I seem only able to communicate in bullet points

 We are back in France as of midnight Monday, and the return has not been an immediate easing of stress and the haven of peace I craved.

- Arrival at the final airport  - very nice to be greeted by kind neighbors, but joy was dampened seeing our damaged luggage arrive. (Two suitcases completely unusable and the third highly unlikely to survive another trip);

- Immediately tried to start car upon reaching the house, only to find the battery dead. (Kind neighbor installed one of his the next morning, so I could do groceries, while charging ours, which was thankfully not completely out of commission forever);

- Unpacked and found J's very expensive Petromax lamp had been stolen from one of our suitcases.  (J kindly went through the efforts of filing the claims. Pessimistic Me thinks we will likely get zero in damages...);

- My French phone card was not waiting for me and was not delivered until Wed afternoon, and even after I got it, I couldn't activate it because without it, I don't have Internet. Had to wait until kind neighbors got home at 8p.m. to activate it with their Internet and finally let J know how we were doing;

- Found the house invaded by mice (they had even chewed a hole in a canister lid to get at some poison I had in reserve); even the bread I brought from Lebanon and had left in a sack on the counter had been gnawed the next morning.  Two traps caught two mice Tuesday night and one this morning.

- Our brand-new lawnmower refused to start for me on Wednesday, the only sunny day we have had so far (kind neighbor came by to help me with it today and even he struggled to get it going. But after lots of tries, it is finally running again);

- our other mower has a flat tire;

- The archway leading into our front yard has collapsed and will have to be rebuilt, pronto. I think my wisteria will survive, but I am not sure about the canes on the tayberry planted on the other side will give fruit this coming year;

- Yesterday our furnace (connected to our 10 radiators) sprang a leak.  Thankfully the plumber was able to come the same day (after telling me he couldn't make it until the next morning) and repaired it.  I spent copious amounts of time collecting the water draining all over our dry wood before help came;

- I have now been coughing and bone-weary for a solid month, as have the kids.  This makes me very short-tempered and not good company.  

On the bright side:

- I received my asparagus plants and got them in the ground;

- I pruned my raspberries;

- I transplanted some thornless blackberries;

- as my newly-turned 13-year-old-daughter said, "No one is likely to bomb us here, Mom."  Very bright side, indeed.