Gray Days and Hurricanes

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

A cold cold day for August. It began with Augustus and Magnus over with OLeif at 5:30 in the morning for cinnamon rolls and a study on Hebrews with John Piper.

Back at the house, choir camp took away Joe on down for half the day, so that Collette was able to sneak in some I Love Lucy after Rose had left, happily leaving behind the mathematics for the day.

Sometime during the whirlwind of the morning, the kids running around, hollering, and making general noise, Mom said to them:

“Guys, I want it to be peaceful around here. It’s like a bee hive. I want our home to be a safe harbor for you kids to come home to.”

“Our home is a harbor, Mom,” Linnea said, giggling, “Hurricane Harbor.”

Mom had to smile, despite the sighing over the noise and the lack of Frances cleaning up his mess in the basement.

Meanwhile, Carrie was enjoying her last week of freedom before beginning her last class and two exams to complete her bachelors degree, before starting her masters. She spent part of this freedom creating masterpiece masks with velvet, glitter, feathers, and earrings, behind the rocking chair in the living room near an electrical socket for the hot glue.

After the kids had been assorted to their various destinations, Carrie prepared to leave for work, and Mom, Collette, and Linnea dropped by the Target snack bar for popcorn and pretzels before dropping off Collette at the apartment. Linnea ran up to grab her special bead box, which Collette kept on the old New England table, and hurried back down in the drizzly gray of the early evening to head over with Mom to pick up the kids.

Cold gray days were always the best.