Taking a Breath

We have houseguests coming next week, so we spent most of the weekend cleaning and preparing for their arrival--

Dusting and mopping surfaces that don't usually get dusted or mopped. Sorting out weeks and months worth of toys and papers and things that tend to pile up and get ignored. I paid Z five dollars to wash my car. C even mowed the weeds lawn, which is a major endeavor and only happens one or twice a year (but I must say, it looks good!). About halfway through, consumed by dust from the kids' room, I was about ready to call our guests up and tell them to stay home. But I powered through and now we have a nice, comfy, dust-free, clean house (we'll see how long that lasts!). I even eliminated one big box of books and another box of various other junk.

Meanwhile, a beautiful, sunny weekend was going on outside. I only got out briefly Saturday, for a quick walk through the woods, throughout which I was scratched up by blackberry bushes and chased by deer flies.

Sunday evening, the bulk of the work done and an early dinner finished, I snuck out to my delimited site (the gravel pit pond by our house, which I'm supposed to observe regularly as part of my naturalist class), and settled down in a lawn chair, with a blanket to protect my legs from the bugs and my journal. Nothing too exciting was going on at the pond (no otters!), but it was nice and peaceful, with a few frogs and birds singing. Even the deer flies left me alone once I sat down. Sometimes a few moments of quiet in nature is all I need.