Impressions

I have been thinking that maintaining a blog is a bit like building a snowman. You sort of have to keep the ball rolling so that you know what to build onto next. If you stop for  a long time, you find that the energy has melted away and you aren’t sure where to start.

I have periodic freak outs about the lack of anonymity that comes with internet. Like, suppose someone reads that we are in Michigan and decides it would be a good time to clean out our house with a U Haul? So then I should probably not have posted that bit until we are home. And real bloggers have posts done ahead of time, scheduled to publish on set days.

Also, I cannot type on the iPad very well, which was the only piece of technology we hauled along. I have issues with anything but an Apple keyboard, finding myself so distracted with frustration and backspacing that I lose my train of thought.

So… enough with the disclaimers. Here we are, home again. So very much has happened in two weeks, I could bore you to tears. I decided to keep it to a terse list of impressions.

• Rest…such a lovely rest in the middle of a National Forest in Michigan.
• Enchanting foliage in hardwood forests
• The limits of GPS on National Forest trails 🙂
• New foods (Pasties, (pass-tees) anyone?) and painted moose
• Political blather about the government shutdown on every. single. station.
• A missed stop sign, a speeding feed truck, a smashed front bumper… within four miles of my grandparent’s WI home!
• Large mercies!
• An evening of family camaraderie with the uncles and their families
• Half way there, kids!
• Hours of mind-numbing corn fields
• Welcoming arms of the SD home which was our ultimate destination
• Wood stove, tea, comfortable catch-up chats with siblings
• Laughter as yet another child, supposed to be abed, needs something
• Melding of nine kids in one house, smoother than expected
• My sister-in-law’s cappuccino muffins with coffee
• Blazing sunsets… so much horizon you would have to believe the earth is round
• New appreciation for the blessing, “May the wind be always at your back.”
• Sunday lunch with friends, reminiscing over childhood memories
• All too soon packing up again… fare-thee-wells
• Fifteen minutes into a 20 hour journey Addy’s piping voice: “Are we about there yet?” (No joke.)
• Due east into the Minnesota sunrise… and on… and on…
• Dairy Queen to cheer the little people
• Pit stop in Indiana at a beloved cousin’s house
• Child blubbing sadly for an hour when we hit the road again the next morning… she doesn’t know why
• Little girl fantasizing about a long bath
• Loud, cheerful singing of “We’re home, we’re home, we’re home…” in the last three miles

There is also a list of numbers in my head.

• Six audiobooks: Exodus, Number the Stars, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Amos Fortune, Calico Captive, The Man Who Was Thursday, and Dave Ramsey something or other
• One hundred and seven (give or take a few tens) water towers
• Hundreds and thousands of windmills, spinning their futuristic way to power
• Zero. The number of times my two year old had a potty accident.
• Two and a half books, read during stretches of mind-numbing corn fields and political blather
• About two thousand, nine hundred and sixty-seven semi trucks between IN and PA, according to Greg
• Three thousand, two hundred and forty miles

So here we are, home again. Grateful.