Sword in the stone

I'm published...we're making our mark on the world.

Sorry....let me back up and start again.

My words are accessible to strangers...well, wait, that's not news.

Whatever, just keep reading....

Clues for our first letterbox are posted on the letterboxing website! We've graduated from searching for letterboxes to actually placing a letterbox. Well, maybe we have to wait and see if anyone can actually locate our box from our posted clues...then we can declare it a success.

Flower Pot Hill at Spring Valley Nature Preserve was our my choice for planting a box. Most of you know about Spring Valley...if not, I'll save my affinity for that land for another series of posts.  Flower Pot Hill sits behind (east of) the former site of the swimming pool and has a wonderful trail system and beautiful mature birch/maple forest. As kids, my cousins and friends and I got into all kinds of mischief climbed the hill often.

Sunday, mischief was not on the agenda...just a spring hike in the sunshine.

Our box is called Sword in the Stone because for years and years there was a rock along the pool's driveway that had a piece of metal rebar stuck into it...someone made it look like a sword and wrote the famous Legend of King Arthur challenge:: Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone is the rightwise born king. 
You may ask what purpose the rock served, but I won't be able to answer your astute question.

Here is a our published clue. Poke around this website to learn more about letterboxing.


In other news, one of my dearest friends is about to have her second bambino. She's sooo ready...pray for Mandy and her sweet one, if you could.

Another dear friend blessed me tonight by keeping my babes, feeding them dinner, and sending me off to a much-needed and thoroughly enjoyable Zumba class. I Zumba...if only I could shake it like the other ladies. Thank you, sweet friend.

Rendezvous

God and I had a date tonight.

We met at church and went home together.

He was too quiet for my tastes.

I cried.

It didn't end well.

Don't worry...

it's not over between us.

We'll try again.

Next time will be better.

Next time I'll talk less and listen more.

Next time I won't get up and walk away.

Today's been a tender day for me.

I miss my man.

I miss my mom.

I'm MAD...

and I'm not sure at whom.

I want to do things I shouldn't.

I keep wondering...

Is this really my life?

My family?

My home?

I'm being shaped by events out of my control.

Aren't we all...?

Not sure if I'm ready for the continuing refinement...

But that may not matter.

The end of the Pax Johnsona

It's happened...Sweet Man has been assigned. He got the call, for reals, this time. Off to Iowa...he's already there. Thus ends our 2 months of intact-nuclear-family-frequently-staying-in-our-own-home-two-fulltime-parents bliss (sorry, that's pushing the hyphen limit.) I lamented to friends today that I was just getting into a real schedule groove...efficiently erranding and consistently exercising...as the babes were in my capable husband's hands. And he, in turn, had his own groove going...a balance of time with us and time off doin' what he do. 

I was awake off and on last night in anticipation of solo parenting and was fairly strung out after a pre-dawn trip to the airport. I downshifted into survival mode and just planned to get through the day. Shocker:: we had a fantastic day with a mega-playdate, chocolate chip banana bread, and a great trip to the library. 

Off the subject: my boy reads! It continues to surprise....he reads something well and I kind of tell myself it's a fluke and then I forget. But then he reads something else...with more challenging words. We read as a family all the time...for school and bed, but we don't work the phonics intensely or challenge him to read aloud all that much. Reading is just evolving. So tonight at the library, I let him loose and he picked out some really funny books that he can totally read. He read to us tonight at bedtime. And fell asleep reading. Very cool.

One last thing, we haven't decided if we will join SM in Iowa. He thinks he may be there as little as three weeks and all four of us would be a squeeze in his hotel room. But his birthday is the 23rd and I want to do something special for him, even if it is from afar. We are both terrible at giving each other gifts and have resigned ourselves to just picking out something for ourselves and calling it a "gift." So I need help...suggestions, ideas, schemes...send 'em my way. I've removed him from the feedburner, so he won't even see this...as if he read the posts anyway.