Day 262, Year 6 Real Life-It’s Great!
Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Weather: Sunny Day, Heavy Rain Late Evening
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
After five-and-a-half years of the cruising life in exotic places around the world, we are now getting to experience “real” life. My day went something like this. Drop Mark off at West Marine, go to the supermarket, go to Heather’s house to put food purchased in the refrigerator, set up and start the bread machine to make a loaf of bread, move clothes from the washer to the dryer, put the big Radio Flyer wagon in the back of the station wagon, and head to downtown Falmouth to meet Heather, Sam, and Jonah Sam did not go to soccer camp, so we were going to spend the morning at the Street Fair in Falmouth. By the time I got to town and found a place to park it was somewhere between 10:30 and 11:00 am. Sam and Jonah were having a very good time in the park when I arrived and slowly we moved toward Main Street and the Street Fair. Even with two adults, keeping up with a four year-old and two year-old, both who have their own separate ideas of where they want to go, is no easy chore. But we did enjoy the fair and just after noon Jed rode the trolley in from Wood’s Hole to have lunch with us. We ate on the library lawn and then it was time to take boys home for a nap and get Heather on the road to Plymouth. She was spending the afternoon there at function where she would speak at 5:30 pm, have dinner, and drive home in time to say goodnight to the boys. I drove the Sam and Jonah home, and as usual, Jonah fell asleep on the way. When we arrived home, I do what I do on all the other days when we get home from Summer Camp. I juggle things to get an already sleeping Jonah out of the car, into the house, up the stairs, and into bed without waking him. Then I read a book to Sam and I sit and read in the rocking chair while he “reads” a few books on his own before falling asleep. He loves books and falls asleep each day with about five to ten books surrounding him. I then head downstairs to do a few chores and inevitably, Jonah wakes up and needs a little cuddle to get him back to sleep for the remainder of his nap. Once both boys are up, we have a snack, and today we got ready to go to the beach. By the time I get them to the beach, take off clothes and get on swim trunks, haul the beach bag, a beach chair, and two boys out to the beach, swim a bit, build a few sand castles, and then get everything cleaned up and back to the car, I’m ready for a nap. But it is then time to go pick up Granddad. Now I know why you have children when you are young. I love doing all of this, but by the end of the day, I am a tired Oma. But this is real life and we are loving it.
Mark came home today with a new hot water heater, so that installation will be the next boat project. We discovered a leak in the old hot water heater back in Simon’s Town in South Africa. We knew we couldn’t afford to replace it until we got back to the US. Mark gets a discount on purchases through West Marine as an associate. So as soon as this is installed, I can once again enjoy warm water showers. I really look forward to that. Even though the weather is getting warmer here, cold showers in this non-tropical climate are just not my cup of tea.
