“At six in the morning the stage drove away into the sage-brush, with her as its only passenger, and by sundown she had passed through some of the primitive perils of the world.”
~Owen Wister, The Virginian~

Laura comes over almost every other night to work on homework. It’s not that much but she’s taking a summer class, and it’s enough that I’d already started tidying up the living room when she texted. I vacuumed her spot on the couch but she didn’t sit there this time, she sat on the smaller one which I hadn’t vacuumed in days. It was closer to large plug-in cord for the chargers.

Her dad comes out to camp sometimes. He’ll get up and be here in time for them to bike early in the morning in the 6 o’clock timeframe. This summer they’re supposed to ride 100 miles in Iowa somewhere. It’s not really a race, it’s just where you can go and ride for however long it takes. It makes me happy to think of her dad coming. It’s just one of those dad things that to anyone who sees it says, “I love you”.

This weekend they rode 40 miles. Ethan went with them. He said he was going and I asked if we had a bike good enough for that. He said her dad was bringing one for him. He never was a kid who biked, but seems to have taken to this new form of exercise. Another weekend they did 25 miles together. I still don’t understand the expenditures of energy or where it all comes from.

Josh and I attended a funeral in the morning. One of his father’s aunts had passed, and she’d also been a resident in the wing where I am sometimes present. Having no husband or kids of her own, she’s also one of the ones who for years has planned the annual reunions every summer in August. I was a teenager the first time I went. They meant a lot to his dad. He looked forward to them as well as us being there.

“Have you seen the moon yet?”, he asked over text while I was inside clicking through an online module that was due in an hour. He was outside on his night walk, and I had seen the moon, rising behind the house before it passed above the trees. “How silly”, I thought, when I hesitated, nearly missing the moment until asking, “What am I even doing in here?” I saw it again, but this time higher.

It was a full day of much doing. A kitchen helper was sick and another had slept in, putting the cook in a frenzy of feeling too far behind. I’ll go down there, I said, and I put on my slide-on sandals and left. Our cook is an interesting person, as I found out even more. She gets up at 3AM on the days that she works. “Why??”, I asked her. It’s just what she does. She’s got to let the dog out and feed him, and make sure she has enough time for her prayers. It’s the only way she is able to have peace inside.

“Please help me remember I have a meeting this morning”, I said to my husband as I passed by the breakfast table. It’s not his responsibility to remind me, and I’d set a reminder alarm on my phone, but some things you have to try hard to not forget. She told me to bring a Bible verse along, so I did. After transferring the aloe and some catching up conversation, we exchanged our verses. She wanted to give me an extra plant, but I had to make sure she would not be offended if it didn’t survive.

She gives me things to take home. Once it was furry socks and washcloths. This time it was a jar of Florida shells, along with a homemade basket made of solely of pine needles. She’d taken them home after her husband’s mother had passed, but didn’t need two. I know we are all trying to unburden ourselves from the excess of things. She’s needing to also downsize from the things that need tending. The plant I feel could go in the school room, as could the jar of shells to be used as a prop.

I love my days at home but don’t always know what to do with them. For the most part it’s not a problem finding something to do. Even with the kids not here and eating most of our meals in the dining hall, I still have dishes in the sink and a dishwasher waiting to be unloaded. I did the top shelf already. There’s really no rush for these things.

Yesterday I was sorting through some piles of clothes. It’s a seasonal chore that must be done where it’s out with the old and in with the new. I have a child who needs to be encouraged every day to change his shirt. He’d wear the same one every day and sometimes does for days at a time. I know he has clothes he just likes certain ones.

There is a growing collection of paper bags in the mudroom waiting for someone to take a trip to Goodwill. A woman has offered to give one or two more plants, and that was last week already. I’ve been trying not to neglect those small connections, as I can sometimes do, from people who seem to be making intentional efforts to touch base.

All in all, I am fond of these summer days. The weeks do not pass by quickly but the months do. I took the paddleboard out for the second day in a row and invited the art teacher to come along. She’s here for the third year in a row leading art camp. Most people I’ve taken have never paddled boarded before. We use it more like a kayak.

A son asked if I could do his laundry and of course I said yes. I’d thought about offering earlier but I’d refrained from saying anything. With a capful of bleach and some detergent they come out ready and good as new. Today I asked a few if they really care about getting mail. They said it’s fine if they don’t but if they do they like getting it.

