There's No Place Like Home

Last weekend, I drove down to Louisiana.  My grandpa (or Paw Paw as we call him) had had a heart attack several days beforehand and was now home from the hospital.  At 96 1/2 years old we call him the Miracle Man with good reason!  This time, however, it's different.  Even though he's been released from the hospital, his congestive heart failure is here to stay and he will be on hospice from here on out.  Because I didn't know how much time he had left, I felt strongly that I should make the trip down to Thibodaux and spend a few days with family.

Emily had flown down the weekend before, while Paw Paw was still in the hospital.

She and Amy made a poster with all the grandkids and great-grandkids names on it.

While there, I was able to see several aunts and uncles and quite a few of my cousins, and -- as an added bonus -- my sister Amy and brother Freddie were there as well.  {My mom had already been planning to move back "home" to Thibodaux at the end of March (with Freddie and Amy there to help) before Paw Paw even went to the hospital.}  While I think it's true that "home" is wherever your family is, there's something special about going back to the place where you come from.  And even though I didn't actually grow up in Thibodaux -- my hometown of New Orleans is a little over an hour away -- so many of my happiest childhood memories took place at my grandparents house that it always feels like home when I turn into the long gravel driveway.  As a kid, I was in heaven running all around and playing in the huge front and backyards with my siblings and cousins.  As an adult, it's a different experience.  With this trip in particular, I probably spent a dozen hours just sitting and rocking on the front porch, watching the world go by while time seemed to paradoxically stand still.  The old live oak dripping with Spanish moss in the front yard and the comforting presence of the Bourgeois Meat Market across the street have been a constant in a world that likes to spin madly about it.   To sit and to rock on this front porch with that view at hand is to feel the kind of peace and contentment that can only be ascribed to "home." 

These are my cousin's kids climbing on the old oak, but we did the same thing when we were kids.  Me and Amy and Freddie and my mom were trying to guess at how old the tree is -- our best estimate is that it's been there for almost 400 years.  

Inside the old barn -- it used to house Paw Paw's boat, but now it's a catch-all for tools and other storage.

The personal trainers from Paw Paw's gym came to visit him once he was home from the hospital.

Freddie and Amy kept me good company on the front porch.  :)

This is the house my mom is moving into -- it's right next to the house she grew up in.

I'm the oldest grandkid and Anne is the youngest.  I'm 41 and she's 11.  :)

Paw Paw reading "Unbroken."

I had to get a little treat for Maxwell from the meat market.

He really LOVED his pupsicle.  Hahaha.

This place is special.  The house alone has seen over a hundred years of living within its walls -- my Paw Paw grew up there, as did my mom and her siblings.  Originally a carriage house with slave quarters upstairs, my great-grandparents settled there in the early 1900s and Paw Paw was actually born in the front room of the house -- in almost the exact same corner where he will most likely die.  I think there's something kind of beautiful and symbolic about that -- his life coming around full circle, beginning and ending in the same place.  And whether he passes soon or hopefully later, I'm so grateful that I was able to see him and listen to his stories one last time. 

Lester Charles Bourgeois

He was in the Air Force during WWII.

Paw Paw took over the meat market from HIS dad and built the current building across the street.

He LOVED to fish.

And he LOVED to golf.

Birthday Alley

This week is truly a rolling snowball of birthdays for my family! My brother's was the 25th of February, mine was yesterday (the 28th), today is a nephew's birthday, a niece has one on Thursday, and my sister's birthday is this Friday.  Since birthdays are the theme of the week, I figured it only made sense to recap mine for today's post.  But because it's also been a while since I've done kid updates, I thought I'd throw in a few of those as well.  You're welcome.  😉 

I've always been a big believer in stating expectations -- after all, you can never assume that other people will be able to read your mind.  {And that's a fact.}  Which is why I let everyone know at family council last Sunday that I wanted some kind of surprise waiting for me when I came downstairs on my birthday morning, I wanted the kids to come up with a cake concept, and I wanted everyone to get along.  Not too tall an order, right??  Hahahaha.  Well, believe it or not, they hit each request!  {For the most part.}  

I treated MYSELF to a birthday present of a subscription to The Economist magazine and this book about economics -- Profit and Prejudice: The Luddites of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.  Sounds SO fascinating, right???

I came down yesterday morning to a fabulous birthday poster plus balloon bunting and pictures courtesy of Grace and Sophie, and then (after church), Jane took the lead on the cake -- a cookie cake.  I think I've mentioned it before, but we're all pretty "caked" out after this past year of quarantine baking.  Hahaha.  Ethan graciously played games with Isaac for most of the afternoon, helpfully keeping the two younger ones separated and thus enabling all that getting-along-ness between the kids.  Haha.

They found this low-key banger of a Glamour Shots photo of me, circa 1990-something.

