I've been busy...

Chasing spiders with a ginornous red truck...

Taking kids to Oreo stacking contests at tiny grocery stores...

Stacking 17 Oreos, the Kid won!

Finding just exactly the Crepe Myrtles covered with Spanish Moss that you might imagine...
When Moms stay up til all hours of the "ahem" morning drinking Lemon Drops the kids will put themselves to bed...

In the recliner...
In the rocker...

And of course the couch...

Some mornings even Opal doesn't want to get out of bed...

Adventuring here...

Looking at Mother Nature's porn...

Aaahing at Mother Nature's cathedral...

Posing for terrible photos...

Taking good photos...

Taking bad photos of waterfalls...

Going down 232 stairs-and then back up...

Observing strange fungi...

Applying "permanent" purple make-up...

Posing for a gratuitous bikini photo...

Saving a snake the size of a linguine noodle from a spider web...

Running from the PoPo cause we were having too much fun...

Laughing with my sister about our horrible dining experience...

Enjoying a small park in a tiny town...

Admiring my artist in residence at work...

Proving that my eyes are blue...

Pondering the whys of crooked trees covered with fur...

Ooooohing over boat shaped houses...

Aaaaaaahing over lighthouse shaped houses...

Checking my bank account to see if I could buy this $1.5 million house made out of grain silos...

Excavating fishy remains...

Observing cousinly love...

And cousinly annoyance...

Enjoying time with my sister at sunset... Being grateful for that one last great day with Loved ones...

I have indeed been wonderfully busy.

One strange week

I go to bed.
I can't unwind.
Can't fall asleep.
Listening to the light snores beside me-violence brews.
I get up instead.
The house gets one last straightening, the kitchen another wipe down.
It's midnight or later and sleep just will not come.
I flip channels.
I read.
I surf the web.
I go back to bed.
Lay for what seems like hours yet is probably only minutes.
Finally drift off.
A strange dream, and slowly waking to strange thoughts.
It's still dark.
I look at the clock.
4:37
Fuck
No.
I just want to sleep.
I lay there.
Too early to get up.
Too late to fall asleep again.
Finally drowse.
Drifting in that no mans land where monsters and angels dwell.
Light begins to sift through curtains.
Chasing away half dreamt lands.
6:42
I am up.
Stumbling through.
Bleary eyed good morning.
Coffee?
Must wait for it.
B out the door.
Coffee cradled in my hands.
Hot and black.
I sit.
I sip.
I wake.

The rest of the house sleeps on.

Stillness.
Quiet.
I savor it, this time of peace.
Is that the answer?
Do I need to experience the stillness?
And so wake while others dream?

I would like to report that due to 2 glasses of wine, a sufficient amount of reading, and some time alone(I locked myself in the bedroom-don't worry the big girl was on duty) I actually did manage to get relaxed enough to fall asleep and most importantly stay that way for 7 hours. That means I am currently behind on only about 12 hrs from the strange and sleepless week I have left behind.

I will work on cultivating moments of stillness throughout my day, find the quiet in myself.

And sleep, I hope.