Quiet Week

Sabrina and I are enjoying a quiet week.

Saturday, July 5th Brett flew to Minnesota for his annual fishing trip. This year's trip is a little different. It is a canoe trip instead of staying in a cabin/lodge. Three of our nephews (ages 21, 17, 11) went this year. Orion is counting down the years until he is old enough to go.

On Monday, July 7th the kids and I drove four hours to Taos, NM. My parents have rented an A-frame cabin for the week. We visited the Taos Pueblo on Tuesday and hiked a little on Wednesday. Sabrina and I drove home Wednesday afternoon.

So ... since Wednesday it has been just Sabrina and I in the house. It is nice and quiet - good quality time with my youngest which she rarely gets at this point in her life. I did have high hopes for everything I would accomplish while the other kids and Brett were away, but I've spent too much time socializing.

I did get one big task accomplished. I cleaned out the basement of most of the baby *stuff*. I sorted through all of the baby clothes, blankets, bottles, onesies, sleepers, etc., etc. I sorted everything into three piles - consignment, my brother (no pressure, Mike ;-) and everything else. My cousin (who doesn't have any kids yet either, but is married, planning to have kids sometime soon and lives in Denver) drove down today and took the everything else bags. There were about a dozen Target bags of clothes for nine months and younger. An entire bag of socks - I'm not sure why I had so many socks. She also got Hunter's crib, the infant carseat and the baby bathtub and various other things. Her husband probably fainted when she got home with all of that stuff; he's not quite ready to have kids yet.

I have to confess to being a little sad to see this era end. I'm kind of on the fence about having more kids, but Brett is very happy with four. To see all of the baby stuff leave the house is really admitting baby times are over for our family. I suspect that since the day my brother was born (I was almost four years old and completely doted on him.) I have LOVED babies -the younger and littler the better, so for me this is sad.

Of course, I don't have too much time to be sad because my toddlers and two elementary kids keep me busy and shower me with love!

I have been growing my hair out since last summer - mostly out of laziness. I wanted to be able to put my hair in a ponytail and not worry about it. Last fall I figured since my hair was getting long I might as well grow it out long enough to donate to Locks of Love. Today I got 12 inches cut off. It feels great - light and cool. I liked having my hair long, so I might start making this an annual (or every 18 months) donation.

My week of quiet has come to an end. Sabrina and I picked Brett up from the airport yesterday and today we're driving two hours to pick up the rest of the kids from my parents. It will be good to be back together as a family.