I don't have time to update you on everything, so I will do my best to make this controlled rant worthwhile.
I came home from Florida to two weeks of no day camp for the kids. T and I spent every waking minute trying to come up with ways to entertain them. One Saturday when we were at our wits' end, E just packed them all up and ditched them with various grandparents so we could all nap. It was glorious.
At T's mother's birthday party I got to see Nanny Karen's lifestyle in action. T's sister is kind of a flower child and she seems to be aloof to most of the things in life that matter. Her kids are not disciplined at all and poor Karen has spent a year living with them, trying to wrestle them into obedience. So while the kids ran around the house eating lollipop after lollipop before dinner, T's sister and Karen made dinner and I watched my 3. T napped on the couch.
I think that's her plan for this pregnancy: nap til it's over.
After the birthday party R wanted to spend the night. We left her with instructions to brush her teeth with her finger. The next day I asked her how that had gone and she smiled.
"I didn't brush with my finger. We all took turns brushing with the same toothbrush."
Awesome.
Four kids using one toothbrush. That's hygiene at it's finest.
I made a day trip to Camp Hill, PA to visit my brother's family, my most recent homestead. My trip was turned into something completely unexpected with the twist of meeting up with a college friend, a very close friend.
On the train ride home, there was a girl lying in the seat in front of me. When the Amtrak employee came around to punch tickets she pretended to be asleep until he had to physically move her arm off her face. Then she sat up, seemingly drowsy and confused and said she couldn't find her ticket. He left to get his manager and somewhere in the next thirty seconds she disappeared. The next twenty minutes of the train ride was filled with various Amtrak workers running from car to car and asking us all if we'd seen where she went.
It was special.
The last few days have been pretty uneventful. It's raining here again, as I believe most of you know judging by your Facebook posts. My basement is getting wet, but it's not bad this time. Today I cleaned down there and found only tiny spiders and no mildew. Good sign. I still want to burn that rug though.
I've had a lot of time to myself lately, what with the power being out and the start of school for R this week. Today on my walk into town I was thinking about how different my life is now from anything I ever imagined.
Not that long ago I was living the Allentown days and then I floundered for a while trying to figure out what my next steps should be. It dawns on my from time to time how I continue to get so used to my life that I feel like this is how it's going to be indefinitely and then before I know it, the next chapter has started. Already at this job, the dynamics of it are changing and with that the course of my days is different.
T and I have reached a new comfort zone and Baby I won't be the baby much longer. It's so neat to see how much has happened in only four months.
My next immediate goal is to find a computer. A good, cheap computer that will allow me to blog daily again. And play Scrabble. How I miss Scrabble.
