Back to the Daily Grind

We had a lovely, peaceful week at Duck, NC with our family. The weather was great for November---sunny and clear, 40-50 degrees. Just beautiful. We walked every day, usually to town, not to the beach.

The beach, which was a little closer, could only be reached by golf cart. After the first day of walking it, and then walking back with very cold, wet children in their wet and sandy jeans, the golf cart seemed like the way to go. I mean, if they're going to get soaked in November we needed a quick and easy way back to the house! That, and the fact that all the teenagers wanted to drive it.

MoW took the kids to Jockey's Ridge one day to play on the giant sand dunes. I stayed home to make room for a cousin in the car and had a great time by myself. Checking email and reading blogs. But I only did that twice. I took a real vacation from the computer and I didn't miss it at all.

I could go on and on about what we did, but it was a whole lot of nothing. That's what a vacation should be. We did little things, walked, ate, played football, read, shopped, ate, talked, puzzled, ate, knitted, crocheted, ate, drank, watched movies. I think we watched movies as much as we ate with a TV in every room, some large, some small, some HD, even a real movie theater. Very nice.

A 12.5 hour drive home in the rain, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, went a long way toward negating the whole vacation/relaxation thing, but we survived. And we came home to a lot of wet laundry (because it was on the roof of the car) and Advent. I'd had the younger kids dig out the Advent Wreath and the Jesse tree to set up while I was packing last week. So there was a little joy and beauty amidst the clutter of laundry and unpacking.

I'm excited about the Church New Year and beginning the cycle of the seasons again. It's hard to get in the spirit with the stress of picking up where we left off in school (which is waaay behind) and getting organized for Christmas, but Fawndear has a great idea to help with all that.

Have a blessed Advent!