Sitting

We have said our good-byes, exchanged lingering hugs, and waved as the full vehicle pulled away from the curb. Grandparents and aunties, heading back home. It was a good week. A busy week. The boy has requested that we stay home today. Oh yes. We will stay home.

Two weeks, two sets of families. It was good to visit, and now it is good to just sit.

Our week at the beach with my in-laws was lovely and relaxing. We watched the tide come in and go back out, over and over all week long. Beautiful. The boys played in the tide pools and flew kites and dug for clams and I, I took far too many pictures and ate delicious cherries and enjoyed the daily retreat to the motel where I could sit in silence while the toddler napped.

Our week at home with my parents and sisters was full of laughter and adventure and fun. We ate picnic lunches every day while out exploring. Rollercoasters and oceans and waterslides (oh my!). We played games in the evening and stayed up too late at night and and slept in too late in the morning. It was a wonderfully full house.

Now they are gone and it is quiet here. We are all engrossed in our own activities. The sweet toddler lines books end-to-end across the couch, then oh-so-carefully stands his farm animals on them. The preschooler loses himself in Lego, humming softly to himself as he builds his creations. And I, I just sit and breathe in the quiet, the peace, as I catch up with the online world.

There are remnants. Two jars filled with wildflowers picked by the boy and my youngest sister. Belated birthday gifts on the counter. Duplo houses and a zoo. Bags of bathing suits and spare clothes near the front door and towels on the bathroom floor and spare bedding piled on the bed and oh yes, I must move the sheets to the dryer. Soon. Not yet.

Right now, I am busy sitting.