At the Beach in South Carolina

After a four days of driving and visiting, we arrived at Litchfield Beach, South Carolina.  Kevin's Mom rents a house right on the ocean for all of us to live in together for a week.  It is lovely and this year it was a new house which was in a complex called Litchfield by the Sea which meant there was also a pool which we could use.  The boys especially loved that.  After a morning at the beach we could wander over to the pool and rinse off while playing rather than bother with showers.

The first two days were very hot.  The temperature was around 100 degrees and with a heat index it was more like 110!  On Monday evening, Kevin's mom took a spill in the shower and broke her foot.  That changed things for her considerably, but she did get down to the beach one more time while we were there.  Here are an assortment of pictures we took while in South Carolina.

Here's Harry's shiner - he got tackled by a wave and thankfully Uncle David was around to make sure he didn't drown!

A belated birthday gift - Clone Wars Trooper

Chess was a game of interest this year

Lots of time hanging on the couches with cousins - here's Grace

Modern bonding - playing games together :-)

A little old fashioned reading

Watching something with cousin Margaret on Mom's ipad

Reading with cousin Bradley

Sparklers :-)

A very serious business

How many people does it take to light a sparkler on a windy beach?

Let's see if we can find something more efficient (Kiki will stand out of the way though)

Statue of Liberty pose

I love the smoke trails

Harry's smoke trails

The trip down south

This year I did a rather abysmal job of taking pictures on our trip.  I have come to depend upon Kevin's iphone for some of our pictures too.  I love my camera, but sometimes I find that by being the photographer I miss out on some of the action of life.  So I thought I would try to take fewer pictures and experience things more.  Unfortunately, Kevin's iphone did a header out of his gym locker this week and we lost the pictures that were on the phone.  I'll have to look at his Facebook page and see if there are any there.  I hadn't sent myself pictures yet, so those are probably gone now.  

Here are a few pictures from the trip down to the beach in South Carolina.

This is the living room of our first hotel room.  Note the crocs - Robert resisted getting them and now they are his favorite because he can easily put them on himself.

Our children are opposites - one is a morning person and one a night owl.  So we have found at least 2 rooms works best - in this hotel we had 3!  Here is Harry in the boys' bedroom.

A typical sight for us in a hotel room - a computer set up on the table, a sticker book or magazine of the boys' and various floatation devices drying off after some time in the pool.

Our hostesses with the mostestes - Ingrid and Ole

Hanging with Auntie Jessie :-)

When plans change

I am a stay at home mother.  This is something that I didn't foresee for my life, but I would not change things a single bit.  I mostly love my job and I am continually amazed by the children around me - my own and those who I encounter at church, school and in our community.  One thing I find that I miss is preaching, writing and having conversations with my peers about what I am experiencing.  I do get to do that occasionally, I do have friends and a husband who thankfully comes home every evening.  However in the hubbub of family life things often aren't said or brought to full fruition.  That is where I am right now - as a wise friend once told me (a fellow clergy spouse, actually).  This is my time to lie fallow and become enriched.  I am coming to the point where my youngest will enter the school world and I will reenter the working world and I hope I have been enriched and have something to share.  That said, today, I have something to share.

It has been a long week.  We live on a small island and so my longest drives are usually to the grocery shop and maybe a longer expedition off island to the big box stores which are 25 minutes away.  This week Harry has been attending cub scout camp in the northern part of the state.  It has meant that I have had to drive alot more than I usually do and through some major traffic which I am not used to or comfortable with, but I have done it and I am proud of myself.  I have also managed to keep Robert out of the car for most of those long rides, but Friday morning was different.

On Friday Kevin has the day off and he is usually able to just be home and with the family.  It was the only day that I did not arrange for somebody to watch Robert because I just assumed that Kevin would be with him while I brought Harry to camp and I knew that in the afternoon we would all be piling into the car to go to the camp to see the skits and awards at camp.  But as is somewhat normal in the life of a clergy family (and probably most families), about ten minutes before we were to leave Kevin's phone rang.  Robert was still in jammies, Harry was slowly getting himself ready after a late night of revelry at camp the day before.

I listened to my dear, sensitive husband say, "When did it happen?" and then tell the person on the other line that he would be there right away.  He hung up the phone and I looked at him and asked if the person's mother had died (as a clergy spouse, I usually have a general idea of what's going on and try to pray for the people of the parish too).  She had.  I sighed and wanted to ask why he had to choose this morning to promise to "be right there" for a death for which things can't change immediately, but I stopped myself and just asked what he wanted to do and readjusted my attitude and my schedule.  Kevin helped to quickly dress both boys and then was out the door before I could get us out of the door.  We were later than I planned but we made it to Harry's last day of camp on time.

As we drove to camp, my mind was spinning.  After my initial irritation that Robert would have to go on an extra car trip and I could not do my one errand of the morning alone.  I began to be thankful that I have a husband who has developed relationships with parishioners that allow them to feel comfortable to call him right after a death to ask for care and prayers.  I am thankful that he is the sort of person who can calm and change a situation just by being there and offering a presence and prayer that can soothe in times of loss and grief.  As we drove along I began to sing soothing songs.  Usually my boys object strongly and shout me down.  But yesterday they did not object they just listened and let me soothe myself with song.

