Romantic getaway in which we (mostly) stay in our socks

 

Ada, looking super pretty, just graduated from the orthodontist, with her newly pierced ears

As soon as volleyball and the girls’ birthdays were done, Jason and I headed for the hills.

 

We stayed in the Airbnb I booked back in the spring for his birthday present.

It was on a farm and had walking trails into the forest.

Heroically going first and protecting us from spider webs across the path with his spider-web-whacking stick

This friendly little guy followed me with his tail wagging when I ventured to explore on my own one afternoon, which I was glad for since I didn’t really know where I was going. He did keep trying to steal my spider-web-whacking stick though.

But mostly, we lounged, played board games, drank wine, read Sherlock Holmes, fixed ourselves nice little meals, and had a Die Hard marathon.

When Jeddy came to visit on Sunday, Caleb hurried to show him all his latest plans.

Those happened to be on single pages. Sometimes the plans look more like this:

Anyway, it’s good to be back home.

Unwind

A day may come when I will finish school and spend the rest of the day being productive. 

This week I lounge and do multiple puzzles and take a nap and a bath (different times) and read LOTR gifs. This week I stay in my socks. This week I cook dinner and eat it at home with my family. 

This week I revel in not driving to volleyball.

And this week I look forward to a very well-timed romantic getaway, in which we will, Lord willing, stay in our socks, take a bath, lounge…and not drive to volleyball.

Elderly

 

This is the time of year when my home’s general unkemptness really comes in handy as first-rate seasonal decor.

Nothing is scarier than knowing that I actually live here.

We had our promised double date with Jed and Maddie as their birthday gift to me; and when did we turn into our parents? Jason and I arrived early, and at the end of dinner we begged off because it was “getting late” and we were tired and wanted to go home, while those whippersnappers made plans to carry on the evening elsewhere. After 8:00!! We barely made the drive home.

Also I threw out my shoulder playing Just Dance on the Wii with Lizzy.

Jason’s 101-year-old grandfather came over for lunch and why do I identify more with him than with my teenagers?

The fealty of Bigwig

I finally picked up and read Richard Adams’s Watership Down, despite my children’s insistence that I scarred them forever when I got the movie version for them to watch without knowing the story, only that there were pictures of cute bunnies on the cover.  

I can see their point, there being a fair amount of bunny-on-bunny violence in the story.  But the more I think about it, the more I appreciate this novel.  Bigwig, in particular (Thayli in Lapine [rabbit language]) stands as one of the great heroes of western literature.

That time we gave Maddie a One Ring planter for her birthday

The war between the Watership Down bunnies (led by Chief Rabbit Hazel) and the Efrafan bunnies (led by the ruthless General Woundwort) comes to a climax in “Bigwig Stands His Ground”:

Before he could draw back, Woundwort’s whole weight came down on [Bigwig] and the next moment his teeth had met in his right ear…

The blood ran over Bigwig’s neck and down his foreleg…

Woundwort spoke…“You’re too good to be killed. Come back to Efrafa.”…

“He wants me to come out on my feet,” he thought. “But it’s Inlé [darkness], not Efrafa, that I shall go to from here.”…

Blood had matted the great thatch of fur on his head, and one ear, half severed, hung down beside his face.  His breathing was slow and heavy…

“Thlayli…I can bring in enough rabbits to pull down this wall in four places. Why don’t you come out?” 

Thlayli’s reply, when it came, was low and gasping, but perfectly clear. 

“My Chief Rabbit has told me to defend this run and until he says otherwise I shall stay here.”

Oh Thlayli! What courage! What valor! What fuzzy fortitude! Would I stand my ground in such stout obedience to my Chief Rabbit while the blood ran down my shredded ear?

Of course no discussion of inspirational literary loyalty is complete without recognizing Sam Gamgee of Lord of the Rings.

“It is going to be very dangerous, Sam…Most likely neither of us will come back.”

“If you don’t come back, sir, then I shan’t, that’s certain,” said Sam. “Don’t you leave him! they said to me. Leave him! I said. I never mean to. I am going with him…and if any of those Black Riders try to stop him, they’ll have Sam Gamgee to reckon with.”…

“Oh, Mr. Frodo, that’s hard…trying to go without me and all.”…

“But I am going to Mordor.”

“Of course you are. And I’m coming with you.”

Maddie’s birthday present from Jeddy: a pair of guinea pig friends. This is Potato.

This is Poof.

Our well-cared for and well-dressed bunny, who has never had to fight any bunny dictators to the death.

There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

~Proverbs 18:24