Matching Tracksuits

fun in fours

the boy

Sequence

"Let's play a family board game tonight!" the Boy declared. The Girl was at track practice, and the three of us were going to head out for a mountain biking adventure before it began raining. But the Boy still wanted to do something together.

He wanted Monopoly (as always); we agreed to play Sequence.

It's a game we've played a lot over the years, and somewhere, I have a picture (and a post) of us playing it with Nana and Papa.

Perhaps this will be a game we play together when the kids come back home for a visit...

Return to the Tallulah Gorge

Elderberries

We dedicated today to our elderberries. I clipped the clusters from the bush in the late morning, and K spent a lot of time pulling the small black pearls from their clusters as I worked and after I finished when I joined her.

And when I say we dedicated today to the elderberries, I mean the whole day. As I type (and work on my safety videos for school), K is finishing up, filling jars with fresh elderberry preserves.

We ended up with something like who-knows-how-many kilos of berries (was it four? five? I can't recall) which will make who-knows-how-many pints of preserves.

The other task for the evening was helping the Boy get his room straightened up, a Sisyphean task if ever there be one. We ended up throwing out quite a bit of stuff, an act that initially stressed and frustrated the Boy a great deal.

Surrendering even the smallest trinket is difficult for someone as sentimental as E. I can understand that, though I hope eventually to grow out of it myself.

More Lost Pictures

Semi-Lost and Found

It was like finding cash in a coat pocket, but better: old pictures I'd never posted here. These are from 2014 when we spent the week at Deep Creek.

E is now twice the age L was during this vacation.

Tuesday

Our Children

Where did these kids go? How could the relationships between us grow so relatively complicated?

It's my common theme, though I don't always express here why I'm thinking about it...

Return

The Boy is back from camp.

"What do you want to eat?" we ask.

"Anything -- it's all better than camp food."

Especially K's homemade blueberry preserves.

Camp Visit

Camp Departure 2024

The Boy left for camp today. He'll be gone until next Saturday. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Typical parental concerns: on the one hand, I love seeing him grow up, seeing him not only willing but excited about a week away from us. Not that he's excited about being away from us, per se, but rather that he's excited to be going to camp and the prospect of being away from us for a week doesn't worry him or dampen that excitement.

On the other hand, I know how situations like that can stress him out. Or could stress him out. Perhaps he's growing out of it, but I'm not: I'm still stressed about him being gone. Not about him being gone, but not being in the near vicinity to keep an eye on things.

"You can't be there for them all the time. You have to let go." That's the common wisdom. The common parental expectation.

But that doesn't always allay the worries...