Monday, May 30, 2011

Home Is A Really Good Place

We picked a sweet spot to set up camp on the old farm in Greentown. It was fine, cozy really, especially when Claire's fever spiked in the middle of the night and she began speaking in tongues and seeing things that weren't there.


Stumbling to the double-seater outhouse added to the tenting experience, while Chewy wandered off in search of the FIVE other dogs camping up there with family members. Hard to know what time that was...3 am? 4? 


Yesterday was rough. I can't recall being quite so tired. I took a sweaty nap most of the morning. Meaning I lay in the tent with my eyes closed, willing my body to rest. Occasionally the sound of Chewy barking at someone to throw the tennis ball brought me back to awareness. Finally I got up to check on my kid (excellent mothering, part one) and found her pale and green around the gills but fortunately being cared for by the twenty-seven other family members and friends (two of them nurses) who had come to camp in the fields. 


Later, I discovered her passed out in the tent. She'd gone to get her hat and was too tired to get up. She fell asleep where she landed; on the floor of the tent. (excellent mothering, part two.)


So, I never showed up here yesterday... 


We went to bed early last night...but not until Jesse got clocked in the head with a lacrosse ball. Not sure whether to laugh or cry, she did both. Someone handed her a cold beer to put on her head. She did that, then drank the beer...something she rarely does.


Claire was medicated, resting when the storm came in a fury of wind and rain. The tent flaps were open and tangled. There was some minor wrestling involving pegs and ties. A small puddle developed near our heads. I was speaking in tongues at that point. Michael pulled me close and said, no big deal. He was right.


Uncle Sam described the pond best: bracing. 


This weekend: 
Dad was there. 
my brothers and their families. 
Jesse and Elizabeth and John. 
Uncle Sam and Aunt Alden.
cousin Rebecca. 
kids. 
friends.
a fever 
a lacrosse ball
dogs. 
the pond.
snakes. 
mosquitoes. 
sun. 
rain. 
sun.

When everyone drove away this afternoon, we sat under the old pear tree. Everything was green and yellow sun and soft and still. 


I thought, now I could stay. But we came home. 


After one more plunge in the pond...

Home is a really good place. 

3 comments:

  1. Ohhh! A memorable Memorial Day! I so wish we had been there with everyone. I hope Claire feels better...I've been grading papers; writing over and over again: "try to show rather than tell"...I'm laughing and aching with you, so expertly done Bets!

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  2. Claire said, "Are Kerry, Sam, and Quinn coming?!"
    I said, "I hope the 4th."
    She said, "Well, I'm glad I got to meet her when she was still a baby."
    Yahoo!!!

    Great gathering. Pond, delicious, covered in a blanket of green leaves.

    Grading papers...there's got to be a better way. Self-evaluation?

    We miss you!!!

    xo b

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  3. Oh you're making my last week in Spain unbearable Bets!! Home sounds so good :)

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