Kids! Behave Yourselves! (You Pick the Punctuation)

The kids are sensing change. It has been days of obstinance and crying. They are not letting us reflect on our time here at all. As I am writing this, they are all struggling to take a nap because the tears keep coming from being so tired. Arley is worried about the ash cloud, which last we heard seems to be dissipating, and I am just not looking forward to packing and getting on that plane. Actually, I am looking forward to packing and have packed two bags already. The third bag will hold Eden’s diapers and my drum and odds and ends that didn’t make it in the first two cases. The part I am not looking forward to is the day we leave. We are planning a surprise for the kids to go to the zoo the day of the departure and we were going to bring our helper with, but now it looks as though we will not have room for her. She was so excited to go and now it looks as though I will have to tell her that she can’t go. Instead, Maggie is going to try and go with us. This I am excited about because she knows her way around and can get us to all the places that we want to go. We want to have things planned so that we can get to the airport without alot of waiting around and with tired and happy kids that will fall easily into sleep once we board the plane (Doesn’t that sound like a dream!). But alot of me wants to stay. Life is so beautiful and simple and slow, where mingling slowly is a way of life, not just what they do to posho (maize meal most like dumplings mixed with bouncy balls?).

On a side note, I made some hair ties from an old bicycle inner tube for Eden. She has been wearing the fountain of youth (on top of the head) or pig tails many days since them.