Back to Life, Back to Reality

After spending Thursday, Friday, and Saturday on vacation in the Midwest, I arrived home on Sunday afternoon to a tired husband, two energized kiddos, a slightly disheveled and dirty house (Tom makes a valiant effort to tidy and clean prior to my return home, but there are plenty of details he just doesn't know need to be taken care of), a mountain of laundry, and a lengthy to-do list. I took the kids to the park as soon as I arrived home to give Tom a break, but an hour after our walk I'd transitioned from "relaxed and refreshed daughter and sister" to "overwhelmed mother running a mile a minute". I finally slowed down - long enough for my people to surround me with hugs and smother me with kisses - later in the evening though, at then all seemed right with the world.

Me and my boy on our way home from the park.

And me and my girl. Well, mostly my girl. You can
just barely see me in the background of her selfie.

I had high hopes of cranking out a thoughtful, in-depth post about my adventures on the road, as well as my love for "real" fall, but this morning I find myself unable to fit that kind of writing into my "catch-up" day. I promise such a post on Wednesday, and in the meantime, here are links to a few of my posts - some new and some that you may or may not have read here previously - that have recently gone up on the Red Cross blog or MomsEveryday.

Red Cross: Working Toward 100%, a glimpse into yet another failed fire drill in the Ferris household, along with tips on how to prevent such a circumstance from happening at your house.

MomsEveryday: It's Time, the background behind my decision to stop - or at least attempt to stop - overextending myself and what it meant for Chasing Roots.

MomsEveryday: The Burning House, an exercise in balancing practicality against sentiment when faced with a catastrophic event.

MomsEveryday: I Can't Take Them Anywhere, just one more story about how my children embarrass me in public.

See you on Wednesday!