Not all days go according to plan.

In fact, very few days actually do.

Today we rose on time and started school in an orderly fashion.

Mosely baked us fresh and warm chocolate chip muffins (which she hopes to begin selling soon, matter of fact).  There was a history lesson about Roger Williams and narrations about Benjamin Franklin, a grammar lesson about prepositional phrases and one about the four types of sentences.  (I remain unconvinced this is actually important information.)  Novels such as Henry and the Clubhouse, Because of Winn Dixie, Count of Monte Cristo and The Hobbit were all read by some student residing in my home.  A science experiment was completed that involved the use of the blender and the iron and a bunch of cotton balls.  Another student had to start fresh again on a science test that went south and I noticed the penmanship of my third grader has greatly improved and looks impressively tidy these days.

And then SURPRISE – the cousins appeared.  Some of our family’s very favorite people were driving through our neck of the woods and they pulled right into our driveway (which they called “the middle of nowhere”) in their truck with the beloved Virginia license plate and we ran outside to hugs and cheers and welcome to our house.

It’s so sweet to see them – two people who have known me since birth and with whom we share a family heritage and a strong similar facial structure.  My Bergen’s middle name was her maiden name.  She was my momma’s flower girl.  And I was hers.  And her daughter was my flower girl.  And then, of course, my daughter was her daughter’s flower girl.  It just kept going on of its own free will.

We sat on the porch and she held my grandbaby and we put the school books away and the kids ran around in the bright sunshine.  (Speaking of grandbabies, I think I’ve finally settled on a grandmother name.)

I watched a friend’s two sons for a little while and then she stayed with mine for a little while when my realtor sent me news of a house for sale that I might want to look at.  The entire decision making process in a house hunt is pretty much mentally exhausting and draining to me and I have found it to be one of the more difficult decisions I have had to consider and a large portion of the difficulty of it has been the deciding something this giant alone.  Can I just admit – it is not my favorite?

Then came car shifting and kid switching and boys off to Trail Life and Piper and I to a Mother Daughter Book Club that continues to be a pile of sweet as we sat under a park pavilion and talked about A Hundred Dresses and crafted sweet dress bookmarks together.  It was darling and I love building up a community of girl friendships for my ten year old and for myself.

Once home again we gathered in the living room to share our nightly ritual of Nature Notes and our family journal and prayers before bed and we half heartedly held hands to pray because I was too tired to rally the troops to all stand together and I hugged and kissed all the faces I love and fed the cat and turned out a bunch of lights and locked all the doors and tidied the kitchen and found a bowl of leftover pasta to heat up because I couldn’t remember if I ever actually ate dinner and I sat down to my own stack of work and jobs and lists and emails to return and giveaways to complete.  (Side note – you should follow Travelers Rest Here on Instagram.  I hear they’ve got all sorts of fun giveaways over there.)

And it was an incredibly full day but not an unusually full day and it was pretty nice and mostly all filled with good and sunshine and friends and smiling faces and if this post makes you tired, well, it does me too.

______________________________