This week Cathy and Pat have given us the gift of freedom. Our kids are having a blast and I’ve rarely seen them so uninterested in having attention from David and me. So we’ve been free to hole up and read books or escape for an evening walk or a morning in downtown Ballard — whatever we feel in the mood for. It’s been so very restful. Yesterday we drove 30 minutes to the coast and took a ferry to Whidbey Island for the day. The sun shines bright here each day now, but it’s still breezy. We wear sweatshirts in the morning and gradually shed clothes during the day as the…