One of the boys and I went to Sam’s Club this morning. Elianna needed Gatorade for the trading post. Dad is usually the one who makes these trips but lately I’ve been telling him I can do it sometimes. Sam’s is actually a great store. I love the feeling of abundance you have with boxes of food everywhere. Coming from a bigger family, I don’t think I’ll ever forget the feeling of being replenished with food.

Yesterday I ended up going back into Walmart. I had the idea in my head that I needed some clothes and I need to act on those things when the moment strikes. While I was there I found some athletic shorts and regular tanks that I can wear as a swimsuit. I got a few colors to mix and match. Swimsuits anymore are a pain to try on and find. I feel like they don’t really make women’s sizes for the stores, and if there’s some great online shop somewhere I haven’t tried to locate it or inquire about it either.

So yesterday we swam and today as well. I like my new system. In addition to chips, graham crackers and chocolate for the cookout, we brought back five cases of Gatorade which the kids went through two of today. So we’ll likely have to get more. The crazy thing about going back to Walmart is that I didn’t even end up buying athletic clothes for the gym. I found a few more shorts and just decided to wear them.

The weather outside seemed windy but there were no storms. I spent the evening folding laundry while taking a sister via Facetime. I’ve called to check in with her a couple of times in the recent past, but the timing and life details don’t always end up working out. She’s expecting her sixth baby who is due in December. I’d just been thinking about her youngest one now who turns two next month.

That was one of the sayings she’d use as she’d be talking about the birth, “If it works out with your life details…” then I could come up and be there. It did work out. She called me about 6:30 in the evening and let me know that her contractions had started. It was either go that night or wait until morning, which when we’re talking about babies, there wasn’t a ton of reassurance he wouldn’t be born overnight.

So I went up. Another sister was also there. We slept on the basement couch until 2ish something in the morning when my brother-in-law woke us up to say the contractions were getting stronger and closer together. She was having a homebirth so the midwife was also called. She labored a few hours and Zion was born in the morning 5 o’clock hour. She normally likes to garden but didn’t much this season.

I’m writing today but I’m going to backdate it, that way I still feel like I have the option of writing later. The summer sickness has made it’s way to the remaining child who hadn’t been sick. When he said he’d fevered through the night and didn’t fall asleep till past 3, I had him come home to spend the morning on the couch, then later down in his bed. Maybe it is too much sometimes. They don’t understand this is what I do.

This morning I wanted to go to the gym. We pay for a Y membership that goes months without use. Thinking about it I realized I hadn’t any clothes to even wear there. No athletic shorts or any kind of athletic wear type pants. So later this morning, with the boys settled, I drove to Walmart to shop for clothes. I have not been full-fledged sick, but I also have not been feeling the greatest, and wanted to go while I still had strength.

Once I parked I realized I’d forgotten my purse. I looked around and it wasn’t there. These are the things that boggle my mind and also cause me immense frustration. It isn’t “worth” getting upset over but the at the same time I’m still upset by it, that I wasted that time with nothing to show, no return for the effort made. I was going to go back but I don’t think I am now. But I did tell my one son I’d get extra drinks.

Country Market is closer by and less draining. I’ll save the clothes for another day when I am also less tired. To be clear, I do have two pairs of the those flowy linen type pants that are nicer than pajama pants and way more comfortable than jeans. I just wouldn’t wear them out in public or to a gym. I am not saying any of this because I think it’s truly important for people to know, it is me just taking a mental inventory of the facts.

The heat has arrived just in time for summer solstice. It’s been the topic of much conversation and comment. There is a type of mourning when the heat arrives, when for months it becomes the facts of life that the dawns and the evenings will no longer be cool. Father’s Day went well. We had dessert and a meal to celebrate. I texted my own dad and we talked again a little more this morning. Life really isn’t about us.

We went to the park as a family today. My mother-in-law asked to see if we’d be able to get together. We haven’t been doing the Sunday lunches like we used to. I didn’t mean for it to permanently end, I just wanted to be able to not have to do it every Sunday. The compromise was finding another time together during the week. We met at Monty’s first for supper and I’d made a strawberry shortcake dessert for the park.

