Last week we headed east to see my mom and some of my extended family. The children were excellent travellers, apart from the occasional “is that the hotel we’re going to stay in?”

Mom lives in Western Pa. In past years, the Amish have been slowly migrating from east from Ohioa and West from Lancaster County to settle in the countryside surrounding my hometown. They have quite a large community there now, and one of the things my kids wanted to do while we were there was to “see the Amish.” So in typical voyeuristic American style, we drove through the areas that now are Amish communities where we passed a few horse-drawn buggies, and saw the Amish people out in the fields working. We also dropped by an Amish store to pick up a few goodies, and the children enjoyed talking with the Amish lady who ran the cash register (mechanical, not electric).

Our trip to the Amish was on our way home from the cemeteries. Every year on Memorial Day, my mom makes her journey to the graves of her parents, her siblings, and her husband to plant flowers and tend to those that were planted before. As a child, I remember spending half a day making this trek and thinking how I would rather be doing something else. This year, I drove my mom to the cemetaries, and I was happy to be with her; I was also happy to have my children along. I think I now understand a little of why she always made me go with her when I was little.

After 3 days with my mom, we headed south to Nashville. Our drive from PA to TN was the worst part of the trip. It was just sooooooo long. However, after we arrived, we had a good night’s sleep and spent the following day with a couple of friends from our pre-seminary church home. We enjoyed seeing the Owens, and we had fun visiting a couple of Nashville landmarks–The Hermitage (home of Andrew Jackson whom we studied at the end of our year of homeschooling) and the Parthenon, a replica of the real Parthenon in Greece that sits in the middle of Centennial Park in central Nashville.

We arrived home Saturday night. It was a pleasant trip, but as always, it is good to be home.

P.S. In relation to my last post, now all the laundry is certainly not done. Oh well.