Today will be a traveling day. This morning I have no time to write and post. Possibly this evening I’ll be back to fill in the details. If not, then tomorrow.
So here it is, Tuesday morning. We are back home and re-establishing routines. Last Monday, following an afternoon medical appointment, we headed to West Texas. We got as far as Oklahoma City and spent the night in a hotel. We made it to Big Spring early afternoon on Tuesday, early enough to pick up the grandkids at school, a surprise for them. That night was the awards ceremony for Ezra (finishing 5th grade) and Elise (finishing 3rd grade).
On Wednesday, Elijah graduated from pre-K-4. Having a graduation for that level is something new to me, but it was a fun evening. He was excited during the whole ceremony, and after.
On Thursday morning, Ephraim had his 8th grade award ceremony. He received recognition for having made the National Junior Honor Society in 7th grade, and also won the award for cross-country. The other sports must have had separate award ceremonies. It was a different type of ceremony than for the younger kids.
That afternoon, Sara and Ephraim boarded a plane for Chicago to spend the weekend with our son, Charles. We stayed to help Richard with the children. Now out of school, they worked around the house on Friday—fairly willingly, I might add. Or at least without complaint. They seemed happy to realize they had done a job well.
That evening, we introduced Ezra and Elise to Rummycube—the adult version, not the kids’ one. They both took to it and did really well. We played each night after that. I must admit that I would rather have been reading, but we took the time to get them off their screens. And just to spend time with them. 11-year-old Ezra is already a master at it. He has learned to maximize the manipulation of tiles on the board to reduce his holdings. 9-year-old Elise is also quite good, though she is somewhat too exuberant for this old man, playing the game half in her seat and half jumping up to do something.
Little Elijah, going on five, wanted to play. I let him draw my tiles for me, which satisfied him. When he heard the TV go on in the other room, he naturally went to watch Obi Wan or whoever work through their adventures.
The trip home yesterday was uneventful. Contrary to predictions, traffic was light. Also contrary to predictions, gas prices had not spiked anywhere for Memorial Day weekend. In fact, at most places they dropped a couple of cents. We dropped recyclables in Oklahoma City, dropped used cloth at Goodwill, and shopped in there a little. I found a book about C.S. Lewis to add to my collection. We got home around 8:20 p.m., having made really good time for a somewhat late start and the stops on the way.
We will be mostly home now for a while, working through medical appointments and yardwork and writing and stock trading and decluttering. A quick trip back to Big Spring may happen in July to fetch kids for week’s stay. Other than that, nothing planned until my twice-delayed high school reunion in August.
May the routines recommence.