This was a rougher day emotionally, for no reason other than that the hormones in my body cause the GABA receptors in my brain to change shape so that the GABA cannot bind. The result is that things just feel more painful. It is progesterone that does this. I have a friend who’s been taking progesterone for several months in order to hopefully curb some similar symptoms. She’s going to monitor how it works.

There are different theories regarding what is going on in the body, but the GABA receptor alteration is the one that makes the most sense to me. In that case I do not quite understand how the progesterone would be helpful, but I have not researched that as much. GABA is a neurotransmitter that works to calm neuro-excitability. This is what makes benzodiazepines so helpful, because they enhance the effects of GABA.

Four of the kids were at camp this past week. I was at home working on an assignment when they started coming in with the bedding and bags. The one who wasn’t at camp spent most of his time running errands with Dad or following him around with whatever he was doing. Some of the kids would not enjoy that as much but this particular child doesn’t mind it. Two of them are the prefer to stay busy type.

But he did take breaks. The other ones at camp with a summer cold just toughed it out. One came home a few times after a particular stretch of feeling worse. Fluids and rest. It’s not exciting or original but it’s better than doing nothing. The cross country team had practice in Pawnee this evening which from here is nearly an hour away. This was the first I’d downloaded the app and heard of it. I said that was ridiculous, they couldn’t go.

One of them even hugged me for saying it. The other was relieved as well. I don’t think either one of them wanted to go, which wasn’t the point. It just wasn’t the thing to be doing this time. Tomorrow I would like to clean out the fridge and shop for food. Father’s Day is coming up and I do at least have one idea. Casper has been sleeping in a bowl on the table and it really is the cutest thing. They like cozy spots.

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is…”
~Colossians 3:1~

Most of the things I process have to do with motherhood or marriage. I’ve thrown the number out before, that between the two things, it is something I think about approximately 80% of the time. In the past spring’s careers class, we had to assign a percentage amount to four or five things to show how each of us spent our time. The categories were work, home and family, community service, school, and leisure.

I put 60% on home and family, but I think it is probably more like 70. The teacher’s highest percentage was work. The other girls were evenly split between work and school. I was the only woman in the class (of three) who was married with kids. It became apparent to me as the class progressed that marriage and family was my work and had been work for a long time. I felt proud to see it that way and to talk about it.

All that to say, I read some social media posts again. I see these women with things to say that I don’t always like how they are saying it, not because it’s totally wrong, but because it feels incomplete. I’m that person who can’t just take a post at face value and instead has to add to it make it about something else. There are the “Well, actually…” people and there are the “Okay, but…” people and that is who I am. It can be a pain.

The strangest thing just happened. I was sitting here typing when there was a knock at the door. It was Miles. There was a rainbow, he said, a double one. I’d already noticed the sky from the couch and gotten up to take a picture, but I didn’t think to look for a rainbow because the rain had already ended. I didn’t even grab my phone, I followed him out onto the hill and we stared. The rainbow made him happy and I smiled too.

The sunset looked like fire, he said. Between the two scenes was a shade of blue we tried to name. “Cobalt” came to mind but I didn’t know if that was right. I kept wondering how long he would stay, a little surprised we were even out here. He’d started driving home but turned around. We watched until it was over. Next we walked to the strawberries, done for the year but very green. I gave him mint to take home.

On my way out of class tonight I saw a deer in the grass not too far off the sidewalk. She didn’t run away like they usually do and I wanted very much to try to get closer. I pointed her out to two others also leaving class. They said the deer aren’t as scared around here because they’re protected. But I didn’t want to scare her so I didn’t.

As I drove out of the parking lot it seemed to me that the road was bumpy. The sun was shining in my eyes and I thought maybe I was driving too close to the edge where sometimes roads have those rumble strips. But it didn’t stop when I moved more toward the middle so I pulled over and one of the tires was flat. I’d been looking forward to getting home so it was a bit of a let down to have to figure that out.

After talking to Josh I called the tow truck. Lauren was on her way to get me. I didn’t need to be there when they picked it up, I just had to make sure to leave the keys under the seat. One of our former staff members asked if it’d be okay to stop by and talk so we visited for a while. The cicadas lasted a few weeks but you don’t hear them now.