There was more to the story, but as is often true in my life, I am now surrounded by a spouse and 2 little boys who although not directly addressing me the energy in the house is such that my peace is over and I have to stop writing.  I think I will end saying, that we are all on journeys to grow and change in life and in our faiths.  I have found that I did not necessarily choose this path as a stay at home mom with a clergy person as a spouse, but it has forced me to grow and change in wonderful ways.  I am more patient and more loving and more aware of the battles that we are all facing on a daily basis.  When I remember I am thankful rather than resentful for the sudden curves that happen in life.

I'm back...mostly

The end of a long day :-)

Well, it has been a month since I posted and if there is anybody who checks this more regularly, I am very sorry for that.  In the interim we have been away for about 2 of those weeks.  Some time I was getting ready and some time I have been getting back to routine.  And this week I have been carting children around and trying to keep up with just regular household things.  Oh and did I mention at the end of the day I feel like Harry looks above.  This picture was taken last night.  Harry is in cub scout camp this week which goes from 9 am - 4 pm, but it is a 30 - 45 minute drive there so he has to be up and ready early and gets home around dinner time.

We've had a good summer so far.  Our long car trip this year was a little bit shorter.  We got to visit friends in Greenbelt on the way down and we were careful to book hotel suites with at least 2 rooms which makes bedtime ever so much easier and since I did it ahead of time it didn't cost us any more than a regular room (research helps with finding cheaper rooms).  We were pleased with all the places we stayed.  On the way home we hadn't booked any rooms, but we figured we'd find something during the day of driving using a handy iphone app I found on the way down.  That worked out pretty well and by doing that on the second day of driving (when we realized we weren't gonna make it home in my ambitious 2 day plan), we veered east and drove through Pennsylvania.  We stopped at a cool diner in Gettysburg for lunch and stopped near the Crayola factory that night and the boys had a fun filled hour or so exploring the factory.

So that leaves us here - a little beyond mid - summer with many adventures under our belts.  We are a bit tired as Harry attests to above, but hopefully after this week of fun I will have some time to write down a bit about July and post a few pictures.

One of my favorite places in the world

School ended a week earlier than we anticipated this year.  In the six years we've lived here this is the first year that we didn't have a single snow day!  That meant that we had a week without anything planned in the beginning of the summer - a lovely thing.  My sister happened to be up from North Carolina visiting my Dad and they were headed to Ogunquit, Maine for a few days.  We decided to join them for an overnight.  I think we were there for 24 hours, but it was wonderful to be with family and to be in place that really recharges my batteries.  The boys were themselves.  Robert is a night owl (for a 4 year old) and Harry is a morning lark.  They did not disappoint.  Robert was still bouncing on the bed at 10 o'clock and Harry was falling asleep next to me as we huddled outside trying to occupy ourselves (since the little guy won't go to sleep unless he's on his own - Harry laughs at his antics and he continues and get rowdier and so it goes).  Then the following morning Harry was up at 5 or 5:30 - not entirely sure and although he tried to be quiet it wasn't wholly successful.  We have decided if we can for the time being a 2 room suite is worth the additional cost.

splat

cannonball!

I love swimming

little beach

McLaughlins on the rocks

water play

watching the boys

climbing wet rocks :-0

walking the Marginal Way

Lloyds on the rocks

Rum punch in honor of Mom :-)

This is how we entertain ourselves while waiting for lunch

Like many Moms, I think about how my children will behave in restaurants and I try to make sure that we have things to entertain them while we are at a restaurant.  Usually crayons and some paper are good for a while.  In the summer though, I need to take the crayons out of the car (they melt) and so sometimes I end up at a restaurant with nothing to entertain.  The pictures below are of the boys and how they found perfectly (somewhat acceptable) entertainment despite the fact that we somehow arrived without a pencil or pen in sight!

Harry is now older so I don't worry so much, but it is nice when there are things for him to draw with because he really enjoys drawing and has a running cartoon that he likes to work on.  The name of that is the human bomb and he started with the idea in Comic book class this year.  He has some others he likes to work on too, so if there is a pencil and paper, Harry is set for entertainment almost anywhere.  And if like this time there is nothing to draw with he usually is okay talking to us and looking around the restaurant.

Robert is a different kind of challenge.  He is in the move and explore stage of life.  He'll draw for a little while but that becomes old.  Then there is sometimes the option of looking at a book or magazine (also always an option for Harry), but that also doesn't last long.  He is our cuddler so sometimes he's happy in lap or just receiving some love from Mom and/or Dad.  He also likes to look around, but his attention span isn't as long as Harry's (as a rule - there are exceptions).  Unfortunately his favorite place tends to be on the floor under the table, that is okay in some places and rather gross in others.  We don't dine fancy very often these days - so you can imagine.

Anyway, this is where we stopped on our way up to Ogunquit this week and both of them played with their silverware for the time we waited for the food and were really pretty good.  I remember how any object could become something else in my imagination as a child and my children are both pretty good at this.  They are boys so often they are weapons, but they can also be characters and super heroes, etc.  So here are the boys concentrating on their imaginary play :-)

Preschool Celebration