When most kids are out for summer break, we’re still busy doing “school.”  Even in our temporary state, it’s a beautiful thing to live in such a way that learning and life are one in the same– where a new boxed set of Roald Dahl’s books bring delight and an explosion in Jonah’s budding reading abilities, where all we really need for daily entertainment are a box of legos, some wooden blocks, and a good supply of paper and crayons– where the baby learning to imitate sounds and say some words is the funnest “toy” to play with.  We’ve learned what mocking birds look like, we’ve listened to them ramble in Robin and Warbler and Cricket.  We’ve swam in warm, turquoise ocean and learned first hand what it feels like to touch jellyfish (ouch!).  We’ve see a snowy egret catch and eat a fish right before our eyes, spent an afternoon with an American Green Tree Frog sticking to us with his miraculous toes, swam every day learning to hold our breath underwater, dive, and venture from the safety of the steps.

But, here, far away from anything familiar, in between places we can really call our own, the most important lesson we’ve learned is that home is where we are together.

(Photo by Barry.  For more pics of our Alabama adventures click here.)

in Alabama.  We do have a pool in our apartment complex, air conditioning set at a comfortable 72, but still no working internet connection in our apartment.  Right now I am precariously perched by our front door pirating some unsuspecting neighbor’s wireless connection with our lap top.

I’m just popping in to say that we made it.  My glorious friends did things like throw us a party, watch my kids, and (help me) clean my house before Barry magically arranged our stuff like a 3-D jigsaw puzzle into our cars and we headed to Alabama.  Apartment living is not bad, but it does seem strange that parking your car at home is no different than parking at Target…  I like driveways and garages.  And yards.  Yes, I miss having a yard, though it is soooo crazy hot and soggy here that we wouldn’t use it
but for a few minute to get all the jumps out of Logan’s springing legs so he wasn’t shaking the chandelier of the poor people below us.

I can’t quite post photos yet, but the internet guy should be fixing our problem once and for all on Tuesday.  Then you can see our cars stuffed to the gills and maybe even some giraffes from the zoo.

How’s that sound?