Vacation and Staving

I'm here, I'm not dead, our internet did not explode.

Does that cover everything?

I have, surprisingly, gotten several requests to POST ALREADY, WOMAN, and not just from my mom, so I feel I must soothe you raving masses and let you know that things are just dandy around here.

I never tell you when we're leaving town (I'm sneaky, and also I don't want even sneakier thieves breaking in and stealing my...um...thing...that is worth stealing. I'm sorry, folks, really we have nothing worth stealing.), and in fact just this past Sunday we rolled back into town, sandy and tanned, from a ten day trip to Michigan. The first few days were spent with my side of the family in Ludington, recreating last year's beach visit, except this year there were some noted improvements. Namely, none of us was ill, my sister and her family accompanied us, and because of the ridiculously hot summer, the water was actually pleasant to swim in, despite the fact that the temperature hovered in the 70s and 80s while we were visiting. In a word, it was ideal. Just ideal. I have said it before, but I would like to officially join the ranks of people who question the worth of traveling away from the Midwest for sandy beaches when we, in fact, possess hundreds of miles of beautiful shoreline along the Great Lakes. Lake Michigan is just as awesome as any ocean beach I've visited, and actually it is more awesome, because the water is not salty.

I've said my piece.

Ludington was perfect, and then we took a vacation from our vacation and visited with The Professor's parents in another part of Michigan for just under a week. We relaxed, ate, slept, and played in tranquility and peace, and most of the time it rained. The rain was actually welcome after a drought-filled summer, and I mentally smacked my forehead for not packing enough cold weather clothes. I have been visiting Michigan in the summer for a decade now; you would think I would remember that sometimes it gets cold.

The only Olympics I watched were bits in restaurants, and at 29, I am finally okay with admitting that I just don't care. I mean, I think the Olympics are neat and fabulous and something worth getting excited about, but I personally am not going to die without them. My one regret was not being in England during such an awesome party. The English are my people, and I'm sure they felt my absence quite keenly.

Now we are settling back into our routines while simultaneously preparing new routines, since J and B both start kindergarten next week and C starts every-morning preschool the week after that. I'm feverishly working to finish their backpacks (I'll do a complete post on that when they're done) and gather last-minute school supplies and attend the myriad of meetings necessary to usher new parents into the fold. Our lives are about to get about 6398 times more complicated, and I'm staving off the inevitable flood of homesickness (for my in-school kiddos--look, it makes sense to me, okay?) by cleaning the kitchen three times a day.

(This whole "MAH BAYBEES ARE LEAVIN' ME" flow of emotion is slightly stoppered by things like vicious sibling fights over, I don't know, who is breathing the most air, and also the other day B ate a quarter and puked it up all over my parents' back deck, mere weeks after his twin had done the same thing in his bed. I never want to be one of those moms who will tell anyone who stands still enough "ZOMG, I can't wait for school to start, these kids are driving me bonkers!" but you guys: I kind of can't wait for school to start, because these kids are driving me bonkers.)

I must dash to finish canning some raspberry jam (STAVING, FOLKS), but I'll stay long enough to wish you health and happiness in these final weeks and days of summer. Please join me in lamenting the loss of your children in the comments, or perhaps share what interesting things your own children have puked up. I'm all ears.