Five Senses Tour, After the Circus

   This morning I woke up to a painfully quiet, slightly disheveled house. 

Handsome and I crept outside for the first Hot Tub Summit in two weeks, 

and now I am close to tears. No, wait, I am in full blown tears now. 

For the past ten days or so the farm has been filled with other people's offspring, 

and now they are all home where they belong. And I miss them. 

Every one of them, so much.  I'll share more about our week together soon, 

but this morning I need to "reset" with a Senses Tour. 

Then I need to go clean this house. Like, for serious you guys.

See:  Matt's Cool Whip hand print on the glass of the back door, evidence of a spectacular food fight. Several empty plastic two-liter bottles laying tiredly in the living room. Crumpled bed sheets on two well cuddled twin beds. Water-color artwork by Harley. Score sheet from a vicious UNO tournament. Mud puddles outside. Dried muddy footprints inside.

Hear:  Almost nothing. Even the animals are quiet this morning, possibly stunned into silence by the sudden lack of activity. I only hear the ceiling fan and the tapping of my keyboard. I no longer hear laughing, squealing, chattering kids. I no longer hear Mortal Kombat vs. DC Comics playing in the background. I also do not hear the ice dispenser struggling to produce something it does not have. I do hear a few echoes of happy people.

Smell: Time for some extreme honesty, friends... The cinnamon-vanilla Scentsy I switched on this morning is not doing much to combat the ambiguous funk. I have a date with some bleach today. And some baking soda. And every cleaning tool known to man. Thank goodness for the overnight rainstorm, because I can walk outside for some fresh air and inhale that wonderful ozone fragrance.

Touch: Breeze from the ceiling fan on my shoulder. Sore legs from running and roller skating. Tears drying on my face. Slightly crunchy wood floors beneath my bare feet. Did I mention this house is getting scrubbed today?

Think: How many miles will I need to log on each of the next sixteen days to meet my Iron Goat goals? Will Sammy ever truly get her revenge on Matt? Do my own human chickens understand the truth of things? How far-gone am I, spiritually? I wonder if that basil is ready to cut yet. It is a flat-out miracle from heaven that I didn't gain any weight this week.

Feel: A deep connection to my girls and the peace of a long view. Relief for some practical matters and high tension for some professional ones. Swells of love for these five young people who made a two-week appearance in our life. Excitement for an upcoming bee hive exercise!

We are very thankful to our friends and family who trusted us 

with their incredible sons and daughters these past two weeks. 

We had such fun, learned and remembered so much we had been missing, 

and basically loved every second. Talk about memory making!

I can promise you I will never forget this little slice of summertime! 

Now I'm going to go cry myself silly while cleaning. It's therapeutic.

Kids are Amazing.

Appreciate Them.

And Also Keep Bleach Handy.

xoxoxo