excused

in another week i'll be heading back to the beach, this time with the boys, mega, and haley. something about being at the coast is indescribably nourishing to me. i love the sounds and the smells and the sun and even the heat. and something about the way the time evaporates into the tide feeds me.

i wonder how much of it is because i was born at the coast. i wonder how much of that is ingrained in my soul from childhood. (or maybe it's just because i'm a pisces.)

*shrug*

when i told todd and luke that we were going they didn't really know what to think. of course any vacation is good news, but they haven't ever had a beach vacation. they haven't ever spent back-to-back days putting on bathing suits and flip flops and hauling a cooler to the beach. they haven't had a vacation that involved more barefoot time than seatbelt time.

and when i realized that, i scratched my head and then i shook it. nobody to blame for that but myself.

growing up there was a cloth wall hanging in our kitchen, totally 70's style in mustard yellow, brown and orange; and on it a long proverb about how "children learn what they live". no doubt that's true. (frightening, eh?)

and so i think to myself, if i am replenished and invigorated by the sounds and feel of the ocean.. and perhaps i learned that as a child; then what will my boys be renewed by? their computers? the sound of music in their headphones? video games?

*sigh*

and so yes, i am taking my boys out of school for a few days at the beginning of the academic year. they will turn in their assignments and perhaps receive credit, perhaps not, when we return a week later. and i have decided that i have no remorse about these unexcused absences. because the absence of a beach vacation in their childhood is truly inexcusable.

d: sunny skies and memories of a lifetime
b: i choose experiential education.
g: one week and one day away!