Once we got past the murdered raccoon . . .
. . . we had a very nice trip.
We had one little bit of excitement, which was that my daughter lost a tooth. This tooth had been dangling for a while. As a matter of fact, the new tooth had come in and had pushed the old one until it was jutting straight out of her head. Finally, I convinced her to let me pull it. Our friends (who were staying with us at the cabin) have a five-year-old so we knew we needed to do the tooth fairy thing. I guess I would've done it either way, even though A knows the truth, thanks to some brat at Kindercare who killed the Santa fantasy for her. However, it is tricky to pull off these things when you're far from home. The kid and I were sleeping together on an air mattress (her dad had the couch, which he actually prefers). That night, after she lost the tooth, I surreptitiously tucked three bucks under the mattress (while she was in the bathroom) and then slid the tooth under her pillow. It gets kind of chilly at night at the lake so I was trying to decide whether or not to leave a fan on.
"Mom, you can just turn it off in the middle of the night when you get up to give me money for my tooth."
What a smart ass.
For the first two days at the cabin, it was just the three of us. We read, we watched hummingbirds and squirrels at the feeders, and the kid played quietly on the Kindle. I strolled leisurely through a farmers' market like I had all the time in the world. I didn't even wear make-up! On Sunday night, our friends arrived. They have three boys so you can imagine the chaos. The hummingbirds said, "Fuck this" and disappeared immediately.
The next four days were filled with hiking, swimming, fishing, water balloon fights, soccer, game-playing, and campfires. The adults may or may not have had a few grown-up beverages along the way. I was happy that we had sufficiently warm weather that we could swim in the lake this year. We go up in August of each year but we never know what we're going to get when it comes to weather. It seems like it's either bone-chillingly cold or it's an inferno outside - there's no happy medium.
Eventually, our friends had to head back home and we had a couple of days with just the three of us again. I took the kid out for ice cream and we did a little shopping. The hummingbirds came back. I spent quite a bit of time sitting on the dock, reading and listening to the loons. I whipped through 3 1/2 books during the week (which was glorious - I generally don't have much time to read). I read Gone Girl, January First, Wallace, and half of Dark Places. The Gillian Flynn books are somewhat out of character for me - I tend to stick with non-fiction these days. However, she was a guest on NPR recently and everyone was raving about Gone Girl so I thought I would check it out. I have to say it was a hell of a read.
I am always so grateful for the use of the cabin, as the lake is so . . . restorative is the best term I can conjure at the moment. It's a view that never grows old. My favorite time of the day is at sunset, when the water settles into a calmness and the trees are reflected perfectly on the surface. Then once the sun sets, we start noticing the bats overhead, fluttering across the twilight sky. The whole scene just soothes the soul, I tell you.
Now, I'm back at work, scratching my gazillion mosquito bites and wishing I was back on that dock. Alas, the requirement for being a grown-up remains. Bah!
We had one little bit of excitement, which was that my daughter lost a tooth. This tooth had been dangling for a while. As a matter of fact, the new tooth had come in and had pushed the old one until it was jutting straight out of her head. Finally, I convinced her to let me pull it. Our friends (who were staying with us at the cabin) have a five-year-old so we knew we needed to do the tooth fairy thing. I guess I would've done it either way, even though A knows the truth, thanks to some brat at Kindercare who killed the Santa fantasy for her. However, it is tricky to pull off these things when you're far from home. The kid and I were sleeping together on an air mattress (her dad had the couch, which he actually prefers). That night, after she lost the tooth, I surreptitiously tucked three bucks under the mattress (while she was in the bathroom) and then slid the tooth under her pillow. It gets kind of chilly at night at the lake so I was trying to decide whether or not to leave a fan on.
"Mom, you can just turn it off in the middle of the night when you get up to give me money for my tooth."
What a smart ass.
For the first two days at the cabin, it was just the three of us. We read, we watched hummingbirds and squirrels at the feeders, and the kid played quietly on the Kindle. I strolled leisurely through a farmers' market like I had all the time in the world. I didn't even wear make-up! On Sunday night, our friends arrived. They have three boys so you can imagine the chaos. The hummingbirds said, "Fuck this" and disappeared immediately.
The next four days were filled with hiking, swimming, fishing, water balloon fights, soccer, game-playing, and campfires. The adults may or may not have had a few grown-up beverages along the way. I was happy that we had sufficiently warm weather that we could swim in the lake this year. We go up in August of each year but we never know what we're going to get when it comes to weather. It seems like it's either bone-chillingly cold or it's an inferno outside - there's no happy medium.
Eventually, our friends had to head back home and we had a couple of days with just the three of us again. I took the kid out for ice cream and we did a little shopping. The hummingbirds came back. I spent quite a bit of time sitting on the dock, reading and listening to the loons. I whipped through 3 1/2 books during the week (which was glorious - I generally don't have much time to read). I read Gone Girl, January First, Wallace, and half of Dark Places. The Gillian Flynn books are somewhat out of character for me - I tend to stick with non-fiction these days. However, she was a guest on NPR recently and everyone was raving about Gone Girl so I thought I would check it out. I have to say it was a hell of a read.
I am always so grateful for the use of the cabin, as the lake is so . . . restorative is the best term I can conjure at the moment. It's a view that never grows old. My favorite time of the day is at sunset, when the water settles into a calmness and the trees are reflected perfectly on the surface. Then once the sun sets, we start noticing the bats overhead, fluttering across the twilight sky. The whole scene just soothes the soul, I tell you.
Now, I'm back at work, scratching my gazillion mosquito bites and wishing I was back on that dock. Alas, the requirement for being a grown-up remains. Bah!
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