"I'm Running Away!"

Elinor just finished reading Ramona and Her Mother.  Towards the end Ramona gets very upset with her parents and decides she is going to run away.  Her mother offers to help her pack and then purposefully packs too much so that Ramona's suitcase is far too heavy.
Although Elinor wasn't upset with me, she thought running away sounded like great fun.  Faith agreed, and so the two began to pack EVERY ARTICLE OF CLOTHING THAT THEY OWN.

MOM:  That is fine as long as you put all your clothes away when you come back.

ELINOR:  You'll need to call me on the cell phone when you need me to come home.

MOM:  I would really rather you didn't run away, because I would miss you terribly.

ELINOR:  Mom, I just need some adventure in my life.  Didn't you ever want adventure in your life when you were a little girl.

MOM:  Well, okay, but you can't run away until you finish your math and your piano practicing.

ELINOR:  Yeah, I know.

As it turns out, she never did get her math done, so she didn't run away.  What a relief.  This morning she did indeed have to unpack her clothing bag, and her food bag, and her bedding bag.  I guess she didn't need me to help make her bags too heavy.

Yesterday morning it was raining so I didn't go walking.  Then my piano lessons for the morning were canceled.  Then I realized I was still really tired because George had had a rough night.  So I did something glorious.

I went back to bed.
I would love for the children to have gotten right on their jobs and school work, but let's be realistic.  I had to settle for them building a giant fort in the family room.  Totally worth three extra hours of sleep. 

The fort comfortably slept the whole gang.  We were due for a good family room fort-- it had been a while.

With as many children as I have, you'd think I would be pretty good at diagnosing illness, but occasionally I get stumped.  George recently developed a rash on his face, neck and torso and he was very much out of sorts.  I didn't recognize this rash, so being the calm and relaxed parent that I am, I rushed off to the Dr.  I was sure he had meningitis. 

He didn't. But I appreciate that the Dr. didn't laugh in my face when I told him my suspicions.  Perhaps Elinor is right and I was just looking for more adventure in my life. 

Supposedly, the rash, which lasted less than 36 hours, is not unusual at the tail end of a virus.  I've never heard of, nor experienced that before, but okay.  Georgie did, however, have an ear infection so it was good that I took him in.  Thanks to antibiotics, he is a happy-chappy once again.

 I arranged with a BYU student who is in our ward and majoring in English to come and teach a series of four classes on creative writing to our book club kids.  She has a great personality and Bethany especially LOVED the class.  Bethany has always enjoyed writing, so she is happy to have some new ideas and direction.