I am sure every family, every couple has spells of being out of step, not arguing or even being discontent, but just being out of sync. That was Jack's last weekend home and again this week. In all fairness, Jack was sick this week and I was a wee bit stressed, but it was not a fun week.
Thankfully, weekend brought a return of "us." Friday we came home to a non-achy, non-sleeping, non-grouchy Jack who was actually in the mood for conversation and his Friday night thing with Bell. Every Friday he is home, they camp in the living room on the air bed, eat pop corn, play video games, and watch guy TV and Dr. Who. It is just their thing and I rarely get involved unless, like this weekend, we decide to include a family movie. Bell is on book 4 of Harry Potter (so much for the Box Car children and Ramona Quimby) and when she finishes each book, we watch the movie, so this weekend was Prisoner of Azkaban.
Saturday brought housework and cooking, but it also brought digging through travel brochures and websites planning out our weekend of escape to Broken Bow in two weeks. I cannot wait - according to the fall foliage brochure, we will have our pick of gorgeous drives. If the weather doesn't play nice for outside exploring, there are a few local wineries and our cabin promises to be cozy. No matter what, I am looking forward to "us" time. We also started serious discussions about the what and when of summer vacation. We will have to see what winter expenses bring, but maybe the budget will hold together and we can do a big, fun trip this year. We haven't really done that since Bell was 5.
Saturday evening, we lit the chiminaya and laterns and torches for pumpkin carving outside on the picnic table. We should have started earlier, but the day got away from us and it was just so nice out last night. We got our pumpkins cleaned out with one for each of us to carve. This year we used no patterns, and we all free handed our designs. Add a scootch of wine by the fire and a bit of hand holding to round out the evening and I declared it perfect.
Today should have been church, but it was camp weekend for our church, and that is just not our thing so we were homebodies. Bell brought home a recipe for power bars that she wanted me to make for after school snacks - though the recipe was a bit inferior to one of mine, I made them and she declared them good. I made a pasta with a light cream sauce filled with chicken and loads of steamed veggies so Jack ate healthy with me. Jack and Bell spent the afternoon working on some leather crafts - he worked on some big projects and taught her to stamp designs and make a bracelet. I love watching them be artsy together.
It was not an exciting weekend at all, but it was some much needed together time for all of us. It felt good to be quiet and just enjoy the us-ness of it all. I think these days sustain us far more than the grand, exciting days.
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