home.

You might think, from my sudden silence here, that I have fallen in the prairie grasses and am wandering aimlessly on some South Dakota dirt road.

I am not.

We made the trek home – we’ve been home all week actually.  And it’s probably taken about that long to reclaim our days – we’ve been trying to catch up on sleep.  Going to bed late and sleeping on the ground every evening makes for some tired kids (and grown ups).

We’ve spent the week home reclaiming our jungle of a yard – apparently it rained non-stop here at home and the yard formed its own prairie to welcome us home.  We’ve also been reclaiming our house – when a hundred year old home sits vacant for two weeks spiders go wild and weird smells emerge from the floor.   And we’ve had a sick little girl and a dozen errands to run.  It’s been kind of funny to cook regularly again but it’s been lovely to sleep in our own bed and to be able to put children into their own beds and then have a few hours downstairs before Kevin and I cave in to sleepiness.

Of course I have some prairie posts to wrap up – I haven’t even told you guys about the outdoor pageants we saw and the stunning treasures waiting for us at Laura’s Mansfield, Missouri home.

But I wanted first to say – I’m still here.  I am on the road to normal routine and, like all of us with school-aged children, I am on the same crash-course collision as the rest of you toward the beginning of a new school year.  Guys, last week I was just being reminded – it takes a lot of work just to live a regular life.  You know what I mean?

I am grateful for our adventure and grateful for our home’s soft landing spot.

“When you’re having an adventure – you wish you were safe at home.  And when you’re safe at home – you wish you were having an adventure.”