a soothing weekend

 Maria and I drove up to the lake Friday night with the kids.

She drove and I wrapped up in an old comforter and slept on the way.

We drank apple ale and watched Uncle Buck and laughed a lot.

 We slept late and I took a long bubble bath in the morning.

This was a strange weekend, just us at the lake with no men--Jay and Dan were moving Kirsten to Florida, so we were on our own, strangely.  (The move went very, very well, I'm told, waiting for his flight to arrive tonight.)   We went into town and checked out all the tourist gift shops we've never been in.

In eleven years at the lake, I had never been in these shops.

They were amazing, charming, fun.

 We cooked a little, wandered around, watched move old movies and went to be early and slept late.

It all felt as comfortable as that old comforter did on the ride up, welcome, peaceful, renewing.

 I didn't take very many pictures. These are it.

Cleaning is soothing to me.  I scrubbed the bathroom and shined it--something hard to do when the cabin is full of people.

And the kitchen floor?  During the movie Mr. Deeds, I watched the movie and washed the floor and put down coats of wax.   In the morning, Maria helped me carry our heavy old dining room table off the linoleum and into the living room. The kids moved the chairs and I washed and waxed that part of the floor.

Double coats of wax.

That old, scuffed, thirty year old floor actually looked nice.

Satisfying.

And then we came home, and I drove back so Maria could rest before her trip back to school.

Laundry has been churning, showers taken, homeschool packets made, family room clean and vacuumed for tomorrow's baby day.

Onward.

Life is all kinds of awesome.

love, Val