Another November, come and gone

Hello! Happy last day of November! Here's a few random thoughts, because I got a nudge that I hadn't written here in a while.

It's been 10 years since we moved into this house. Nine years since Laurel joined us here. M is going to a race this weekend with a running buddy and my parents have the kids so I am sitting her alone, for the first time in a while. I genuinely like the people M has become friends with through running, crazy as they all are to want to go run 50 miles in the mud and winter gloom. He just texted me to say they were passing through Erwin, TN. I hadn't thought about that place in a good long while but immediately remembered that legendary breakfast at Ms. Janet's. Sharing a bunk room with a bunch of 20 year old guys. The daunting 500 miles of Virginia looming before us. Walking the AT was not always a pleasant experience. But reliving the memories? Pure bliss, every time. My internal compass is righted. There's a lot of distracting voices and influences buzzing around me now sometimes. I forget about what's important, and what my current Katahdin looks like.

Right now, my life is all about taking care of kids. My kids, other people's kids. It's an all day, all night, nonstop kind of gig right now. Snuggling restless sleepers and wiping milk mustaches. Blowing on the Nintendo game cartridges so they can play Mario Brothers and drawing maps to nowhere and building tiny snowmen out of the last little scraps of snow lingering in the yard. Giving makeup advice I'm not qualified to give. Lighting an OLO Guadalupe candle when I feel like yelling and praying for grace to anyone who will listen. My new go-to phrase is "Would you like to start over with a hug?" and that often resets us all. I'm teaching them to do more chores. Unloading the dishwasher and running the washing machine and dusting places you don't think of much, but that make everyone sneeze if you forget them. It's not much stuff that I care to write about, but I generally enjoy the doing of it.

Yesterday there was a literal shoot out across the street. Two cars exchanged gunfire and both sped off. A bystander was injured by glass. It was the second time I have watched the police casually roll out the yellow tape there, mark bullets and take photographs, and mill around for a while before packing everything up. It's disorienting to look out your window an hour later and have it look like nothing happened. Police are asking witnesses to call. No arrests have been made.  You know how that story goes.

There was a massacre at a synagogue near us right before Halloween. I tried to write about it a few times but deleted all my drafts. As a family, we processed it in in our own way and then, because life is like this.... the good, the bad, the horrific and then the good again, life kept passing by and I didn't even think about it for a week until the gunfire broke out across the street. And I'll go on telling you about other random things of a more positive nature, because life unfolds this way. 

We went on a road trip to Charlottesville, VA last weekend. We left at 5:30am and driving in the morning was the best idea ever. We made record time and it was pretty relaxing trip down. The kids find my Aunt Mary's house to be absolutely magical, filled with treasures and delights. They adore her dog. Three days was not enough time to greet all of our C-ville friends, but we did our best to make the rounds.

We keep saying we need to buy a new car. Ours is 15 years old and has a 160,000 miles on it. I did a lot of car shopping over the summer, but couldn't seem to pick one. I mostly looked at minivans. The car we have still works, so the issue isn't pressing. I don't think I know how to make a decision when not under duress. Or maybe the minivan is just the wrong vehicle for us.

I just became certified to run an archery range. M is so close to mastering the baguette. (See, it's getting very random now.) I think there's going to be a resurgence in long form blogging again because everybody is sick of social media and the blurbiness of it all. So maybe if the bloggers I used to love following will start writing again, then I will start writing again and you can read more of my thoughts in a more timely and organized fashion. Maybe I'll tell you more about the archery or the bread baking in a future post.

And then finally, because recommended links are always my favorite part of a blog post, as long as it's not shilling something useless, here are a few.

I listened to this more than a few times this morning.

I read this to my kids. And loved it even more than they did.

I'm ruminating on this before doing my holiday shopping.