4 hours ago
A tug on my arm slows us down to a halt on the gravel road. Pretty blue eyes blink up at me, holding up a less-than-glittering rock. "Look, Mama, I found something interesting!" she declares, and drops the rock into her plastic baggy. We continue down the road.
Everyone else has gone off to soccer practice, but my middle girl wanted to stay with me so badly I couldn't say no. Her tearful pleas left only tiny streaks as evidence on her face, and now she skips along happily, eyes on the ground as we walk. Since we've been sick, this is my only exercise, a stroll the long way around to the mail box and back home again.
On these recent walks, there is one house that draws my eye as we pass. It sits close to the road, and it's neatness is always noteworthy. The grass is cut to perfection, the driveway is clean, the front steps don't appear to have a speck of dust. The blinds are always drawn, and I never see anyone in front of that house. I know someone must live there since the outside is so impeccable, but all I ever notice is how still it is, sitting there in it's tidy glory.
Clarice stops for another treasure to add to her bag, and I grin because she never quite goes for the rock that stands out the most. She sees something in the rocks that my gaze passes over.
We grab the mail, and we trudge up the hill until I see our home. No tidy glory to be found here. The driveway is covered by pine needles, and fighting them is a losing battle - pines much older than me shade out driveway, and they make their presence known. It looks messier than I'd like, but the sun warms the scattering of needles into something spicy and sweet, the smell of mountain woods.
Bikes are strewn all over the driveway, and I make a note to have the kids put them away later. Airy curtains are pulled back from our front window, and inside I can see an unruly stack of books that needs sorting. Our noisy dog whines as we open the door, and the welcome sign out front is a little crooked from all the jostling it gets each time a child runs outside.
Evidence of children playing, wild mountain nature infringing, and chores that don't quite get done - memories of games played, friendly faces waving hello, and curtains thrown wide so they can see us waving back - these are the things I notice about my own house as we return from our walk. There have certainly been times when I have wished to keep the outside of our house tidier, but even when I manage to achieve some well-manicured curb appeal, I look at our house and it's unavoidably lived-in. And I like it best that way.
The air is brisk and cool outside on this last day of summer, and I am aware that I have been absent on the blog for the last few weeks. Why don't we have a little chai tea, maybe a pastry, and catch up a bit.
The Mysterious Trip
A couple weeks ago we arrived home from the trip I mentioned here, but never explained for fear that it would be cancelled. At last I can share without worrying about plans changing - we went on a trip with our dear friends to Kentucky to see the Ark Encounter! It is a life-size reproduction of Noah's ark, and I heard that kids 10 and under can go to the Ark and Creation Museum for free this year. I have been scheming since January on how to make a trip happen.
They built it on the border of Kentucky and Ohio because a large portion of the country lives within a day's drive of the Ark, but unfortunately for us we are in the percentage of the population that lives farther away than that. Derek has limited time off this year, so I knew we couldn't take a whole week off or more to make the trek out there, but I thought maybe we could work with our long Labor Day weekend. I could drive by myself and have Derek fly out to meet us, but my parents were pretty opposed to me driving such a long distance with no one to help wrangle the kids or be there in an emergency. So Derek and I asked our friends, Scott and Danae, if they wanted to take a trip out there with us, and after much finagling of schedules, and booking and rebooking of hotels, we got it planned!
I was so nervous that we were going to catch "the cough" (ahem) before we left and have to cancel the whole trip, but it ended up going perfectly smoothly. We had such a great time, visiting the Ark on a weekday (which I'm told is a good move), and then the Creation Museum and Mammoth Cave before heading back home!
I might do a separate post with photos and such, but it was a wonderful trip full of good memories, and I'm so glad we went. I hope we can go again in a few years - I think older kids would get a different experience than young kids, and probably a ton more learning out of it!
Since We Got Back
We arrived back home, ready to jump back into our life and all the fall activities we had planned for the kids (soccer, Awana, park days) when we realized that we were starting to get sick. And lo and behold, yes, we caught IT. After a long couple weeks cooped up in the house, a cancelled friend gathering, and the kids missing two of their soccer games, we are finally nearing the end of our quarantine. I am quite thankful that our case has been extremely mild, that it happened after our trip and not before, and that no one is the worse for wear.
We've also been getting into a real school routine since getting back, and I'm quite happy with our rhythm so far. There are a few things I want to improve - like making our morning times a habit again. We've been sleeping in too late, being technically sick and all. Otherwise this has been the smoothest transition into the school year that we've had yet, and we have been getting more accomplished each day than in previous years. And that's with homeschooling four kids now! Somewhere along the way, things just started to click. Those first few years really are the most challenging, and then suddenly you start to figure homeschooling out. The day-to-day aspects, anyway.
I've been online shopping too much out of boredom - mostly trying to find some new skinny jeans. Over the last year I have found some great relaxed jeans, straight jeans, and even flare jeans (yes, they're back), but I can no longer find any skinny jeans that I like. I have high hopes for the jeans arriving in the mail this week. I'm also ordering some of these tops (because I find myself want-needing a new plaid shirt every fall). I have some first-day-of-fall plans for tomorrow, including this scavenger hunt (or this one), a fall craft, and apple slices with pumpkin fluff dip.
As far as books go, I've actually read five so far this month, but two of them aren't going to make it into the monthly round-up (classic cases of can't-recommend-it-but-have-to-know-the-ending-now). I started this book today, and will probably finish it before I go to sleep - it's about that soccer team that become trapped in a cave in Thailand a while back. The book tells the story, start to finish, with pictures, and I'm finding it pretty fascinating.
I'm actually supposed to be reading Jane Eyre before my book group discussion on Friday, but I'm procrastinating.
Speaking of procrastinating, all of our time at home has given us a chance to catch up on projects. Derek has been cleaning out the garage, and I started getting some photo albums organized. I am five years behind in printing photos, so it's been good to start to close the gap. I'm also scheming about getting some fall family photos taken, but it's hard to tell if the leaves near us are going to be good, or just turn brown.
This post started on Monday, and I'm finishing it on Tuesday morning before school - I hear dart guns in the hall, which means I probably need to go out there and wrangle the kids before we lose our momentum for the day. The sun is shining through a mist in the valley in front of our house, and it's stunning and cozy. Yesterday was a chai tea day, but now I'm going to go downstairs and get some strong coffee.
Anyway, you are now caught up on the last couple weeks in our house. How has September looked for you, friends?
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