We Survived (This Far) — Here in the Bonny Glen

October 4, 2006 @ 3:07 am | Filed under: The Cross-Country Move

Well, here we are. Loading day. The girls have spent their last night in this lilting house. Tonight they’ll stay with our dear friends, the friends we moved into this town and this neighborhood to be near. The little ones and I will sleep here one last night on a borrowed air mattress, and tomorrow morning we’ll hit the road.

But that’s tomorrow, and first there’s today. The truck will be here in a couple of hours. We are ready. After all the frenzy of the past week, yesterday brought a bit of a lull; the packers finished early on Monday because we’d done so much of the packing ourselves (and by "ourselves," I mean me and a dozen-odd friends and neighbors, some of whom drove all the way down here from northern Virginia and New Jersey). (Amazing.) So we had yesterday afternoon to spend with some friends we met in our first weeks here but feel like we’ve known our whole lives. Eileen, the mom, is Wonderboy’s godmother, which means I get to keep her forever no matter where we live. Her six boys and two girls chased my gang around the boxes, and we dug up a clump of the mint that I planted from a sprig Eileen gave me when she was moving out of her old house. Her clump had come from her mother, and now she’ll start it at her new house on the other side of the mountain. I had saved some columbine seeds for her from my flower garden this year, too, and I like to think of those blooming in her pretty farmyard next spring.

Anyway. Lots to do this morning. I’ll probably be back to blubber on the keyboard tonight, though, me and my empty house.

Meanwhile, Scott has moved into our rental house in San Diego (where "moved into" means "carried in his bag of clothes and his guitar, which is all he took with him") and is eager for us to get out there and set it lilting.

Comments RSS | TrackBack URI

Jennifer says:

I welcome any blubbering if it is as beautifully written as this.
Posted on October 4th, 2006 at 4:50 am
radmama says:

Good luck!!! And blubber away…
Posted on October 4th, 2006 at 5:26 am
Kendra says:

Melissa, You have a wonderful (lilting?) way with words, and I already feel at home here. I stumbled across your blogs via another homeschool blog and have been reading on both sites for over an hour now Blessings for a smooth moving day (is there such a thing?!!) and a safe journey to CA. We are about to embark on our own cross-country move, and I am mostly-excited but still feeling panicky-at-the-prospect-of-moving ALL OUR STUFF again I look forward to dropping in regularly to read, no, SHARE more of your adventures!
Posted on October 4th, 2006 at 5:31 am
moreena says:

Best travelling wishes for you tomorrow. How hectic and harried this all sounds. But, also, how cool must your house be. I can’t believe all the little details that are thrown off in the course of describing your normal household life. Looms? Craft closets? Stray bits of wool and doll hair? Awesome.
Posted on October 5th, 2006 at 3:57 pm
Hank's Mom says:

Safe travels my friend!!
Update when you can.
Posted on October 5th, 2006 at 7:12 pm

Comment a lot? Register here. Already registered? Login here.

Want your own gravatar? Get one here.

Welcome to

the online home of

children's book author

you'll find posts about:

and much more!

Where to find unabridged Martha & Charlotte Books

Jane, 15 yrs old
Rose, 12 yrs
Beanie, 9 yrs
Wonderboy, 6 yrs
Rilla, 4 yrs
Huck, 19 months

and Scott, the love of my life

“Exploration,” says John Stilgoe, author of Outside Lies Magic, “is a liberal art, because it is an art that liberates, that frees, that opens away from narrowness. And it is fun.”

Yes: it is so, so much fun, and that is why I write these posts all chattery with excitement over this or that connection the kids made today. (Or that I made myself!) I know I get carried away, but that’s the point, isn’t it, that way leading on to way has carried me away?

And yet—and yet—I think we are at once ‘carried away’ and made more fully present in the now, more rooted, by these relationships between ideas about things past and future. The joy of connection makes me want to celebrate this moment, this brief encounter with wild-haired child and broad-trunked tree, bus going by, sign on church wall, Scottish warlord creeping over the tower wall and startling the English soldier’s wife who has just put her babe in arms to sleep by crooning that the Black Douglas won’t get him. Child, laughing, shouting “Dinna ye be sae sure aboot that!” across the courtyard outside the library. How can I not celebrate this freedom?

(from a post called Way Leads on to Way)

Subscribe to my feed

Coming in October with a foreword by yours truly

sarah: So cute! Infact I think he is the masculine personification of cuteness (Rilla being the feminine.)
Penny in VT: T-shirts never lie. Nor do bumper stickers. Cute little fella ya got there .:)
Melissa Wiley: Mary-Alice! Then we owe you a huge debt of thanks! It is one of Scott’s favorite books to read...
Mary-Alice: Little Bean!!! I acquired that book from the UK when I was at Harper. I loved that little girl and her...
Murray: Perhaps the t-shirt does not lie. Why else would he have called me yesterday? Not that he had much to say,...
Sue: I’m always impressed with how you manage a large family, writing, blogging, and everything else you do....
sarah: A busy life is a full life. I envy you your Kindle! Although I doubt it would be as forgiving of raindrops as...

Check out this big list of children's-book-related blogs at Kidlitosphere Central

Author and Illustrator Blogs

Every day is complicated, messy, and full of friction. And every day has glorious or cozy moments worth celebrating. I seldom bother to chronicle the friction and the mess because writing time is fleeting and precious—and childhood even more so. I’d rather capture the small joys that I might forget—or take for granted—if I don’t take time to set them down in words.

(Excerpt from this post about Real Life, quoted here because I don't want anyone to be under the impression that things are always perfect around here! Heaven knows we are anything but. Perfect, frictionless, orderly? Nope. Happy? Most of the time!)