the minivan voorsts.

I always start these posts by saying I'm sorry for having been delinquent and offering all the reasons why I just can't seem to get my crap together lately to update regularly.  Well, today I'm turning over a new leaf.  So without further ado, here's my apologyless delinquent post.

I didn't post four weeks ago because we were getting ready to head out on a trip to Nashville, and by "we," I mean Todd and I.  That's kind of a major deal because I haven't spent the night away from the kids since Juni was born (and you'll see later in the post that she's seven and a half), with the exception of one night I was gone to be in a friend's wedding.  But I only half-count that one because Todd was still with them.  But this time we were getting ready to both be gone for five days.  So it meant getting the house cleaned up and ready for my parents to come stay, and grocery shopping, and packing, and girding my mental loins for the separation.  

Also, I thought it would be a good idea to schedule a bunch of stuff the weekend before we left, just to keep things interesting.  So that Saturday, Penelope and I shared a table at our church's Maker's Market.  I sold fire cider, the younger kids sold a few baked goods, and Penelope did face painting.

The twins were there as my emotional support babies.

In the afternoon, we went to our neighborhood block party.  Our street is only a couple of blocks long, and it's kind of closed off; it's not a through street on either end.  So it's a small group of neighbors who are all pretty familiar with each other, which is really nice.  Some of the families down the block have organized a block party a couple of times since we've lived here, and it's so fun to get together with everyone.

The boys came late because they had been to an airsoft battle earlier in the day.

You can tell from here that she's a mischief maker, but just to prove it, let's zoom in...

what a spicy little pepper.

Speaking of mischief-making, she is far from alone.  Look at these two, up to no good:

They're pretty cute when they're not fighting.

My parents arrived the next day to get settled in and ready to watch the kids while we were gone to Nashville.  We left Monday morning and were gone until Friday evening.  For all the dread I'd felt at leaving everyone, it was actually a really fun and restful trip.  We went for a Council meeting for our church denomination (CREC).  Every year, the elders of our local-ish churches meet to discuss their churchy responsibilities lately, but every third year, elders from ALL the churches - domestic and international - get together.  This was one of those years.

It was great.  The conference was in the same hotel we were staying in, and all the food was catered, so it was kind of like going to an all-inclusive resort, only for like 800 Presbyterians.  A lot more neckties than you'd typically see in other all-inclusive situations, but other than that, it was basically the same.  

Todd and I would get up early to exercise, then head to breakfast.  After breakfast, there would be a talk from one of the more prominent pastors and a short hymn/psalm sing, and then the men would break off to go to meetings.  There were talks that the wives could go to if they felt so inclined - I did go to the first morning's talk from Nancy Wilson, but skipped the rest.  Then lunch and another whole-group talk and psalm sing, and then another time slot for meetings.  Most afternoons while Todd was in meetings, I just went up to our room and talked on the phone to a friend, read a book and then took a nap.  It was glorious.  Then in the evening there was dinner, and then usually some kind of meet-up after dinner.  (One night, it was cigars and whiskey outside.  One night, there was dancing.  Another night, there was a church service.  Another night, the guys from our church were invited to the home of a local guy who is a pretty well-known graphic novelist for business networking.  The last evening we were there, we went to the Fight Laugh Feast kickoff, where there were so many people singing psalms and hyms that the volume kept setting off the car alarms!)

Todd's schedule was kind of "one-thing-after-another", but mine included a lot of rest in between activities, and it was honestly amazing.  I also went with the other Leavenworth wives and their kids to see the Nashville Parthenon, which I didn't even know was a thing before.  It's a full-scale replica of the Temple of Athena in Athens, including a huge gilded statue of Athena.  It was a really strange and thought-provoking experience.

On Thursday, the last meeting of the day got cancelled, leaving the afternoon free before dinner with the other Leavenworth families and then Fight Laugh Feast.  So Todd and I went to the Hermitage, the house of Andrew Jackson.  I love presidential houses, but this is the first one I've ever actually gotten to see in person and it was beautiful.  I loved the layout, the scale, the family cemetery in the side yard (many of the tombstones said, "Born at the Hermitage" or "Died at the Hermitage," and I found that so amazing), the family church built on the property (Presbyterian!), and I'm even thinking about contacting the preservation society and asking for the names of their exterior paint colors (kidding not kidding).

We left Friday morning to come home, and I could not have been happier to be back with everyone that evening.  One thing that was clear to me on the trip: I was so grateful to have the rest and space, and also, it wasn't as great as you'd think.  I'm not really cut out for uninterrupted adulting anymore.  Listening to a sermon from beginning to end without interruption, eating a meal without holding a toddler on my lap, having time to take a nap in the afternoon... it was all amazing.  And yet, honestly less glittery than my real life.  I missed the inconveniences.  

Because seriously, look at this kid.  He couldn't shut up during a sermon if his life depended on it.  He gives a nonstop running commentary.  And listening to his chatter is so much better than not listening to it.  (Though the goal is definitely to curb it at some point.  Please, Lord.)

"Mommy dwah Piduhman? Knoxie dwah Piduhman?"  Spiderman constitutes about 80% of all his artwork lately, which is itself a large body of work.

After getting back, I was hoping to jump back into the routine and kind of right the ship a little bit after a weird week.  No such luck.  The first few days, many of the kids were really sick.  Once they started feeling better, we hosted the Elder session meeting, and then then next night some friends came over for dinner.  Then we hosted a larger group gathering on Saturday.  Lolo and Juni had eye doctor appointments in there.  I think I went grocery shopping?  It is all kind of a blur.

Setting up for our group gathering.

Also, the Saturday we were expecting extra guests, Todd got a text from Atticus, who was out working on the farm.  Todd came running in and asked me to help him gather first aid supplies, because Atticus cut himself at work and was alone and needed help.  I asked him how he cut himself, and Todd responded, "I don't want to tell you."  Um, that's never comforting to hear.  So we gathered up peroxide and superglue and gauze.

I found out later that Atticus had cut his hand with a chainsaw.  He was sawing a log, and once the saw got through it, it ricocheted off another log underneath and bounced back toward him.  He took his finger off the trigger, so it wasn't still propelled, but it was still moving and one of the saw teeth caught his glove and cut him pretty deeply.  He took his sock off to tourniquet his wrist, then he clenched the other end of the sock in his fist to staunch the bleeding, and held his arm over his head until Todd got there.  I was so proud of him for thinking so well in an emergency.

Luckily, it seems like it's going to heal just fine.  No loss of feeling or function, no infection, just a nasty deep cut through the fatty part at the butt of his thumb.  And I think my own adrenaline is finally coming down now, a week later.

After that, no news is going to be exciting, but our week was particularly nondescript.  A few of the kids caught a different illness than the one last week, so there were a few days of kids melting into the horizontal surfaces and drinking all the tea, but we seem to be on the upswing at this point.  Tonight, we're headed to a friend's house for dinner.  They live in the country, and the kids are very excited to go gigging for frogs.

The lovely Juni on her half birthday.

I was trying to fill out health information for Penelope (which is why the scowl of concentration), and the babies decided they wanted to help.  Any time I hold both of them at the same time, one or both announces, "Two babies!"

Tomorrow we're going to try to assemble some bunk beds for the girls' room in the basement and do some bedroom rearranging, and Atticus is headed back to the farm.  Prayers for us all would be appreciated.