Nicknames

This blog is not primarily about my family. It must be hard enough for my children to have a mother who makes herself as public as I already do, without me writing about them to the world. But they do frequently fill my thoughts and appear in my stories of travels or homeschooling, so I need to call them something. I've never been good at coming up with nicknames, but this week I made a huge effort so that I could get away from the annoying initials and still tell about our summer reunions.

I hereby announce the updated (all grownup) children's nicknames: the boys, Pathfinder and Soldier; the girls Pearl, Pippin (formerly Nature Girl) and Baby. Perhaps I'll need to update them again in the future, but I like these one-word names. My beloved husband will continue to be B., because I think he likes that better than something else I could invent that would sound silly. Some nicknames for the children's spouses are at the ready when needed.

The photo is of Pippin's back yard where we enjoyed dinner last month on our way to join up with the rest of the clan in Oregon. Oregon Part 2 post is in the works, but blogging has been set aside a bit while I have my post-busyness crash, in the wake of Pearl and her tribe departing. I'm having my R&R by cleaning drawers, washing dishes, and ironing. Only after I get some real energy back can I do the kind of work that requires serious decision-making, the kind that is needed when thinking about where to hang the pictures on the walls, or how to write a book review.

Next week I get to have Pippin and her baby here for a few days. The little guy is scooting around on the floor nowadays, so I better add sweeping to my list of happy homemaking chores.