We Survived (This Far)

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.

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  1. Jennifer says:

    I welcome any blubbering if it is as beautifully written as this.

  2. radmama says:

    Good luck!!! And blubber away…

  3. 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!

  4. 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.

  5. Hank's Mom says:

    Safe travels my friend!!
    Update when you can.

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My Bonny Clan


Jane, 13 yrs old
Rose, 10 yrs
Beanie, 7 yrs
Wonderboy, 4 yrs
Rilla, 2 yrs
baby eagerly expected Jan. 2

and Scott, the love of my life




Book Log 08


In progress:


Damosel: In Which the Lady of the Lake Renders a Frank & Often Startling Account of her Wondrous Life & Times
by Stephanie Spinner

Lots of picture books
for the Cybils
(See my mini-reviews at Twitter)

Sense and Sensibility
by Jane Austen
(reading this aloud to Jane)



Recently enjoyed:


Bend-the-Rules Sewing
by Amy Karol

Understood Betsy
by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
(read-aloud to Beanie)

The King's Fifth
by Scott O'Dell
(middle-grade novel about a young Spanish cartographer's travels with Coronado in search of the Seven Cities of Cibola)

A Murder for Her Majesty
by Beth Hilgartner
(I posted about it here)


haystackcover

Haystack Full of Needles
by Alice Gunther
(Here's a post I wrote about it)

The Highwaymen
by Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman

Number the Stars
by Lois Lowry

Swallows and Amazons
by Arthur Ransom

A Street in Marrakesh
by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea

Knight's Castle
by Edward Eager (to Beanie)

(a sequel to Half Magic)



The Creative Family
by Amanda Soule

The Losers (Vol.1): Ante Up
by Andy Diggle and Jock

Green Arrow: Year One
by Andy Diggle and Jock

Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places
by John R. Stilgoe
(here's a post about it)

Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage
by Madeleine L'Engle

Dogger
by Shirley Hughes

As for the rest:

They're at GoodReads


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Hey, what happened to all those booklists you used to have in your sidebars?

They're still accessible at melissawiley.typepad.com, where this blog lived from January 2005-March 2008. You can also find all my Lilting House posts there, or try the search bar here. All my previous Bonny Glen and Lilting House posts have been imported to this site.


My Big List of Booklists


Favorite Fictional Families


The Quiet Joy


Scary Junkyard Dogs





Books We Love

(a work in progress)

Picture Books


The Story of Ping
by Marjorie Flack

My First Mother Goose
illustrated by Rosemary Wells

Blue Hat, Green Hat
by Sandra Boynton

The Maggie B by Irene Haas

James in the House of Aunt Prudence by Timothy Bush


Fiction


Just So Stories
by Rudyard Kipling

The Tintin books
by Herge

Showcase Presents
a line of comic books
published by DC Comics
(I posted about them here)

Whinny of the Wild Horses
by Amy Laundrie

The Penderwicks
by Jeanne Birdsall

My Father's Dragon series
by Ruth Stiles Gannett

Understood Betsy
by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

The Wheel on the School
by Miendert Dejong

The Chronicles of Narnia
by C. S. Lewis

By the Great Horn Spoon
by Sid Fleischman

The Swallows & Amazon books
by Arthur Ransome


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