Life Lately and The Great American Solar Eclipse 2017

I can hardly believe how long its been since my last post. Time has just been flying by and any system of organization I had has been completely obliterated. So what’s been going on?

The kids went back to school in early August. How is it possible that I have a third and fourth grader already? I keep coming back to the adage, The Days Are Long But the Years Are Short. Well, we have some really, REALLY long days (especially with homework), but the DH and I are doing our best to create happy, lasting memories with them.

My Mom’s six-week visit finally came to an end. After dropping her off at the Atlanta Airport, we headed to Lavonia, Georgia for a few days. This was a combination trip to celebrate the DH’s birthday as well as to watch the Great American Solar Eclipse 2017 from the Path of Totality.

The DH and I had gone back and forth about whether or not we wanted to pull the kids out of school and ultimately decided this was a rare opportunity that could not be missed. We wanted to avoid I-85 as much as possible with the prediction of grid-locked traffic, so we headed northwest to the little town of Lavonia, which we could get to using mostly back roads.

Lavonia has a population of approximately 2,200. One of the local police officers estimated that thousands of visitors descended upon the town yesterday to watch. To the town’s credit, they had a neat setup on the Square with a band, vendors and a free rock-painting booth for the kids. Check out Stinky and Blinky’s eclipse creations:

For a while, we were worried that the clouds would spoil the event. However, they cleared just minutes before. In the seconds leading up to totality, the atmosphere was electric! Kids were jumping up and down and most adults were visibly emotional. The crowd exploded into a round of applause and cheers at the moment of totality. The DH took these photos with our camera, using one of the solar eclipse glasses as a filter. Check out that corona!

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Looking back, this trip was worth the long drive, the car fights, the fast food diet, the extreme August heat, and stalking Walmart for solar eclipse glasses. For just under two minutes, none of that mattered and we were all blown away by the sheer majesty of this beautiful event. It is truly something we will remember forever. As we were walking back to the car Stinky said, “That was totality worth it!” I couldn’t agree more.

But now we’re back to our daily routine and I really must figure out a new system that will enable me to balance working from home, taking care of the home, the dreaded homework hours, and the kids’ extra-curricular activities. I would love tips and tricks from those of you who have figured it out!