Wonderful Weekend at Home Home

I spent the weekend at my parents' house in Longville over the past weekend and it was wonderful (I wasn't kidding!). Since it was mainly rainy weather, I sat on the porch and ended up almost finishing reading The Poisonwood Bible and for anyone who hasn't read it, they definitely should. Even Oprah agrees (hahaha). The book is about a Baptist family that goes on a mission to the Congo in 1959. The story is uniquely told by the mother and four daughters, and tells everything that happens. The story includes the country's independence from Belgium and the unraveling of the family. I don't want to say much more than that because it feels like such a personal book, one that each person will take something different away from it. It really made me think of my time in Peru last summer as well in the sense that to any outsider, the ways of the world in Peru seemed chaotic, but to anyone inside, everything was part of a system.

Back to my weekend: it was soooooo nice to see my parents again; it's been a really long time since I've been home. It felt so much better too now that I don't have schoolwork to do, so I don't have to make them feel guilty about not letting me work (I was always looking for them to distract me anyway).

I discovered that I actually have a good bike, thanks to my parents who wanted it out of their shed and wanted me to actually use it since it is nearly new. I got the mountain bike when we were still living in Elk River, but we moved shortly thereafter I believe, and since there was no good place to ride my bike without supervision, it ended up sitting in the shed for the past how many years. But it has been rediscovered, and I am excited! It's a 15 speed, and is in dire need of new tires. Just for my own curiosity I want to see how long the tires would last, but I think that I would be quite annoyed to have to walk it all the way back home. Steve suggests that I circle the block so that I don't have to walk very far, and I'm thinking that might not be such a bad idea. So I have to take it in soon to get new tires and to see if they can straighten up the back tire frame because it's a little warped. But other than that, it appears to be in excellent shape! And it's a beautiful emerald color, which is a far cry from what I remember it being. I could have sworn that it was only a 5 speed and was speckled green, black, and pink. Don't ask me where I got that, but maybe that shows how sharp my memories are. Scary stuff.

Pokey is good after all of her encounters with various creatures. She has a mild stench which smells like skunk. It didn't help that she was wet from the rain for the majority of the weekend. She couldn't be more proud. She has also been trying to become part of the herd too. The cows are back in the field and Pokey sees all of her potential playmates:



Now all she has to do is get them acclimated to her presence, and soon she'll be resting with them under the trees like she's been doing every summer.

I resisted the urge to take a million-and-a-half pictures of her. Instead I found some new subjects: the flowers in my mom's gardens and the hummingbirds.



I miss sitting on the porch already. It is so relaxing sitting there, looking out on the field, with book at hand, or carrying on a conversation. I'm going to try to focus on that while at work tomorrow morning :)