five nights and four days with my littlest love

 

    

On Sunday night, Fr. G and the four older children left for a sleep away camp run by our metropolis.  It was G's first overnight camp experience, so we'll see how exhausted he is when they return on Friday.  We've got a crazy jam-packed weekend (is there any other kind?) and then we leave for our vacation on Monday.  I hope the kids catch up on their sleep during our 12 hour car trip to Lake Michigan.

Little M and I have had the house to ourselves while everyone is away.  I knew she would pine, especially for Z, so I filled the schedule with little jaunts outside the home, little tasks for us to do within the home, and plenty of flexible time so M could give her input.  She really wants to go to the zoo, which I emphatically do not (heat, crowds, mask mandates).  Other than that I've been able to accommodate most of her wishes.

On Monday we took a trip to our city's art museum to visit a Monet that we'd studied during term 3.  It was exciting enough to get a picture near it, but not exciting enough to look at for more than thirty seconds.  We visited another painting we've studied in the past, which merited a longer examination and many sweet questions.  We rounded out the trip with lunch at a favorite spot and then spent the afternoon at the pool, coming home just before the thunder and lightning.  She listened to an audiobook while I finished sewing a linen skirt for her. (It turned out really well, but that's another post.)

On Tuesday, she requested a morning walk to and around the cemetery near our house; she biked and I scrambled to keep up with her.  It's three and a half miles round-trip.  Little M likes to stop for honeysuckle nectar along the way and to point out all the flowers she knows (hydrangea! swamp milkweed! daisies!).  At a necessary pit-stop, I noticed a headstone for a woman whose name was the nickname I had hoped to use for little M.  Just after M was born, Z declared that she would never use anything other than M's full name, so the nickname didn't stick.  We also disturbed some broody house wrens using a sweet birdhouse (noting that birdhouse down for our own backyard).  They chittered and screeched at us from the holly tree beside the house.  After arriving home and cleaning up, she and I ran errands, ending at IKEA for lunch and a few household things.  They didn't have the dishes I was looking for, or the soft-serve ice cream that M was looking for, but we did alright.  We refreshed the throw pillow cases in the living room and found some storage containers for my sewing notions in the exact size I had been looking for.

On Wednesday morning we repeated our walk.  This time I brought my phone to play wren songs, so we were able to coax the fussy wren mama back into her nest while we stood there.  She eyed us suspiciously the whole time.  In the afternoon, I had a homeschool gathering, so two sweet girls from our parish came over to hang out with M.  She was queen for an afternoon. They played games, ate popsicles, and she  basked in the company of these two older ladies.  

Today we have the large task of cleaning out the boys' rooms and bathroom on the third floor, and then we have a trip to this lovely storefront to pick up our artist prints for the year.  I tell friends our third floor is like a frat house, and I avoid it at all costs.  The little boys have a weekly cleaning checklist, but my teen son's room...well, I should have worked on good habits earlier.  When the kids go back to Greek school, school, and our co-op in the fall (happy dances all around), I will be quietly purging things.  A friend commented that part of establishing good habits is setting our kids up to succeed.  So true.  They can't keep things tidy when there are too many things!  

The kids arrive home tomorrow afternoon, and if they don't break camp tradition, they will have pulled an all-nighter.  Most years they sleep all, all day on Friday and then all night.  Little M might have to wait just a little longer before people are ready to play with her.  On Sunday night, she said to me, "This house is nothing without Z."  I know she misses her crew, but I hope that our delightful time together has been a comfort.