resurfacing

We typically spend the first few weeks of August at my parents’ cottage on Lake Michigan, and it doesn’t really feel like summer unless we do.  This year we were only able to spare a week; just as we were finally able to take a deep breath and relax, we had to pack up and go home.  I marvel at this special place, where time stands still.  There’s no phone or wireless connectivity at their cottage, and forget FiOS.  Cell phone coverage is spotty, at best, so we make do by going to the town library when we need to check things. The respite is real and healing.
We had rain on the first day of travels there, and tunnels and car knitting and a little music.  We spent the night at a hotel, in two connected suites.  Big M called one room from the phone in the bathroom of the other.  For fifteen loud, jangling minutes we had no idea where he was, the imp.
Our second day brought us to lunch at a favorite destination with rocking chairs and checkers, and then to the lake, foggy and cool.  I took my camera everywhere, click-click-clicking away, trying to capture moments that I want to hold close for the rest of the year.  The chicken dance.  Fog over the lake.  Misty morning rambles.  Rocket launching.  Sun-drenched fields of thistle.  My "mom-brero".  Epic games.  Black raspberries.  Sunsets.  The patio carnival.  The beach.  A million lollies.  Fireworks.  A favorite studio.  Favorite chips (it’s a good thing I’ve been parted from these!) First s’mores.  Date night. Ice cream coming out our ears (it’s also for the best I’ve left this behind, too!).
So now, as the summer draws to a close, I am scrambling to schedule and pre-read for my scholars.  G starts Kinderleben this year, and Little M is going to be attending preschool at our parish.  She’s the only of my kids ever to do something formal like this (and without me!). T and M will be part of a Charlotte Mason hybrid/co-op kind of a thing.  I’m all of a-dither trying to sort out how it’s going to fall into place, but prayer, I think, will play a big part. :)