Thankful Thought | No.5

I've read your blog for awhile now, but I've never commented to say just how much I enjoy it. Not only do you have an incredible gift for documenting life in a creative and insightful way, but you are a wonderful writer as well. Your writing is always so eloquent and thought-provoking and I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and words with everyone. :)

I have very vivid memories of childhood swimming as well. It was all I wanted to do, the pool, the lake, anywhere, anytime. I was like a fish. I now have children of my own and our summers are filled with swimming at local pools, friend's houses and lakes. the subject keeps coming up whether or not we should get a pool and I told my husband, 'ya know what? i don't want one, I like searching for a place to swim in the summer, it's more fun to get out than to just swim in the backyard". I shocked myself with that answer

Great shot!
How cool he loves to swim.
My kids are fish too ;)

Ali again a wonderful thought provoking post. Thank you for your words and the way you write. I am sitting here in Australia in winter on a cold day and your words warmed me up.

I am very lucky to have a pool in my backyard now that I have grown so my daughter will have access to one without having to go to the local pool but I know exactly what you mean. I used to love riding my bike with my best friend down to the local creek or nagging Mum and Dad to drive us somewhere for a swim in the summer. We lived a little way from the town pool so it wasn't always easy to go there but the creeks and streams around home were always a welcome cool off.

I will need to make a special effort to do that for my daughter now and not just take the pool in our backyard for granted. Wonderful memories indeed! Thanks again :-)

Beautifully written. I had tears in my eyes when I finished reading this post. Thanks for sharing.

Beautifully written and you brought back many days of swimming at my local pool. I could smell coppertone suntain lotion, chlorine and pop corn. I could feel the heat of the sun and see that turquoise blue sky. Today in Melbourne, there is a grey sky with a fog, it may turn blue this afternoon, but in the meantime, thanks for the breath of summer.

Ali - I have done EXACTLY THE SAME THING with the flashbacka at our pool the past two years with my son and daughter (8 & 10). It is the same pool where I swam as a kid, did swim team, guarded as a college girl, made many memories, and now I'm back there as a mom.

I just told my kids the other day that I can't wait for summer because some of the happiest times of my life have been just sitting poolside gazing at them....

Happy, Happy Summer to you!

Thank You Ali! I love these and other designs you have for sale. I've purchased a few others. It gives me a reason to play in PhotoShop Elements to learn more and have amazing photos to put in my albums. Working on 3 scrapbook on the road albums-one for each week of our vacation starting next week. Thanks for all the inspiration!

Hello Ali,

wonderful written and documented like always. I was never on a swim team but played and coached competitive team handball. My children (7&10) have been on the neighborhood swim team for six/3 years and it is exactly how you describe it - our whole family loves it and we life at the pool over the summer. I am curious what you/your mom did with all those ribbons, certificates and trophies though. I saw your mini album about soccer in your last book and love it but they come home every meet with so much "stuff" (heat ribbons, improvement ribbons, place ribbons, participation ribbons, swimmer of the meet certificate, outstanding performance certificate, medals etc.. Any idea what to do with it or how to include it in an album or a layout? Thank you for all your inspiration, Birgit

Beautifully written. I sense a layout coming out of this... :)

Carmen.

its even better than i thought...

isnt that a cool thought???

that life is even better than can be imagined????

bliss...absolute bliss

Love it ! Thank you so much!

i forgot to mention on your camping questions post, that after you buy your new tent, I suggest a setting up trial run before you hit the road. This will give you a chance to figure it out before you actually need it. :) HAVE FUN!

Thank you so much, so wishing we had an outdoor pool available here. Here it is the river, which is much slower to warm up, much to the dismay of my kids. :)

Ali,
I, like you, have spent many summers near a pool as my older girls were swimmers. Sadly, my youngest daughter has chosen socccer over swimming. Our neighhood pool has invited us to join them but the weather up here is soooo cold.
I really enjoyed your post today. It inspires me to stop and take more of life in. There really is a story in everyday things and events.

well, now you made me cry. that was beautiful. XO

Thank you so much for sharing your daydreaming about the past! It showed me that there are more people like me... I do that SO OFTEN at places that are "memory-pregnant" (thats how we call it -litterally translated- in German) places of my story... and sometimes I'm wondering if I do it too often as "people" always say, you know, one should live in the present time and not look back at the past too much and all that stuff... But then I think, why not. I will always do this looking back, I do it because I need it. It is important for me to remember and to not forget. And just as you describe it, then you glimpse and you are so thankful for the present, how life's now and you are thankful that it is even better than how you imagined it to be, when you were young and asking yourself and your future how it may be one day.
Soon I will me a Mom for the first time and I am so looking forward to see my child grow and make these experiences of life...

I enjoy your blog and always come here to see whats new. It is so much how I feel, too. Thank your for inspiring and sharing.
Way to go to tell life's stories!

Love,
Anne

Thank you, Ali! These beautiful overlays are my favorite! I love the reminder they give me to find something beautiful or unique in a photo I've taken during the past week and journal about a thankful aspect of it. Have a great weekend.

Great post...as usual so well written and so inspiring! Written with such emotion that everyone who reads it can relate...even though our summertime tradtions/routines may not have involved swimming or the pool! Can't wait for my kids to start their summer traditions...so happy I live in a town that has an outdoor pool...we are so lucky. The town I grew up in did not! Can't wait!

Hi Ali, this post was something I needed at the moment! We are in Australia in a hot part of Queensland and have a pool in our yard that my kids live in during summer, we currently have our house on the market for numerous reasons and the thought of not having a pool leaves me upset for the kids. We do have a fantatsic community pool and lovely people who utilise it and I can see now that whilst it is convenient to have the pool at my doorstep I really dont NEED it to be there for the kids to have great summer memories. THanks for planting that seed in my head!