Butterfly Freedom and the D.I.A.

At the farmer's market a few weeks ago we bought a fat caterpillar for $10 in a little soft-mesh cage. We were given extra milk weed and a page of instructions to help it on it's way to becoming a butterfly.
Only 12 hours passed before the darn thing wrapped itself into a chrysalis. We waited 10 days before it emerged as a lovely Monarch butterfly. After letting its wings fully unfurl and dry, we let it go. It was pretty amazing. Little E was a little upset when he realized it wasn't flying back to us. Reminded me of helium balloons let go minutes after receiving them in the Trader Joe's parking lot. Up, up and away.

Friday night I got to go out to eat with my sister at a lovely Ann Arbor restaurant, sans children. I felt like such a big kid, I tell ya. Really it was nice. Hot food with no interruptions always impresses me though. When we came back, she took our kids back to her place for a sleep over!
G and I were able to get drinks with long-lost friends that night. It was fun and relaxing. One last hurrah before going back on-call.

Saturday we took the kids to the new and improved Detroit Institute of Arts using our free-from-the-library museum passes! I spent so many lovely afternoons at the DIA as a teen with my pal Vanessa. So even though they really did improve the museum, so many of the same beautiful paintings were still there, as I remembered them.
I must have been especially emotional that day, because I had to keep blinking back tears of gratitude for all the lovely things around us. I assume that's what people feel in gorgeous cathedrals. It was just this great overwhelming feeling of everything is beautiful. Sigh.
I want to go back alone so that I can take my time. There were at least 3-4 genres that I didn't get to because the kids were getting bored.
They did great though. We were there at least 2-3 hours. Little E got antsy first, and S predictably lost her sh*t when she realized I wasn't buying anything from the gift shop. (This child feels we must buy something any time we visit a place that sells things. Could be a store, a museum or even a freakin' bus stop, I swear.)
But they were both very well behaved and stayed interested in what we were seeing. I was actually really proud of them for being so chill and sweet in such a grown-up environment.

July is almost over. It was a nice,light month. Only 1 birth. All the July people had their babies in June and the last June person had her baby in July. August is fairly busy. Feels like I'm plunging back into the water again. Well rested though.
Off to bed now.