Welcome to my new Tuesday series for the month of October! I'm looking forward to doing a non-formal chat on my blog each Tuesday, kind of like a virtual letter written to a friend while sipping a lovely cup of tea. I hope that is how it feels to read these posts each week, anyway. Those kind of posts are my personal favorites to read, and I think many of you would say the same. There is something interesting about getting a glimpse into someone else's life, isn't there?
Drinking: A homemade pump[kin spice latte, made by my (affectionately-dubbed) coffee snob of a husband. I know, it's not tea. Next week I'll play fair.
This is the first week that we are back into a normal rhythm after taking a trip out to North Carolina in September. It was a long drive across a large portion of the country, with five kids and homeschool books in tow.
If you are thinking that sounds like chaos, it actually wasn't very much. My kids are good at riding in the car since we typically have a longer drive to get anywhere, living where we live. Our school subjects actually provided some structure to the drive time and made it go faster for all of us. And I think there is actually something really special about the experience of driving through the country, instead of flying over it. You get to be immersed in different climates, the slight cultural peculiarities that each state has. Derek and I have a fun time talking about whether the state we're driving through would be a good "back-up state" in case we have to leave ours for whatever reason someday. Some states feel like home, and some feel so foreign I can't imagine living there myself. And, of course, there is the benefit of being able to envision the setting of books after you've been there yourself!
On the way out we stopped to visit our dear friends that had to move out of state for reasons out of their control. They have a beautiful piece of wooded property now in Kentucky, and are in the process of building a new house! We were able to celebrate a birthday party of my friend's son, held in their brand-new garage since the house is not yet built, and it was so special to be there for that. It was bittersweet to visit, because I so wish they could still live close to us - but not having them nearby makes me treasure the times when we can all be together even more, and I am already mentally planning loads of future visits as the years go by! I was listening to a seminar recently about Christian friendship, and it was a reminder that good, God-honoring friendships are a relatively rare thing, I don't take it for granted.
I will probably work on a post this month with a list of all the interesting places we were able to visit in North Carolina, so I won't go too far into it here, but seeing Derek's family for an extended period of time was lovely. His brother works as a mechanical and tech professor at a nearby college, and we were able to take a tour of the facilities and see a 3d printer, a machine shop, a robotics lab, etc. The boys were very interested, especially Clyde! My sister-in-law is an accomplished potter, and the kids had a great time working on pottery with her and making their own cups and other items. We spent several evenings just watching TV together, and drinking especially good coffee while we chatted, and it was a wonderful time. They are excellent at opening their home to guests, and their hospitality is a good example to me.
On the last day of our drive home, one of the kids came down with a stomach bug. At the time we thought it was food poisoning, but then multiple kids threw up a day or two later, and even I had one day where I just felt terrible. Thankfully it seemed to be a 24-hour bug, because none of us was sick beyond one day.
This is the second time we have come down with something after a trip out east, and I wonder if it's our immune systems reacting negatively to the heavy, humid air? In our higher altitude, the air is very dry, and I always notice various odd effects when we visit lower altitudes and more humid climates. A couple of the kids got rashes on their faces, we got several weird reactions to bug bites (likely from different bugs than we have at home), and then of course the typical sickness a day after we arrive back home. I know this also happens in reverse when people come from the east to our western high altitudes - I heard a couple stories before and during our trip of people visiting my state and being ill because of the change of climate and altitude. It starts to make sense of the missionary accounts I've read from the 19th century where the British were always worried about not doing well in foreign climates. It's amazing how our bodies adapt to living in one kind of place after a while, isn't it?
The rest of last week was taken up with running errands, and celebrating my daughter's 7th birthday. I can't believe how fast time goes by! Those of you who have been around for a while probably remember that I would write birthday letters to each of my kids on the blog every year. A couple years ago I decided to move those birthday letters to a private family blog, just to protect my kids' privacy a little more, but I wanted to mention that I still do write them. I hope to one day collect them into a binder and present it to my children when they are grown.
I discovered a notebook in my baby book a few years ago with letters that my mom wrote to me when I was a child, and reading it made me want to cry. If you don't already write letters to your children to give to them later, I recommend it. I think it will be a really special thing for them someday.
I'll close this now, and be back with another "Tea On A Tuesday" post next week! If you want to write your own chatty, letter-style post, what's stopping you? This is your cue to go ahead and do it. Comment below and I'll go read your "Tea On A Tuesday" style post too!
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