And our first week as a stay-at-home-family-of-five has come to a close...

So we had no idea how to do this next transition well... you know, the one where we step away from a job that Billy has worked at for 10 years... and actually step away from Billy having a job at all. I want to make certain to grieve where we need to grieve, and to be realistic about our own expectations through the changes that seem to come like waves this summer. I somehow just thought that waking up on Tuesday morning and not going to work wasn't enough somehow. That we needed a buffer between Billy going to the office and Billy staying home...

so we turned that buffer into a little camping get-a-way - not too far - close enough that Katie and then the Beasley's got to come spend some time with us. Close enough that we snuck off to McDonalds for ice cream one afternoon (Mike! There is a DDR game IN the McDonalds up there! No quarters... just a play area with a few screens and one of them is our favorite game!). Close enough that Billy could run into town for his meeting on Thursday. But far enough away that we got to sit in a chair for an hour and read a book while the kids swam or fished.

Far enough away that we got to cook smores every night... and Friday for breakfast.

Far enough away that Harrison made a fishing pole out of a stick and a hook he found in the dirt - and used cheese for bait to catch little bluegill.

Far enough away that Avery chopped wood (to which I kept thinking... "don't miss sweetie! We don't have insurance and if you chop off a toe I will be the one who has to sew it back on for you!" ) and Madyline read through the entire 5th book ahead of us and Billy and I laughed a lot when the rains came and got trapped between our tarp and our tent... and we had a deep, squishy puddle under our feet when we woke up Friday morning.

Harrison says to me, on one of our long walks to the bathrooms... " Mom, do you think that there is real magic in the world? That ordinary people are really magical? Because you know what? I do. Take love for instance. Now, I don't know a lot about being in love... and I'm not planning on being in love any time soon... but I think that when someone falls in love , they possess a kind of magic that lets them come up with all sorts of things to say that they wouldn't be able to think of saying otherwise. And they do special stuff too that can only be magic."

Come on.... I love camping.
AND I love long walks to the bathrooms with my kids.

Tomorrow we wake up on a Monday morning... and we have a slight plan of what this week looks like with Billy at his "new" office... here in DiCoccoville. Work out a plan for health insurance, get his resume finished and sent off to a couple people looking for a consultant, Lindsay is coming over to work on some fundraising things together so we can BOTH get out to Emthonjeni. But tomorrow will come soon enough.... For now, we are just remembering the beautiful moments of last week.... and scratching fading mosquito bites.