[My irascible laptop has been behaving badly and was with an IT tech so today is the first day I’ve had it in a while].
The boys have not had Legos in almost six months. I tell them they can spend their money on some big sets
The boys and I are enjoying time with my sister and her family. The twins are adorable and the boys are having fun with their two cousins. We are in the downstairs suite and it feels heavenly. I continue to revel in land’s luxuries: dishwashers, a Vitamix, ice cubes, hot showers, laundry in a house, a queen size bed with multiple pillows (absolute heaven).
Signs of spring
Matt, in the meantime, is working on getting the boat ready. The crew arrive Thursday and Friday. The plan is to get the boat to Annapolis where we’ll do repairs and aesthetics on it and get it ready to sell. Because our Cleveland place won’t be ready until July 5th or so, we look into renting in Annapolis for 6 weeks. It’s been chaotic with all the kids and babies so Matt does some legwork. He sends me a link to a condo. It looks nice but, when I try to scroll through the pictures, my iPad crashes. The next morning he calls and
My friend Susan and the boys collecting rocks
asks me what I think. I’m hesitant because it doesn’t have a garage where we can unload stuff and my iPad crashed when I tried to view it. I weigh this against having some certainty about where we’ll be and tell Matt to just book it and pay so we can have one thing off our list. He calls me later that day and says that after he filled out all the information and was about to hit ‘submit’ his laptop crashed. Weird – a sign from the Universe? We decide not to book it and instead wait until we get to Annapolis.
Joshua with the rock
On Thursday, the boys and I head back up to Burlington, VT to see a friend and visit the town again. I love it here. We go to several parks, do some hiking, and get green shakes at a great café. My friend takes us to the edge of Lake Champlain where we spend time building cairns and collecting rocks. She finds a cool one she decides to send to a friend. On the way out, she drops it. Then drops it again. I start laughing because it seems the rock doesn’t want to leave. She picks it up and realizes it split in half. It takes us a while to find the other
The heart in the tree
half. When we do, we realize it split in two identical halves – black with a band of white quartz. She sees Joshua eyeing it and asks if he wants it. He nods. I know immediately what he’s thinking. He has been looking for something special to leave on Caleb’s headstone. “I’ll keep the other half with me,” he says quietly. A few minutes later, Malachi points to a tree where a sawed-off branch has left the shape of a heart. We all pause to take this in. We leave the park, uplifted in a different kind of way.
The Earth Clock in Burlington, VT
On Saturday we drive back to NH. En route, Matt calls and says the storm that has been hanging off the east coast is finally moving. Tashtego and crew are leaving in two hours. It’s a quick phone call – just enough time to say we love you and good luck. I tell him, no matter what, to listen to his intuition during the passage and not be swayed by anyone else on the boat.
[I just saw Matt posted the news on Facebook. I’ll let you know the details tomorrow].