I did not end up going back down to the movie. I opted instead to go to bed and was grateful for another decent night’s sleep. Everyone came back a little after 11 and the stirring woke me up briefly but not for long. With it being a holiday most of us slept in. The cooks had the day off and Dad had made plans to grill for lunch. During staff training it’s normal for our family and the counselors to eat together here and there.

The four boys went for a run this morning. The Concordia kids are back to their training plans. They get two full weeks off of running once school is out. The first couple of weeks start out pretty easy and their workouts depend on their eventual mileage number that peaks somewhere toward the end of the fall cross country season. So they only had to run two miles today and did that out on the bike trail away from traffic.

I had breakfast ready when they all came back. Laura is working at camp this summer and she and Ethan have been over for supper a few times. Sometimes the staff goes out to eat or they’re supposed to find leftovers or use the food that’s in the kitchen. They don’t seem to like having to cook for themselves. I’d really like to give the CGC kitchen a good deep clean but did not end up getting over there again today to do that.

This afternoon we worked a little bit on the downstairs. Dad worked on the outside back yard and I was trying to tackle the mountain of laundry after the boys had put most of their stuff there after camping. There’d been a misunderstanding. They thought I’d said everything needed to be washed after being outside. I was wondering why they’d put their stuff there and was thinking that most of it didn’t need to be washed.

I did end up washing most of it. This way it’d be fresh and we all knew next time they wouldn’t have to put their blankets there. It really isn’t hard for certain things to get neglected which is why certain areas end up looking like they do. I really can’t explain why this is but if there isn’t regular purging and getting rid of things we don’t need, then things just continue to accumulate and fill the spaces. I was looking again at the books.

The ones I kept were the ones I was sure I wasn’t able to part with. Just glancing at them again I think I could probably give away about a third of them now. It made me think about how letting go often comes in stages. What was not okay before, or what once seemed impossible, somehow changes and the feelings are different. It’s good to notice how it happens like this because it helps us to have patience with ourselves and others.

Normally I would’ve wanted to go down to the beach today but it’s still been a little bit cold for swimming. Dad and I picked a book for us to read over the summer. We were trying to come up with a plan for us to do to stay connected. It really doesn’t have to be a whole lot, just something that is registering to one another as thought and effort. This wasn’t at all what I was going to write about. I’d try again but I probably won’t right now.