't my rose bushes know it!