Fall Break

We're leaving in a couple of hours to go spend a couple of days at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio. We've never been there before but have heard nothing but wonderful things about it. Our annual summer vacation fishing trip was canceled this year so DH is taking us here as a consolation prize.

I don't know if I'll have internet access and even if I do if I'll even have the time or desire to write and post. I wanted to participate in Blog Action Day on Monday and write a post about the enviroment. That may or may not get done. I think there is something like 12,ooo blogs taking part so I'm sure there will be plenty of good reading to do.

I still need to pack. Fortunately, its not hard to pack for a trip to a water park. Swimsuit, change of clothes, pair or two of clean undies, done. We took our 2 dogs to friends house last night. They'll be staying there until we get back. Oh boy! Is it different with out the dogs in the house. I never realized what a big part of our lives those puppers are. No happy faces at the door when we got home, no dancing,clicking nails on the wood floor. Nobody following me around the house, room to room, up and down the stairs as I did laundry and got ready for bed. No fuzzy warm body next to the bed to trip over in the dark when I got up. My morning routine only took seconds today. I had to stand there staring at the coffee pot while it heated up rather than stand at the door watching the dogs do there morning business and then coming inside to a fresh hot mug of coffee.

I miss them. I know they will be fine and are in very good hands, but I miss them. I worry about them and wonder what they think. Both were strays. Both were abandoned. Both were in shelters scheduled to be put down when at the last minute they were spared. One of them had such horrible separation anxiety when we first got her that we ended up getting the second dog to try and help with that. It worked and now they are inseparable and I'm able to go to the store or out for the day w/o having to worry. I worry though, when we leave them with friends for longer periods, if they know we are coming back. I know they miss us terribly when we're gone. Last time we went on vacation for a week, they stopped eating. My friend took to hand-feeding them people food to get them to eat anything. Everybody assures me they will be fine and I know they will be, but still, I worry.

On a much happier note, I seem to be able to read again. Not that I ever lost the ability to read, but for the past several months, basically all summer long, I just could not concentrate on reading a book. I'd sit down to read and just not be able to focus at all. I'd read a few sentences and then my mind would wander off or I'd be reading,reading,reading and realize I'd no idea as to what the last few paragraphs were about. It was weird. I'm a reader. I love to read. I can usually sit and read for hours just losing myself in a book while the real world goes on w/o me. It was a really weird, crazy, busy summer this year. Life has settled down much since then and I'm happy that my ability to read has done the same.

A few days ago I finished Gift from The Sea by Anne Marrow Lindbergh. Oh, it was so good. Its been awhile since I've read it. I bought it at a thrift store this spring for $1. I need to read it again, cover to cover. There was a bookmark stuck about halfway through and I just started there. I assume that's where I stopped earlier in the year. I was surprised to see that the book was first published back in 1955. The copy I have was republished back in 1975 with an added afterward by the author. Even though the words are over 50 years old now, they still ring so true to me. Somethings, I guess, are just timeless.

I picked up On The Incarnation written by St. Athanasius written back in (get this) the 300's. Our co-op group is reading this for school. It's a small, thin paperback and I figured I could get through it. After all, my kids are reading it for school, I should too. I sat in the bathtub last night, just captivated by it. Granted, I only got through the first two chapters and would have read more but the bathwater had cooled and I was all waterlogged and pruney. It's good. Good translation and a foreword by CS Lewis. I'll be taking it on our trip to, hopefully, read as I'm lounging by the pool watching my boys conquer the water slides!