While the days have been full of perpetual activity and the nights spent in content, quiet rest in very dark rooms, I must admit there have been a few bumps in the road.  I have said it before, and I will say it again, but these boys of mine will not be caged up.  No matter if the cage is in the form of a post office, a restaurant, a visitors center, a gift shop, the answer is no.  Absolutely positively not.  There is no need to get into details, but I can promise you food shopping in the narrow isles of the amazing co-ops around me, will be done solo if at all possible.  I will avoid the confining walls of any establishment unless one hundred percent necessary.  It just must be.

Otherwise you can find us outdoors. 

I have heaved and hoed and cleared a few livable and comfortable nooks and crannies amongst the boxes and jumbles in our house for the moments of too much rain or too much prickers.  

And I am attempting to appease the beasts by breathing in more moving air than stagnant.  These pines fill my soul.  The fresh water feels like it looks.  Cold and crisp.  

I wish I had the magical touch to allow my children to once, just once be the calm ones in the pack, but no, no it is not meant to be.  I suppose when it really boils down to it, it is their energy that I envy most of all anyways.  

Tell me- Am I alone in my fears of the public eye?  Or public outings with children in general?  Is it only me that struggles to find a way around putting myself in a situation of stress?