Thanksgiving, North Carolina, Time and the Sunday Post Holiday Trip Blahs

We traveled a round trip of over 1,500 miles this Thanksgiving holiday weekend (because of the amount of travel our "weekend" started Tuesday...)

We visited my dad and his wife for the holidays, as they recently moved to North Carolina for their retirement.  It suits them well and while I am not happy my dad lives so far away, I can see why he likes it.

The trip was long, the kids were awesome about it, the area he lives in reminded us of the Midwest, and there were reminders of the past and future everywhere.

Time and its perception are at play during vacations and trips and holidays.  I missed my homes, both my childhood home and my home here in MA.  I missed my dad and was so happy to see him...and I missed my whole family who are kinda scattered everywhere now...the past and the present intersecting.

The food was good, the company was nice and we all had a good time.  With that said, do I wish there had been more time?  Yes, because of the little things my dad did not get to see...my daughter reading Pippi Longstockings in the hotel room, my son actually opening up to me tonight with a long discussion on Hollywood masks and how they were made...things he could not get to know from the little time we all had this visit.  Time is precious and limited... We did a good job and we all were able to spend time together... And it was still not enough.  But yet, it was something, so that will do.

We finished this weekend up with a movie today...we went to see the new Peanuts movie.  It was very good and made me feel like the people who made it (including family of Charles Schulz) understood the legacy of the characters very well.  After the movie, Chewy said, "You know, your Grandma would have liked that movie.". Which was what I had been thinking too.  I guess there was more time travel to end the weekend.

Now...we are taking baths, packing snacks, getting ready for Monday and school and work.  Sunday Blahs are upon me...wish I had a rewind button...

The Teenager and his room...

Every so often he "cleans up" his room...to move stuff out that I carefully put in boxes and put into his closet.  The books that I lovingly kept in his bookcase that were his childhood books...his lego sets...moving them out of his room...

He has gotten quite a collection started, and he needs room for display...and last night he asked to use my phone to take some pictures...so that he could post them on the online forum he is part of (what that forum is...I don't know...) (asking if he wants to write a blog...is met with a "nah")  (he is on-line, but not really on Facebook....)

A glimpse at my teenager...the first photo is of Michael on Halloween night, looking at his candy...

I got him the small display cabinet...when he started this collection...

Models he has worked on and painted.

Collection of Don Post masks and other horribles...

As a mom, I note the lack of clothes on the hangers...the clothes are usually stuffed in drawers or in the laundry basket...

Also, I did originally get this bookcase for his large collection of books...which are stacked on the floor...sort of neatly...

Hmmm...Freaks is mine...Lost World is mine...I kid, they are his now...

#MicrogblogMonday - Writing

To see other #MicroblogMonday Posts, please click HERE.

I almost went to bed.  No one else is up (well, the boy might be up, I thought I heard footsteps up there...but it could have been one of the cats--they are noisy at night!)

I have wanted to write this post last week--but did not find the time.  And now, I pushed myself...because it is what #Microblog is all about--trying to get yourself to write something...anything in the space you call your writing home...

Both my kids have shown talent when it comes to writing.

I think for Michael it is a great way for him to express himself.  He doesn't show it too often, but the emotions and the thoughts that he will bring to a ATL essay or a movie review--they are brilliant.  I wish he would tap into that more often...although, just like the footsteps I thought I heard--I think he does this thoughtful writing on the sly...in forums about horror movies and aurora models.  For someone who has a hard time expressing himself socially, the written word is power.  I hope he starts to understand that power as he grows to adulthood.

Willow...the imagination and wonder, her inventiveness and spark of...just Willow-ness...it is just so evident in her writing...

Sentences she came up with for vocabulary words (underlined); misspelling  in Second Grade writings are excused as they are learning the FORM of sentences...as long as they get the vocab words correct...

And this tells you what we were doing the weekend before last--camping at Girl Scout Camp!  (She had fun...I found it...not as fun...)

One of my favorite things in Second Grade so far--they have Friday Journals.  The child writes a journal entry about whatever they want to write about...usually the weeks events.  The "homework" is for the parent to read what they wrote--and write back to them in the journal.  I so wish they had done this when Michael was in elementary school.  I love the fact that I get to see into my daughter's world at school...and I get to write back to her and let her know what I think about her.

One entry a few weeks back was more than just a writing exercise...Willow had a bad day.  She wrote about how bad she felt and basically put on the drama thick ("its the worst day ever!" and "I hate being seven!").  She described an incident in school (she stuck her pencil in the pencil sharpener--because it was too small and the teacher had told everyone not to sharpen too short pencils...).  It was such a mournful, sad paragraph.  So sad, that the teacher wrote back to her...with the sweetest note about how things were solved (the pencil was extricated) and how yes, it can be tough to be seven years old, but hopefully she will begin to like second grade, etc.  It was reassurance and strength that Willow needed...the next day of school...was "the best day!"