On Wed, July 19 the girls and I made the most of a trek down to Waynesboro where all the Tangly Woods' females established care with a dermatologist. Kali was dismissed for 2 years and the rest of us had at least one mole photographed and so will return yearly for routine checks. We got to wear very fancy outfits!!
I really liked the practice and they were so kind to do all our appointments on the same day. We did have to split them between morning and afternoon so over the lunch time we explored a park along the river. It was a miracle we got back to the dermatologist with Terah still dry. She was insistent that we go back there again WITH swimsuits next time! We ate our picnic lunch and then Alida and I snuggled while Kali followed Terah around the playground.
That evening we finally were able to host an informal gathering for Terah (and Kali's) soccer team. It had felt like several unsuccessful attempts due to schedules and smoke from the wild fires in Canada. Terah was so excited and warned us ahead of time that we would not get much attention from her once her teammates arrived. That was very accurate.
The following day we had our normal Thursday "Luca day" and I wondered who took our baby neighbor and brought us this toddler! How is it that he seems to have transitioned so quickly into a little boy - he looked so big to when he crawled up in the recliner to communicate he was ready for snuggles, a bottle and a nap.
On the baby theme, we enjoyed a little farm visit from baby Alida and her family and I also had two doula meetings recently (I'm back up doula right now for a family and then am working with a couple that will be welcoming their first little one in December). Still loving it! Still trying to figure out exactly where/how it fits with our home/family/farm life!
Today we said goodbye after another lovely week with my Great Aunt Eleanor. I'm glad we have the next one on the books already. She is literally part of our family but also feels like family when she is here - each time she comes it feels less and less like we are hosting and more like she is just coming home. We were scurrying around for much of this week but still savored meal times together and other visiting over chopping veggies (a lot of them - after 97 years she did a new thing here this week: she trimmed garlic on a Sunday! Not to mention snipping beans and chopping peppers and squash. She graciously made an exception because I think she could easily see how she could make our Sabbath just a tad more restful and enjoyable - it was really fun working together in the kitchen!). I was glad to observe that she also had lots of good mountain gazing time and snoozing on the deck! And she got to meet some of our dear friends and family in the area, join us for a small group evening in town, and take in the hubbub of a sleepover with 5 excited and energetic girls ages 7-12!
She taught Alida and Terah had to do crayon art and the results were stunning from my perspective!
This pretty much sums it up!
Here's the aforementioned sleepover underway! The sleep part has ended in the photo below, hours before our kiddos are normally awake! They didn't want to "waste" any more minutes sleeping than necessary! When they left, Terah noted that she wants them to come for 3 nights next time.
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But they don't fill me up quite as much the people who share Tangly Woods with me do!
P.s. The other morning Jason was sitting on the pot when something hopped under the bathroom door all coated in dust bunnies. Here's our new resident of the seed sanctuary after they were cleaned off.
