Eclipse....

Keith took this photo very early Tuesday morning. We decided to set our alarm for 2:30 AM and wake the kids if the eclipse was "worth it." Living out in the country has its benefits; among many, we can see the stars, moon, and night sjy much more clearly out here in the boondocks than the city dwellers do. So when the beeping of the alarm sounded in the middle of the night, Keith and I reluctantly crawled out of bed, bundled up, stumbled downstairs, and opened the front door onto the porch.

What we saw made us immediately go back inside and start waking kids.

I woke the boys who were sleepily willing to put on jackets and were awestruck by the eclipse, by the magic we could watch from our own front porch. Elizabeth, however, groaned and turned over, snapping at us grumpily and refusing to budge. Her loss ... kinda.

The three boys, Keith, and I passed around Keith's excellent binoculars and Keith set up his tripod and camera to capture photos, including the one above. We thoroughly enjoyed watching the thin sliver of reflected sunshine grow smaller and smaller until all the white brightness disappeared into the deep orange of the shadowy eclipse. We sat watching, spellbound, until the eclipse was complete at 2:53 AM. After the eclipse completed, we sent the boys to bed and slid back into bed ourselves, regretting that Elizabeth had missed the wonder of watching the lunar eclipse.

We found out the next morning that the dogneeding to go out, had awakened Elizabeth at 3:30 AM. So when she trotted the dog out to his special place for doing his "thing," she unwillingly caught a blurry glimpse (without her contacts) of the full eclipse.

So we were all a bit tired, a bit grumpy, a bit short-tempered on Tuesday after losing sleep during the night (Keith never did get back to sleep, and I didn't sleep much, either). But it was well-worth the trouble to watch one of the wonders of Creation at work last night, right from the comfort of our front porch -- in a silenced awe.