At Home: Making Memories at the National Night Out Luau

potluck - 2 aug 2011

While I spent this week again catching up from being gone and getting ahead to go away again, I also realized that I need to do a better job of making sure the girls have time to connect with their friends and neighbors. I want them to look back on their childhoods not as a time of being constantly on the road, but of having good memories of people and events in their hometown (at the moment Pine Lake). Part of this revelation came from Facebook; one of my childhood friends started a “reminiscing” group for our hometown. While a lot of the reminiscing that is happening is stuff I have no nostalgia for (fights, drugs, etc), it is interesting to see what a mass of people, ever so slightly connected can come up with as common ground. And common ground helps us to feel connected.

In thirty years, what common ground will my kids have with whom? Would it be with their homeschool peers in LEAD? Would it be with Pine Lakers? If we are always on the road or “too busy”, how will they develop this nostalgia and common ground? So, along with playing “Hometown Tourist” this year, I’m going to make a special effort to make sure that we form connections right here at home.

Tuesday night, despite the g*d awful humidity, we whipped up a nice vegetarian dish and headed down to the beach house for our annual National Night Out Luau. Despite the heat, a number of neighbors turned out for the potluck and the “Fire Safety House” demonstration. Only a couple of the girls’ friends showed up, but that’s okay. Given the small size of our community, the girls have to have friends of all ages!

I will continue to make an effort of getting us out into the community instead of holed up in the house “getting things done” when not on the road.

More photos …>>

luau - 2 aug 2011