Back in the saddle

I took a vacation, solo, to St. Petersburg to visit Wendy and her family. Stefan's parents were also visiting from Germany and it was a lot of fun and great to meet them. Highlights were playing with Sophia (Olivia, accesories, and Ian; you must pay the rent) and going out to Shell Island on Julie's boat. It was meditative and heavenly to be able to go up and down the beach looking for shells, the clear, relatively warm, gentle salt water licking at my ankles.

I read The History of Love while I was away and loved it. I started The Seven Year Old Wonder Book while there and am on the fence about it. It's a popular book to read to your soon-to-be seven/seven year old in some Waldorf circles. I'm going to read some more before I decided whether to read it with First. I picked up The Time Traveller's Wife for the plane ride home and am reading it now, enjoying it (this is a book that has been recommended to me by Jamie and someone else, I can't remember who).

I looked at the cd of photos that Stefan burned for me last night. A wonderful collection and memento. However, I was embarrassed by how heavy I looked, over and over again. I asked for and got many hugs from Cap afterwards. It's so strange that I don't feel like a "fat" person or see myself as one. But, there was no denying it in those pics.

We stopped in for dinner with Lisa, Sara (Lisa's mom) and Ellie on our way home from the airport. Momoko (my cousin) joined us. It was a nice visit. Sara is warm and effusive. Lisa and Ellie are a wonder to see. Baxter might have taken the cake though. He has very naturally taken on the role of brother and protector with Ellie. It's incredible to think that it hasn't even been a year since he joined Takai and Lisa.

Before I left for Florida, I spent two days working on organizing the kids' work area, which we also call the homeschooling area. It's comprised of the dining table and three shelves. One shelf is full of puzzles and games, another is full of all the stuff that comes in handy to make stuff :-), and the third is sectioned and labeled by subject, and full of learning materials.

Curious George is over and I ended up talking to Sandy on the phone for a few minutes. So I end here for now.