Because there was more to the month than a couple of field trips.
Fourth grade means the first weekend homework assignments
Nightmare Before Christmas love
Sewing for Halloween
Hallowe'en Nights at Greenfield Village
Run Scream Run race
Fall birthdays tailgate
Fall birthdays dinner out
school as usual
getting old, and celebrating it
Pumpkin beer tailgate
Halloween 
Our annual fall away-schooling adventure took us to Washington D.C. this year. The weather was great, the crowds were relatively low, and we had a great time. And we may have learned something, too.
Days 1-2: Getting there is half the fun...old inns, mills, and covered bridges in Pennsylvania.
Day 3: the White House (where we saw the Presidential dogs playing in the yard), and the monument side of the National Mall
Day 4: our first day of Smithsonians, including the Museum of the American Indian, and the Air and Space Museum, plus dinner at a gastro pub in our neighborhood
Day 5: Our second day of Smithsonians, including the American History Museum and the Natural History Museum (not as good as the one in Chicago)
Day 6: The first slightly chilly, wetish day. We started at Arlington Cemetery, then drove down to Washington's Mount Vernon for the afternoon. 
Day 7: The National Zoo on a wet morning, then the weather cleared for dinner in Maryland at the National Harbor, followed by a tour of the monuments at night. 
Day 8: Ford Theater, the Capitol Building, The Library of Congress, and The Supreme Court Building. 
Day 9: our last full day, and the only really cold and wet one, we drove to Jefferson's Monticello
So here’s the thing: my real camera barely saw the light of day in the month of September. I don’t know if it was exhaustion after such an eventful August, or the advent of school frustrations, or if it was that the constant demand of the daily photo finally drained my photographer’s energy. Whatever the reason, as each September week came to an end I found myself scrambling for pictures to fill the seven days, then putting off not only the photo snapping but the blog updating as well…for just one more week. But of course, the bigger the hole, the harder it is to fill.
There were few events in September that even prompted camera usage, and when those moments came around I was found myself suffering from guilt paralysis—just seeing the camera reminded me of all those great shots I’d been failing to take, so I usually just left it in its bag.
But then October was significantly more action-packed, and each passing event left me yet another folder of unedited, unposed pictures, creating a continually growing pile of work between me and getting caught up.
That’s how, in December, I find myself behind three months of unreported happenings, and if I don’t dig myself out soon, I never will. So I’ve made a deal with myself—just photos, just recaps of major events or whole months. No editing, no weekly posts, no wordy explanations and I’ll be caught up in no time!
So here, posted in the first week of December, is finally a recap fo the month of September.
Water play on the last summer weekend before school
A first go at homemade pizza on the Green Egg
S'mores in the backyard with neighbors
Tea with good friends on an afternoon off
Football. September was about lots of football.
First concert of the fall
Halloween shopping a little early
Newsies on stage in Grand Rapids (during the Art Prize show)
Every Christmas, Jon and I drag out our old DVD collection (assembled some time in the ten years between VHS and streaming) and re-watch all our favorite holiday movies. Favorites like Rudolph make the cut, of course, but one of our favorites is Christmas Vacation. This is the underground classic in which Chevy Chase dreams up the perfect old fashioned family Christmas for his extended family, and then has one thing go wrong after another. In the end, his house is a shambles and all his guests are headed for a hotel, but all is righted again in the end and everyone learns that it's in the imperfection of such an event that we learn the true value of our family and the moments we spend with them.
Not being in retail, I'm not trying to rush Christmas, but the lesson in Christmas Vacation became very real to me last week as we went in pursuit of our annual week of family camping perfection. We struggled first with planning dates this year, finally settling on a week in August, only to have to change our plans at the last minute to accommodate other plans. And as our new date approached, the weather report became uglier and uglier, to the point where we flirted with the idea of cancelling the trip all together. Instead we made a heartbreaking decision and moved our reservations to another Michigan State Park, where the rain was less imminent and the temperatures more promising. Upon arrival, though, they'd lost our reservation, and it didn't take long to learn that Mother Nature breaks her promises easily, and loves nothing more than a good surprise.
