A week vacation? How nice, don’t mind if I do.

It’s been a strange week, though. Now that the kids are growing older and we have this big old place called Green Victoria. Used to be that we didn’t have enough room for anything, so we’d have to pack up our bags and actually go somewhere. Plus, we wanted to go somewhere…anywhere…we were so sick and tired of the same four walls containing us.

This year is different. I am still trying to get used it.

Theo, for one thing, has been practically non-existent. He’s too busy hanging out with his friends and working. He’s gone on exactly one day trip with us this week, to Canobie Lake. And even then? He brought a girl with him. A GIRL, of all things! And they spent the entire time walking around and doing rides on their own. We ate supper with them. That was it.

Annie’s been to more things than Theo, in some ways, even with a new job and a two year old. Or at least, she’s been more physically present. But of course, that’s different, too. Her focus is on a two year old that is just waking up to the world and what it has to offer, and is keeping busy getting into this and that and this.

Ashes is of course there. She likes being with us, but also, I think she wants to cling to being a kid for as long as she can. And of course, that’s not good. One of the biggest things I am grappling with this year is trying to find the right ways to properly equip her for what it means to be an adult and be responsible and be on her own. I haven’t entirely been successful. It concerns me a great deal. It frustrates Corb to no end. And I think it’s bewildering for her, too: there’s the world, it’s spinning so fast. How do I hang on for the ride?

And speaking of rides, this week has gone by far too fast. Can’t someone slow it down just a little please? I am not ready for it being even close to Monday yet. I need one more week before that happens.