a peaceful weekend

click on this if you want. that speck in the sky is the eagle.

We spent it in Wisconsin, doing a whole lot of nothing much.


kids making collages--all you need is an idea--a theme (could be anything,) a scissors, a glue stick, and a pile of magazines...


sidney relaxing while we watched roman holiday


james learning to split wood

can we kind of get off those sheds? they aren't for people to be on





tim helping john winterize his boat



John was there, putting away their trailer for the year, and the kids put in Smokey and the Bandit (eyes rolling) about lunchtime on Saturday. He sat at the table with his meal and started spouting off lines from the movie.

Good Lor-ed.

"The fact you're a sheriff is not germane to the situation."

Jackie Gleason: "The GOD DAMNED Germans got nothin' to do with it!"

Oh yeah, much laughing.

Or this one, understated, "Put da evidence in da car, Son." Gales of laughter.

Back when he and Dan were small I told them they could watch this movie if they NEVER, EVER repeated any of the awful language in it. You got that? Not ONE of those hilarious cuss words. None.

They promised.

So we're at a red light a few days later, and the guy in front of us was having a terrible time making a left turn. It's a busy intersection, true, and takes practice there. KIRSTEN was in the back, in a car seat, sucking her tiny thumb. I heard the little pop as the thumb came out, and then this: "That some bitch couldn't even open a umbrewwa."

Seriously? The BABY? They hid their faces, laughing. Oh yeah, very cute.

Anyway, that led to the conversation this--the woman we bought the cabin from died last week. She was wonderful--kind, funny, real. She told me this story of how she'd gone to Hayward, the big tourist town, and bought suckers in the candy shop for the children staying at her resort. They were cute little suckers wrapped in festive cellophane--had pretend bugs in the transparent candy. She gave them to the parents to give to the children at the right time--not wanting to spoil their appetites for any meals or whatever.

Later she realized they were booze-flavored suckers, tequila and such.

Yes.

Then she felt horrified, wondered if the parents thought she was crazy. Nobody ever said anything to her, but the mortification of it. God bless you, Carol, you Sweetheart, gone way, way too soon.

We sat out by the fire last night, Sam asleep on the ground a short distance away, ash from the fire falling on her. Suddenly she leaped up and ran to the edge of the woods, plunged into the brush, darting this way and that. She'd seen a rabbit. All we could see of her was the white tip of her plume of a tail waving.

I said, "There was a song, a long time ago. I can hardly remember it."

After I sat there a minute watching Sam's tail in the dusk, words came back to me, "They ran through the briars, and they ran through the brambles, and they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go... they ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch them, ran all the way to the Gulf of Mexico."

Jay knew the song, took a guess at the band. I seriously think it's time to de-fragment the hard drive of my mind. Random files, bits and pieces, delete, delete.

Then James and Kari started complaining about their homeschool packets. There were a bunch of worksheets about the state of Florida. That's a good state, right? The state beverage? Orange juice. State flower? Orange blossom.

James said he hates this workbook, but he has no time for trivia. He's not that kind of guy. I still think they're a bit useful in practicing how to find information. But whatever. We were sitting at at a campfire in Wisconsin, so they speculated that the state beverage is probably milk. James ventured the state bird might be the cow.

Tim thought that was hilarious. I agreed.

Anyway, now it's now and the day is over. Happy Sunday. love, Val


beautiful fall, and a boat full of acorns