no. yes.

Silence.

Crickets chirping.

Blank screen.

It’s been a while, my friends.

It’s been a while.

I’m not exactly sure what’s going on with me and words of late.

I’m tired.

A touch of writer’s block, I suppose.

Big things to think about – no time to process.

We finally have two cars again.  That’s nice.

Kevin is moving his office upstairs at our house.

The kids were asking what we would do with Riley’s room.  I guess we know.  Put an office in it for now.

And it’s already October, for goodness sake.

Also, there’s been this:

Busy.

Out and out preoccupied .

Edited a novel in exchange for actual payment.

Managing four kids in school is overwhelming some days.

The lament of all homeschoolers:

Never.  Enough.  Hours.  In.  A.  Day.

And maybe saying yes to too many things.

After Kevin and I led our exhausted children into their beds very late one night this week – all still dressed in their day’s attire – we sat down beside one of the golden sleepy heads.

There she was.  Cute and blonde and still kind of small.  Wearing a pink and blue striped dress.  For maybe the third day in a row?

And that’s when we realized.

If we are too busy to supervise and mandate the change of our daughter’s clothing for several days, uh – maybe we’re too busy.

The entire month of September felt like that.

Of course Nepal played a big role in all that – but here we are nonetheless.

This month – our goal is to practice the word “no”.

And I think it’s going to be a lot harder than we realize.

Because when you say no you have to say no to good things too.  To fun events.  To certain trips you wanted to take.  To time spent with people you like and people you love.

It’s hard to say yes to what matters.

To slow mornings and dinners at the table together with time enough to clear the plates and laugh at bad knock-knock jokes.

Yes to regular bed times and a story before the kids fall asleep.

Yes to lunch on a blanket in the yard instead of lunch standing at the butcher block  at one thirty because you didn’t realize that noon had long since passed.

I think saying no will be a surprising challenge for Kevin and I.

But I’m looking forward to saying yes to autumn and to order and to peace.