Meanwhile, Scott wrapped everyone's presents and kept me company while I prepared dinner -- Honey Chipotle Lime Chicken Bowls which I forcefully declined anyone else's help in trying to make, because I didn't trust them to know what they were doing.  Harsh?  Perhaps.  But I guess I'm a bit of control freak, and I just really wanted to make sure that my birthday dinner was going to taste good.  {And it did. 😊}

Before eating dinner, however, it was time for the kids to lavish all their praise and attention on ME as they celebrated my birth and I opened all their presents.  Hahaha.  I loved each and everything they picked out, from Ethan's gift of new saucepans (because ours are all biting the dust) to Grace's Reese's peanut butter eggs and rubber bands for my hair (because as she said -- I'm always looking for one and can't find any) to Isaac and Scott's dovetailing gifts centered on the Notorious RBG, to Jane's box full of post-it notes and pens, to Alex's gift of a couple new (beautiful) journals, to Sophie's piece de resistance of a jar full of reasons why she loves me (41, to be exact -- and yes, she DOES know that Words of Affirmation are my love language).  What can I say?  My life with this crew is an embarrassment of riches!  All in all, it was a lovely birthday.  {Other than perhaps church, where Alex and Isaac were almost completely out of control and since we were late to church we ended up sitting in the foyer.  And it probably didn't help that I had forgotten to give Alex his ADHD meds that morning}

But enough about me.  Hahahaha.  Here's a quick run-down of what the kids have been up to:

• Ethan found out a few days after his admissions letter that he also won a (1 year, renewable) scholarship to BYU!  I'm so proud of him for his hard work and so very happy to see him so happy as well.  To celebrate the occasion, we hit up the BYU store online to order some merch -- and a couple of bags of chocolate-covered cinnamon bears as well.  

(I had to get something for myself, obviously.)

• Grace, meanwhile, is getting very anxious to finally get her driver's license.  Her crash back in August kind of threw a wrench in things, and she hasn't practiced driving very much since then.  Of course, it doesn't help that there aren't very many places that we even drive to these days because of the pandemic, but now that the pressure is on to get her license before May (when Ethan -- as a senior -- will be done, and she'll need to get herself to school), I think we can make some magic happen.

• Sophie, surprisingly, has become the family Marvel movie aficionado.  While all of us have been enjoying "Wanda Vision" on Disney +, Sophie has really gone above and beyond in her love of all things Marvel Universe.  I'm getting quite the kick out of it, especially since it's giving me flashbacks of Alex's superhero OBSESSION as a preschooler.  Although, to be clear, she is nowhere near the level of obsession that he was.

Sophie's jar of "I love you because..."

I had to share a few of my favorites...

I love you because you almost alway listen to us drone on about what we're currently obsessed with.

I love you because you help me keep my body clean. :)  Hahahahaha.  You can thank Diary of a Wimpy Kid for that quote as it has become a family running joke.

I love you because of your weird obsession with post-it notes.

I love you because you get really excited often. 😂

I love you because of your newfound obsession with crash course and politics. 😂😂

I love you because of how much you love the color fuchsia.

• Jane is potentially going to follow in Sophie's footsteps as she tries out next month for the junior high dance team.  She wanted to try and apply for yearbook as well, but I'm pretty sure she missed the deadline, so that's a no go.  Womp womp.  It's kind of crazy thinking of Jane as an almost 7th grader.  I mean, yes -- she IS very young for her grade -- but somehow the idea of her going off to junior high makes her seem even younger! 

• Alex's interest in the Marvel Universe has also been re-upped with the release of Wanda Vision, and it's funny to see he and Sophie share the same interest.  It doesn't happen very often.  Or perhaps ever.  Hahaha.  On a completely separate note, a little before Christmas, we noticed a bald spot forming on the top of his head.  We soon discovered that he was pulling his hair out without realizing it.  Trichotillomania is the technical name of the condition, and we've been working on identifying triggers and what we can do to help him remember not to pull.  He's always kind of fiddled with his hair subconsciously, but for whatever reason, he has ramped up the fiddling these days to full-on pulling.  We've noticed that he seems more inclined to do it when he's in a "lounging" type position -- eg when he's reading a book or working on his chromebook from the couch/bed -- and to counteract that, we've had him move his chromebook station to the kitchen counter, where he's sitting up straight while working and playing with Thinking Putty to keep his hands busy.  It seems to be helping!  The bald spot is still there, but it's slightly smaller than it was a couple of months ago and it looks as though some of the hair is starting to grow back.

This whole lounging on MY bed while they do virtual school is no longer an option.  (Although to be clear, I never wanted it as an option at all.)

This is what it looked like in December.

• Isaac is still working on staying in his bed all night, but we've found a surprising antidote to his nighttime terrorism -- a body sock!  He looks absolutely hilarious in it, but he really likes it -- I think it helps with his sensory-seeking needs -- and for whatever magical reason, whenever he falls asleep in it he stays in his bed.  I think it makes him feel snuggled enough that he doesn't need to come and snuggle with me in the middle of the night.  Hahahaha.  It's ironic that he was my one baby who really hated being swaddled as an infant and ALWAYS worked his arms free of the blanket. 

(We got this cute, belated Valentine in the mail from Isaac this last week.)

And that is a wrap, folks!  Now that I'm 41, I think it's officially time for me to start working on my 50 Before 50 List.  Hahahahaha. 😜