As I mentioned last week, the past ten days were a staycation, which is to say we stayed home, for the most part, and didn\u2019t work, for the most part. (And for any of you who didn\u2019t check in last week, I highly recommend<\/strong><\/em> scrolling through last week\u2019s posts\u2013four excellent reflections on different aspects of adoption by four beautiful writers and friends. It\u2019s wonderful to go away for a week and think that the quality of this blog went up!)<\/p>\n So what was lost during those days away?<\/p>\n Well, hours and hours and hours of productivity. According to gmail, I have \u201cabout\u201d 196 messages (I\u2019m so confused as to why gmail can\u2019t count messages once they pass a certain threshold). And that\u2019s after deleting dozens that I didn\u2019t need to read. I have a stack of mail and a long list of to-dos. We\u2019re moving back to New Jersey, and everything remains unpacked. And of course I have that book coming out in a few weeks, and I missed out on any number of opportunities to publicize and promote.<\/p>\n I lost touch with current events and with my not-so-rigorous exercise routine.<\/p>\n We also lost a white noise machine, a car phone charger, two library books, and a small portion of our Swagger Wagon\u2019s door.<\/p>\n You know what\u2019s coming\u2013what was lost pales in comparison to what was gained: the time with our extended family, including three of our children\u2019s great-grandparents . . . celebrating William\u2019s third birthday . . .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n a trip to New Haven by train . . .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n a boat ride with family . . .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n swimming lessons that culminated in Penny jumping in and swimming all by herself to the \u201cisland\u201d a few yards away . . . a night of uninterrupted sleep when my aunt and uncle and cousin took ALL THREE CHILDREN and gave us a gift certificate to a bed and breakfast in Beacon Hill . . . the sounds of happy Penny and William who spent two more nights away from us, with activities that included riding a pony, jumping in the pool, petting a skunk, sleeping outside in a tent, and digging up potatoes before cooking them for breakfast . . .\u00a0And what just might be Marilee\u2019s first word, spoken with gusto, \u201cDada!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We\u2019re all a little weary. The decibel level in our house was up this morning, and no one slept well last night. The packing awaits as does the list of tasks and writing deadlines and emails. But we\u2019re grateful for a week together. And we\u2019re grateful to be a family<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As I mentioned last week, the past ten days were a staycation, which is to say we stayed home, for the most part, and didn\u2019t work, for the most part. (And for any of you who didn\u2019t check in last week, I highly recommend scrolling through last week\u2019s posts\u2013four excellent reflections on different aspects of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[242],"class_list":["post-822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","tag-vacation"],"yoast_head":"\n