23 Days

Dallin's Schedule:

Portland, Oregon
Boston, Massachusetts
Portland, Maine
Vancouver, British Columbia
Vanderhoof, British Columbia
Campbell River, British Columbia
Portland, Oregon

Total Distance: 8,396 Miles
via Airplane, Car & Ferry

Sariah's Schedule:

Seminary
Soccer Practice
Soccer Games
Swimming Lessons
Violin Lessons
Piano Lessons
Pre-School
High School
Middle School
Elementary School
Kindergarten
Church
Store
& More

Total Distance: 396 miles
via Car, Foot, Bus & Bike

It's hard to know who will be more tired on October 4th.

Looking forward to October 5th. 

House Rules

If you get dressed by yourself then you get to choose your own outfit. 
Even if it's a school day.

NIGHT ONE

I thought that nothing could be worse than cleaning up the hot dogs that look identical coming up to going down.

NIGHT TWO

It turns out, though, that cleaning up digestible foods is significantly worse than cleaning up indestructible ones. 

vig·il /ˈvijəl/

noun

1. 

a period of keeping awake during the time usually spent asleep, especially to keep watch or pray

 

 

there's something about a nighttime vigil with a sick child

when you can relax into it.

something sweet about the silence

something inviting about the comforting

something lovely about it.

 

unless you're worried

or scared

or hopeless.

then it's something completely different. 

 

Darn It!

Sometimes several years can go by and it feels that life is much the same as it has been.

But other times,

Naomi looks like a woman and smiles confidently as she leaves for high school.

Marko runs off to his kindergarten line because he already knows where it is.

And the game of pretending that Lucy is still a baby gets a bit ridiculous as she tells me that "Technically if a peregrine falcon didn't have wings it wouldn't be a bird." 

Darn those other times, when I realize that this stage is slipping away. 

Driven

I know people who are driven,
almost by impulse,
to compose music
or write beautiful prose,
or sketch,
or create poetry.

I'm sad to admit
that I just want to talk,

...so I  blog.

I didn't know last night...

...that it was their last day as little guys
sharing a pink and blue room
with a rocking chair.
I didn't know
when I tucked them in
that today they'd move on
to big bunk beds
and separate rooms.

Darn Craigslist
for having a great deal
on bunk beds that matched
Chas's bedroom set.

Lucy's Heartfelt Wish Revealed

"Ohhh!  I wish I could've been born on MY birthday!"

(After she discovered that Marko was born on his birthday.)