Picnic

Today I packed up lunch and the Nies and I went to

 a nearby empty park for a picnic.

The sun was shining and a light breeze blowing.  

Over peanut butter sandwiches (and a variety of chips), 

the Nies and I talked about our future and how we felt homeschool was going.  

Lottie misses her friends and teacher, Nicholas said he misses

his friends only, Oliver said he could take it or leave it,

and Jane doesn't miss it one bit.
(Claire has already graduated and started online college classes).

Finally tonight, I crawled into bed with Christian exhausted

 and with my eyes half-way

open I told him that I didn't want to fall asleep just yet.
I felt like I had worked so hard during the day and my reward
was my cozy bed (with mattress heater on and window open!),

and a little quiet time with just him.

But then I think I fell asleep.