Back from Real Life

Not to imply that my blog is unreal, but typing here requires TIME, which in the last month has been used up by a lot of "real life." This does not include the catering job, which is being indefinitely postponed because so far there are no registrants for the local class. We did acquire a pod-type coffee machine, which is a much better resource for a smallish (10-15 max) class size then trying to make the right amount in a large brewer. But I have been confirmed in my opinion -- my family are "hot beverage snobs!" I knew they were picky tea drinkers, as I am one myself (the water must be boiling, the pot must be preheated, it must brew for exactly so many minutes, and so forth.) But when my 13-year-old's (!) comment on the pod coffee was "Well, it's better than that stuff they make in the urns at church" I knew we must be snobs. Sigh!

The "real life" which has happened in the last month has been quite varied. My younger kids went back to school, and for the first time since 1993, when our oldest entered middle school, we have children in only one building, on one schedule. It's almost disorienting! There have been band practices, football games (including the great cross-town rivalry, which the blue team - ours - won),
a trip to the state capital for a get-away weekend trip which our kids gave us for our 25th anniversary, another trip to the state capital for the annual conference of the state pro-life organization, three out-of-town business trips for my husband, and visits from our grandson, and of course his parents.

But the "realest" part is what we did today -- we sent our 18-year-old, our older son, off to the Coast Guard. He's not quite gone yet; along with 10 or 12 other wet-behind-the-ears types, he is checked into a hotel near the recruiting office for the night, and we will go and see him sworn in tomorrow. But he doesn't live here any more, and probably never will. (Of course his "stuff" still lives here - he was allowed to take one very small duffel bag to hold the clothes he is wearing, and nothing can go with or to him until he ships out to his A-school in California after Thanksgiving. And considering what we still have that belongs to his older sisters, including a wedding dress, I don't expect we'll see it moved out anytime soon.) This was a different kind of "going" than we've had so far with his sisters, since when kids go off to college you assume that they'll be back for at least a couple of summers, and two of our three so far have gone to schools within an hour-and-a-half of home.

Since he will only be able to send and receive real ("snail mail") letters -- no email, no online access, no computer at all, no ipod; no wonder boot camp is hard -- I have made a resolve to write him at least one letter a week. And here is where it gets good for anybody reading here: the resolve includes writing here, and catching up on my other letters and emails as well. (Writing, that is. I read them as fast as I get them ;-) ) So my "real life" will now include enhanced communication, and you're the first to know! (I can't send a letter to him until he sends his address; even the recruiters don't know what it will be until it's actually assigned.) Details will follow.