Best of Both Worlds

Around here, if you want to enjoy any outside time between june and october, it has to be early. I mean like, nonsense early.

Luckily, our kids wake up nonsense early. So this morning, we threw on some shoes, grabbed the dog, and were leaving the house by 7 (true story) babies and all. I mean, I left the house without COFFEE people. Don’t fear for my family though. They are all ok.

We moved to a beautiful preserve area over a month ago, and had yet to go exploring, so we finally just went. With two little ones, we didn’t make it very far, but we still got some exercise and a wilderness fix.

Now, I have been known, in this time of year, to get a little homesick for Kentucky. I am an October child, at peace and right with the world when things start to get cooler and crisper and a little more colorful. This time of year, back home, you could start feeling little glimpses of that changing air and light…Around here, not so much. There is no end in sight to this desperate heat, this draining dry, the dust-blown desperation of summer.

What to do… go for a mountain hike in the morning and remember that there is beauty enough to sustain. Even in the wilderness. And then, go to breakfast at Cracker Barrel. (Might i add–only in Arizona can you go to Cracker Barrel on a Saturday morning and not have to wait in line. Because pretty much, nobody else appreciates how awesome it is. The place is always full of wandering vacationers, or families from back east who have moved out here and are feeling homesick. ergo…)

Anyway, it wasn’t any closer to home, but it was a small oasis to be claimed in a mid-summer desert. And, of course, they have good coffee there.