Here, There, Everywhere

Another weekend, another round of throwing a suitcase into a moving vehicle and schlepping our children to a new location.  Without exactly meaning to, we've gone ahead and scheduled ourselves major weekend plans every weekend but one for all of February and March, and if the packing/unpacking routine is getting a little stale, the perks far outweigh the nuisances.  For one thing, I literally cannot believe that today's date is March 7, and I know that spring - true spring, daffodils-poking-up, absolutely no snow in sight - is going to be here in a flash.  For another thing, we've been able to spend some really quality time with just our little family of four and with some of our other favorite people.

This weekend's lucky location was Petoskey, where we were scheduled to do absolutely nothing.  And that's what we did.  We crashed my accommodating brother-and sister-in-law's (completely renovated, head-to-toe gorgeous Victorian) house for the first time since they've moved in.  From pancakes in the morning until bedtime at night, four little blonde girls ran from room to room, squealing with delight and not needing serious adult intervention at all.  Jason and Trevor played a ton of guitar, Lisa and I walked to the bookstore and bakery in town, and we bundled up to go ice-skating as our big outing of the day on Saturday.  We were able to watch my niece's adorable Highland dance recital and break into spontaneous family polka circle (complete with confused basset hound), and I count that as the weekend's culture and exercise component.

Late Saturday night, I sat up reading Claire Dederer's new book, Poser, while Jason and Trevor had a few brotherly beers at The Noggin Room.  In a book about yoga and competitive mothering and making a living as a writer, I came across this quote, which seemed just right:

"In my experience, cousinship is the perfect human relationship:  Like siblings, cousins will be with you forever, no question; unlike siblings, cousins adore each other and forgive each other always, no question."