Contented Exhaustion

The girls and I survived the week of VBS. They had the most enjoyable week of the summer,..possibly of the year. Every day they have been immersed in the community of familiar friends, new friends and nurturing adults. I treasure this family God has grafted us into. I treasure the security of knowing my children are loved and valued by a host of other adults and families. The girls have been blessed to know the security I enjoyed as a child in my own church family.

The week was not without a few glitches. A tummy bug struck little Ruby on Wednesday. She acted as if she felt fine, but her diapers told a different tale (no pun intended). She stayed behind on Thursday with Daddy. Early in the day on Thursday, another baby girl in the nursery had a leaky questionable diaper. Her mom, Melissa, promptly took her home to prevent the spread of the bug. It just so happened that Elsa (a.k.a. "Gigi", Julie's mom) had joined us Thursday to help with the babies. Elsa is a gifted cleaner (if such a gifting exists). She wielded the Chlorox wipes like a pro. We bleached every square inch of the nursery. The VBS children passing by commented on how the hallway smelled like a swimming pool. We finished the week with all our babies healthy, so our cleaning blitz must have been effective. Ruby returned with me today. She stood at the kitchen door when it was time to leave fussing at me for fear I was trying to sneak out without her. When Andy buckled her in her carseat, she was squealing, kicking her legs saying "I ready".

Flannery enjoyed a special outing this afternoon with Noah and "Grand-dad" (a.k.a. Bob, Julie's dad). Bob took Noah and Flannery to a rails-to-trails in Pepperell, Ma. They rode 4.5 miles. Flannery was very pleased with herself for achieving such a feat. She only had one crash which occurred when she took her hands off the handlebars to scratch an itch. Bob said she just kind of veered off the trail while scratching. Not a multi-tasker, yet. Julie and I took the others to the park to play in the sweltering heat.

Sweltering heat here in New England is any temp above 80 degrees. Andy and I find the girls respond to heat more like New Englanders than the Southerners we expect them to be. They also have a low tolerance for sweating. Andy spent the morning installing the window AC units. We really didn't want to put them in but Ruby simply can't sleep if she's hot. I enjoy the warm temps as from May to September I am in a state of perpetual thawing from the previous winter. When Mammaw and Pappaw were here last week, they laughed to learn of our family rule that we don't purchase goods from the neighborhood ice cream truck unless the temp is 85 or above. What they didn't understand is that the ice cream truck starts making its rounds in May before the ground is fully thawed. Who stands outside and eats ice cream when it's 58 degrees? A New Englander, I guess. If we bought on all the cool days, we'd be broke before a truly hot day arrived.

All in all, we are very tired, overstimulated, but very contented. The girls have been loved on all week at VBS and for that I am thankful.