spending an hour to leave the kids happily settled in with papa.
navigating a tricky five point tourist-filled intersection.
finding really good singapore chow mei fun.
all leading up to over 3 hours of lingering conversation
with a much loved cousin from miles and miles away.
priceless.
i could feel the breeze
through the rolled down car windows
getting fresher and clearer the farther i drove north.
it might,
of course,
have been my imagination.
but the miles took me quickly from this:
to here:
to close enough to this familiar bridge to know that
maine was in my very near future:
i would have happily taken you all with me,
what piles of fun we all would have had together
but unless you and your luggage took up a total of less space than a loaf of bread
there was simply no room in either of our two cars.
this is what traveling with 6 people
(4 under the age of 15) is like.
i’m sure you understand.
my youngest calls from the kitchen,
“mama, can i have cookies for a snack?”
having learned my lesson many times before,
i walk to the kitchen to find his little green bowl
full of cookie crumbs (nevermind that it was sitting next to the open cookie tray).
‘hey,’ i say, ‘what are the crumbs already in your bowl from?’
with a straight face
(i do not know how kids don’t crack themselves up) he says,
‘those are grape crumbs from the purple grapes i ate earlier’.
then he waits, fully expecting me to nod and okay his cookie request.
i know he expected me to buy his story by the look of shock on his face
when i questioned his ‘grape crumbs’ theory
and ultimately denied his request for more cookies.
i did in the interest of fairness, offer him ‘more’ purple grapes for his snack.
ha. not my first rodeo.
three days ago
i dropped my oldest off at camp.
overnight camp – for seven days for the very first time.
surely she’s making friends and having a great time.
the lake was so lovely and the people so nice, that i wanted
to grab a bunk and stay myself. truly, i did.
her being away just makes home different.
it’s not quiet here as i’ve got 3 kids remaining of my own,
and often 3 or so from the neighborhood on any given day,
but the space filled by my oldest is oddly empty.
this puts me in a thinking mood.
i’m seeing some personal ruts i want to break out of,
some walls i want to break down,
and pondering what new adventures i want to begin…
as a small start, i have this lovely _
(in the colorway ‘confiture’)
the adventure part is that i have in mind
a shape that is new to me (although not uncommon)
and i want it to be somewhat lacy.
(don’t get your hopes up), but lacy none-the-less.
since things feel different here this week,
i’m also revved up to try my new square needles from knitter’s pride.
i wasn’t sure how they would feel to hold in my hands,
but although they feel different,
they don’t feel square.
the wood is smooth and warm (as opposed to the chill of some metallics).
the grain is very pretty which makes my artistic side happy.
my practical side didn’t really care what they looked like one little bit,
but it’s glad that the artistic side of me isn’t griping.
i’ll need to knit a little more with them
to find the words to describe
just how they feel
‘different’.
maybe i’ll be able to explain
about the same time my sweet girl arrives home
full of stories and new outlooks and penpals galore. can’t wait.
i am not a lace designer.
i dabble, but i have friends with truly mad lace designing skills.
still, if i someday have the chops
i want to design a wrap with edges that capture
the organic jaggedness of this flower
which despite my inconsistent watering and
the fact that its ground is being encroached upon
by a least three different types of grasses,
has bloomed in such a striking way
just at my backdoor.
i’m looking back over the past few posts
and seeing for the first time how all the pics are in black & white
or taken of my black/grey & white hat for the past week.
it’s funny how my urge for something cut and dried (b&w)
snuck into the photos i liked best without my even knowing.
life this week has certainly been gray,
not in a bleary way,
but full instead
of circumstances where
what’s the best for all involved isn’t immediately obvious.
it started with my own personal life,
then bled over into family situations, then stealthily slipped into the knitting.
i think at this point that all the details are decided,
so now it’s just a matter of following through,
and i can do that.
besides,
the garden is in full bloom
and things seem more right with creation when it’s as beautiful as it is right now.
‘bloom’ taken from 2:15 in song of songs.
this is our haul from the trip to the library this morning:
we’ve got everything from extreme science to
bike repair to learning to speak chinese
(and that’s just my 8 yr old’s bag).
if the kids pace themselves,
it should
last them almost the week.
then we’ll head back again, jiggity jig.
yup, they know us by name.
when i was 14 and researching term papers
at the very same public libraray,
i would never have guessed that someday
(which is now)
i’d be bringing my kids back
to the very same building to haul home their very own books.
coming round full circle is cool, but slightly odd, too.
‘haul’ taken from 21:5-6 of john.
because of my parents (and all that came before them)
and because of my in-laws (and all that came before them),
my husband and i were made.
thanks to God (the Father),
we fell into each other’s lives, and arms,
and made a family of these:
the more you know me, the more you’ll understand
how intense a miracle that all is.
today, i feel completely awed by the history of us all.
what a beautifully intricate web
of events: starts and stops, hopes and heart crushings
was woven together to hold us all safely.
i am feeling so very grateful.
‘ready’ taken from 24:27 of proverbs.