Sunday, April 26, 2009

Family Reunion

It is before ten o clock at night and I can hardly keep my eyes open. I managed to stay awake until my train arrived in Baltimore, and ran quickly to my car and did not encounter any trouble and arrived home safe and sound. I found Maya and her friends sprawled on the floor in Tara's room on the third level. There had been a storm earlier and a two hour power outage at the house. The areas near my house were still in darkness, and I must admit that everything looks better, not worse in the dark. The children were frightened and uncomfortable about falling asleep with a candle on...but I arrived past 2 AM and they were lined up side by side, breathing softly and looking adorable. They were less adorable when they woke up before 6 AM. I had three hours of sleep!!!

I could hear Maya trying to quiet them down to let Eric and I sleep, but her efforts were fruitless and I could hear requests for breakfast. I made pancakes and woke Eric up to join us for a meal. I am sure he wanted to sleep much longer, but today was a day to work on the house and the sooner he started the better! The children wanted to visit the dogpark, so we piled into the car with Elmer and had a wonderful time exploring the stream and looking for tadpoles (they are gone now, and frogs were hiding) and fish (which were too quick to catch!). The temperature was in the nineties, so we took off our shoes and cooled off walking in the water. Our time was too short and we agreed to return as soon as is possible.

Last week we were complaining about the bitter cold, but I expected that before long we would be complaining about the heat and the humidity. I heard from my sister in Boston; she spent the day at the beach with her dog Casper, exclaiming about the remarkable heat too. I was on the phone with my parents, my sister in France and Monica in Boston...Sunday is day to catch up with family! I am making arrangements for a family encounter in Ottawa and Kingston. my niece Lorna is graduating from Queen's University, so Monica and her family, Karen and my parents, and Eric and Maya and I will meet in Ottawa June 6 and celebrate together. I am relieved that we will be able to make this happen before I leave for Ecuador. I wonder if this will be the last time we will be together as an extended family. It does not happen often; we do not make it a point to meet all together; usually it is bits and pieces of the family, and the last time we celbrated in this way was in 2006 at my parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary.

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