To the Schoolhouse

This morning I did some laundry and worked out in the yard sticking in some seeds and moving some plants around while Thành dropped sand down the slide. It was a beautiful, sunny spring day; the kind where the air is still cool but the sun is warm on your skin.

I put Thành down for a nap and started to gather things for packing for the week-end's trip to the Schoolhouse when Ted came home earlier than I expected to help me out. What a guy. Though being home on Thursday and Friday means that I should carry more of the housework load, I really have come to resent being the one and only packer, so we're working to change that.

Besides, we are trying to attain that utopian state wherein we each have a pair of pants, a shirt and some socks down there so that all we really need to pack is toiletries. Good luck, 'eh?

We picked Louis up at school and he looked pretty wild after three days at the Land School. Everyone had looked at the same weather prediction of cold and rainy weather and the poor class had spent three days in the warm sunshine in turtle necks and heavy sweatshirts! We got home and the first thing Thành did was tackle Louis. Ah, brotherly love.

Not much information was forthcoming about the trip other than that everyone had a good time and Keegan was the only one who got homesick, so we moved on to loading the car. Louis was none too happy about getting back in a vehicle or spending more time away from home. He hasn't been home much lately having spent two days in Esko, two at school, three in Wisconsin and now two more in Crooked Creek, so I can see his point.

We drove to Lake City and for once we had the time to stop at the playground/park in the city marina that Louis always wants to stop at. The boys played and it was clear that Thành was very happy to have Louis home. I watched some birds and followed a black squirrel around (the only one I've ever seen outside of Toronto) and then it was time to hit the road again. The drive to the schoolhouse is half an hour too long for any of us, especially when you add in stopping at the grocery and liquor stores in Le Crescent. Still, this is a better strategy than traveling with a cooler.

As it stands, with four of us and Moby in the car now we have nearly everything up on the roof in a travel bag. Eventually we will get a larger car, but for now we travel in the Suzuki. Moby doesn't seem to mind sharing the back with a five gallon bottle of water, but we did learn this trip that you can't put the grocery bag with the donuts on top in the back with him!

We got to the schoolhouse just after dark and played our favorite game of Is it still there? Louis is usually the eagle eye that sees the little white triangle of the roofline as we come over the hill on the road after Walt Kuebler's farm. It's always a relief to know that some hoodlums haven't burned the place to the ground.

I took the kids inside, as it was just beginning to sprinkle, and Thành suddenly remembered where he was. He's only been to the schoolhouse twice and one of those trips was shortly after he joined the family, so he hadn't really understood where we were going. Inside, however, he headed right to the woodstove and said "hot" and then went over to the toy box and got out his truck and trailer.

We all hopped in bed just as a thunderstorm was starting. It was nice to be in our cozy little house in our toasty flannel sheets while the lightning flashed and the thunder rumbled. It didn't take anyone long to fall asleep.