All was righted in the end, though. Having no reservation meant we got to pick our site in person, and we ended up with the best site in camp. And though our week was most definitely chilly, it was wet only on occasion, and the rain was never really driving. We enjoyed our games in the tent, were able to make all our meals as planned, even the ones over a campfire, sand can be manipulated even in warmer clothes, and cooler weather is great for hikes. Best of all, we spent the entire week without technology, excepting the up-to-the-minute weather apps on our phones, which I would argue simply helped us work the weather to our advantage.
Our vacation was most definitely not perfect. It was far, far from perfect. At lease Chevy Chase had snow when he wanted snow. But what we had instead of a warm, sunny week on the beach was a week of time together—really, really together. It doesn't get much more together than stuck in a tent hiding from the rain or the cold with nowhere else to go. If you can enjoy those moments, and we did, then you're golden. It's in those moments that we find ourselves and each other; in the games played, the books read, and the discussions had. In the moments between.
Imperfect as it was, our vacation was utterly perfect.
view from our tent
rain before dinner...and after
dinner in the break between rains on day one
evening hike after the rain on day one
a brilliant, if chilly, morning on day two
sand play on the warmest day we had
on the "haunted" beach (Tawas point appears to be losing ground to the lake)
day two dinner
day three, another clear, chilly morning
pancake lunch
a semi-wet evening in town
a serious book discussion on evening four
camping, family, summer, traditions As a stay at home, I don't get to experience glamour very often. Usually I get out of my pajamas, and if I'm going to the store I try to pick out matching clothes and put on makeup, but dresses, jewelry, and heels often escape me. There just isn't any need for them.
So when the opportunity for a glamorous weekend presents itself, I look forward to, and get nervous about, for weeks beforehand. What to wear? How to accessorize? Is Jon's suit clean? Do I remember how to iron? Does the kid have clean underwear? (okay, that last one is a given, but I was scrambling to make sure he had clean socks and dress shoes that fit, especially during sandal season).
And in the end, it's not the style or the glamour of the weekend that has me nervous and excited, it's the people. All those adults! All those adults in one place! All those adults in one place with their real world, real people jobs that I don't know how to talk to. Because your average joe doesn't want to discuss the newest fads in homeschooling curriculum. Time to take the old, dusty conversation starters off that shelf way in the back of my brain—it's socializing time!
Last weekend we were included in the very glamorous, very posh, very exciting wedding weekend (aaallll weekend) of Jon's cousin. The wedding was an Indian culture wedding and all that goes with it. The entire weekend was not only entertaining, but educational as well. We ate delicious Indian foods, we took part in Indian traditions like the Sangeet (the fun dance party the night before the ceremony) and the Baraat (the groom's procession to the ceremony, complete with dancing entourage), and we got to see a traditional Hindy ceremony (performed in ancient Sanskrit nonetheless). I was loaned a saree, and helped, or folded, into it, and Calvin and I both received henna tattoos.
And the people. The people were so welcoming, both Jon's own family and extended family, and also the bride's family, who could not have been more welcoming or gracious the whole weekend through. It reminded me of my brother's island wedding in a way, because most guests stayed in the same hotel, where all meals were provided, and most events took place either there in the hotel or just two blocks away. There were so many guests at the wedding, in fact, that we ran into others everywhere we went, and enjoyed a sort of companionship that way, even with people we'd never met.
And elephants. Did I mention there were lots of elephants?
And now I can put away the dresses and the heels and return to my homeschool wear, which sometimes really is just pajamas, I admit it.
from our hotel room
on our way to the Sangeet
breakfast for the wedding guests before festivities started
gathering in the hotel lobby for the Baraat
getting the party started—the Baraat took us from the hotel to the performing arts center where the ceremony took place
before the cocktail hour and then reception, which was in the lobby, then at the ballroom in the performing arts center
