Catching Up and Just Beginning

It's been a big week here, but I can't get started with that until I catch you up on the rest of our summer. Shortly after the baptism, the boys and I headed to my family's cottage in Amherst Shore, Nova Scotia. My Dad joined us for the trip up there, and I was so thankful to have him along. I was lucky enough to spend five weeks at the shore! Matt was able to join us for the last two weeks.

During my time there, I was able to really relax. Life there is simpler and a bit more work at the same time. We lived in a 1000 sq ft cottage with no air conditioner or heating, clothes washer or dishwasher. It does have two fridges (one for beer!) and it has a wonderful woman who lives down the street and is superb at laundry (my mother!). I didn't have a car, but was loaned one regularly from my parents and had the privledge of borrowing my grandparents golf cart for the whole summer to boot. Just imagine, me with John in the front carrier, the boys perched on the back ready to go to wherever we needed to. This was a nearly daily trek. I particularly liked the evening I debated whether taking John to book club in the golf cart was better if he was in the carrier or the car seat. Seriously, a car seat on the floor of the golf cart? At least I remembered the saran wrap to cover my wine glass for the evening. Somehow it was quite easy to be at the cottage. Our days were full of playtime, mealtime, and beach time. Our evenings were full of family dinners and visiting. I really miss the non-distracted quality time that you get at the shore. I was so checked out of real life that I actually missed more than one appointment in my last week there. And it wasn't that "I'm going to skip this, but feel extremely guilty," it was "I missed something the day before yesterday and just realized it now" sort of thing. If you know me, you know that I don't miss much.

The boys had a wonderful time at the beach as well. It was kids being kids, running with the pack, and loving life for five weeks. They have never been dirtier or happier. Christopher is still catching up on sleep and food. I've never seen my children eat so much. Afternoon would come and the eating would begin. John was happy to come along for the fun in the carrier or the stroller. Other than being an extremely regular day eater, he is a pretty low maintenance baby.

So now we are back in Wisconsin. We just got back a week ago, and since then I returned to work, the little boys are at daycare, and Daniel started kindergarten. It's been a huge week! I might be caught up, but I'm still not quite sure. Thankfully Matt is still enjoying his time off for paternity leave. I could not have done this otherwise. He's been doing lots of shopping, form filling out, and driving. Not quite sure what's going to happen next week when he goes back to work, but that must just be what life's like with three kids. You don't quite have a plan, but you know it will work out. My body is starting to hurt from spending too many hours sitting at a desk instead of walking and carrying kids to and from the beach. Thankfully I'm still receiving tons of veggies from our CSA. It's a nice reminder of my parents bountiful garden but does not come with the hours of kid entertainment.

So after getting very settled into our shore life, and having to rudely return to normal life, I must say that the things I've noticed being the most different are how much life gets in the way of life, how much I cheat people of real time and interactions, and how little I get to be active.

Here I am two weeks later trying to get this post completed and ready to share. I still think that my lessons of the summer hold true, but I'm finding pockets of time to enjoy people for their present company (and forget about everything else that needs to be/should be done and time to exercise (too bad it has to be scheduled now.) Also, after feeling like I have entirely too much stuff taking up space in my house since returning, I've decided that I'm right and have started purging. It feels great!