Home Again Home Again

Well we are home again after 10 days away. (pictures below by Kettie who joined us for the weekend)  So far re-entry is going swimmingly.  I have been muttering under my breath since we got home last night, “We are all so tired I think we will sleep well tonight,” in hopes of planting a subliminal message.  Charlie and Miss P took the bait and slept in until almost 9:00 (a family record), while Elisabeth and I  enjoyed a nice long morning of drinking coffee together in bed, thumbing through our culinary magazines, making our grocery list, etc.* I employed my strategy of subliminal messages again today and again it seems to be working.  Elisabeth has picked it up, walking around saying, “Oh, we are just exhausted from our trip, just exhausted!”  We have also been aided in our re-entry by a timely thunderstorm today.  I love rainy days and the lack of pressure to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather.  Additionally, I’m grateful for the thunderstorm because we left our white-noise machine at the lake.  Our white-noise machine does not actually make white-noise, it makes rain sounds with intermittent ear-splitting claps of thunder. It puts the children right to sleep, and I think the ability to sleep through loud thunder claps is a handy life-skill for anyone.

*All three of my children enjoy an occasional cup of coffee, a habit questioned from time to time by other mothers to whom I point out that European children drink coffee all the time.  I do not know if this is true, but I’ve found if I just say it with confidence my critics are silenced.  I should point out that the European children also take their clothes off a lot and don’t wear bibs and are generally unruly in public places.  I think.