On the road again...

We're just getting ready to head home from yet another round of touring. We've learned a few things this time:

If we have to drive the singers around, too, it would be better if we had a 15-passenger van than a 7-passenger van (since there are 8 of us anyway). Tim and the singers did a lot of fun stuff me and the kids wanted to do, but no way to join in. Also, given the choice, it would be better to rent them a car than have to share. That was rough.

Trying to do a family vacation and a tour on the same week to the same place SEEMED like a good idea, but it was utterly exhausting. Vacations should be vacations. Work trips should be work trips. And if we come on a work trip, everything is much, much easier if we plan to just sit around all the time doing the same things we do at home. We are all worn completely out.

If the gate is open, you might lose a toddler. Losing a toddler is the scariest feeling EVER. Close the gates.

If you go into a henhouse in the middle of the night and find your 4 yo already hanging out there, it's best if you tell someone else you're both in the barn petting the chicks, or you might get locked in.

For every bad labor story I have personally, there are ones that are much, much worse. MUCH worse.  (I will never again complain about an unwanted natural childbirth of a very much wanted baby.....).

Sometimes one person's ideas can challenge the way I've viewed Shakespeare since I was in fifth grade.

You don't have to finish the hike to enjoy it. (I always want to see where the trail ends. I hate turning around in the middle. But I discovered this time that it's okay to stop and go back.).

I actually know more about the natural world than I realized, and I need to be outdoors with my kids more so I can pass that knowledge along.

1 giant field with hills + 1 curious 4 yo + 1000 fans = nightmare times 10 for mommy.

My kids are finally getting old enough to be really fun to talk to. On one hour-long drive, Caleb and I discussed how rocks are formed, the elements that are the ingredients for everything on earth, biochemistry (he begged to take biochem for 5th grade science! I'm so delighted!), the nature of memory (and we have some very intriguing theories that explain a lot that science is still pondering), how plasma screens work (we didn't know, but we looked it up later), and how amazing it is that computers work when, ultimately, their entire language is made up of two "letters"--on and off--arranged very carefully. Yeah--biochem, the nature of memory, and binary all in one conversation. I was thrilled.

Also learned that Wal-Mart brand dried fruit is one of the best out there. Who would have guessed?