Five Brown Kids

Blythe had a three week fall break. We set up a paper calendar early and tried to figure out how we could mix fall fun with parents’ full time work. She ended up at camp three days a week and fun adventures two days a week plus weekends.  Not ideal but certainly livable…. I have to say that some days I dropped her off and my heart ached  (wishing for her a stay at home mom -- she wishes for a stay at home mom too). But I have now done 20 years of all consuming child care (including the infamous pandemic child care + full time work) and I want to work…in peace…  so camp it is.   ( Fall break 2014 , Fall break 2013 , Fall break 2009 , Fall break 2014 Check list) Took these cuties to the Bluegrass festival downtown.  Good music and good food.

Taye came home for a weekend to attend Anna’s sisters wedding. It sounds like the day was a little stressful - the family side of a big event always is?   The next morning I convinced everyone to go for a little hike with me.  We all watched a crayfish back himself into the stream as if by keeping an eye on us all he could somehow protect himself. So funny, and so cute to watch all my big kids so engaged. The whole way back they talked about exploring in the backyard of our old house. Always with rubber boots tromping through the marsh, keeping an eye on the river, building dams on a little stream. Happy outdoor memories…

Last week as she was running out the door, Blythe told me that there was a coyote in the ravine and she and the neighbor kids were going to find him. They had nerf guns and jump ropes to tie up a trap and I thought -  sure, have fun!   Sunday morning our neighbor sent us a picture of the coyote in our backyard sitting very expectantly.  And not much later I saw him walk right out of the ravine, sniff around in our yard and then leave.   Turns out in addition to their nerf guns and jump ropes they had also put out Blythe’s stuffed cat (kitty meow-meow) covered in slices of turkey and the coyote definitely found him and dragged him off and then came back later looking for more turkey flavored cats.  

The day before we went down to the football game Taye told me he was tossing football with his roommates out on the road and hurt his hand. He thought it was just jammed but when we showed up it was pretty evident it needed to be checked out. He went to urgent care the next day for an X-ray and they sent him to an orthopedist the following day for a cast. Purple for ECU! 

A quick tour of our house...

This is a fun art tour of my house. Many, many years ago my mom said I should collect art instead of furniture because it wouldn’t get killed by little kids. My collection isn’t fancy but I love it!