Rock To Wind A String Around

Popped over to Habesha Child to find this short little meme.  Always late to ride a trend wave, I thought I’d do this now, so as to be one of the cool kids.

I am reading:

Searching for Whitopia by Rich Benjamin.  It is fascinating, well-written, and more than a little scary.  I just finished  Homer & Langley by EL Doctorow, and it was pretty fab too.  Living in the neighborhood with the best library in the country, I am spoiled rotten.  I hear about a great book and can instantly put it in my book bag of reserves.  The books fly my way pretty quickly, so right now my shelves are groaning–I have the newest Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro volumes, and I’ve got more than a few other gems in my reserve queue.

I am drinking:

a little water in a disposable cup.  Elliott’s inability to load the dishwasher properly led me to ban the use of said dishwasher for one week.  Sadly, he is no better at washing by hand.  Sometimes refining behavior through the use of natural consequences is very taxing…

I am listening:

To  The Killers–the Hot Fuss album at the moment.  They are a welcome break in the endless loop of Black-Eyed Peas served several billion times daily for my aural enjoyment.

I am watching:

the latest season of Big Love,  Ugly Betty, and Masterpiece’s brilliant presentation of Clueless, I mean Emma.  I am also waiting for season 6 of Mary Tyler Moore to arrive–the depth of my love for that show cannot be denied!

I am loving:

this cozy winter day.  Sad that Albert is away for an extra day this week, I’ve ‘turned my frown upside down’, and have begun to splash a beautiful yellow (one shade darker than the new kitchen paint) all over my dining room walls.  It is an illness, but I love to paint and I’ve waited far too long to cover those bland walls.  This is the first day at home in an eon–it’s nice to get the impromptu painting done.

The week always seems to loom a little large when Albert leaves on Monday morning.  Another headache, the end of season 3 of Mad Men,  a thwarted trip to the newly opened Benefit Brow Bar, and a 3 year old who is really really really in love with dotty diapers, and well, it’s time to remember the things I do appreciate today, including:

1.  the dvr—episodes of Ugly Betty watched on my own schedule–brilliant!

2.  my public library—tis true, tis true, our libraray is rated tops in the nation.  a huge collection, an easy reserve policy–it’s almost painless to pay the hefty fines we always seem to rack up.

3.  Christmas shopping–don’t hate me, but it’s nearly done.  a few things to pick up,  a little wrapping to finish, but really, 88% of the way there, I think.

4.  Glee–I didn’t think I could become a fan so quickly. I puffy heart love  you, Jane Lynch!

5.  books on CD–the long long long drive I have planned to Florida by way of DC is made almost bearable by Beezus and Ramona, Clementine, Encyclopedia Brown, and if I’m really lucky, Mr. Darcy

Lots of other things to be grateful for, and I’d elaborate if it wasn’t so close to the end of the day (shaking ineffectual fist at you, NaBloPoMo!)  Instead, I’ll remind you all of the joys of:

online shopping

OPI nail polish

evergreen scented soy candles

an incredibly beautiful fall (the prettiest in years, I think)

and Liberte’ yogurt

Looking at this list, tomorrow seems amazingly do-able once more.  Thanks gratitude for leading the way!

We’re on the first official jaunt of the summer.  Last week was filled with fifty-eleven appointments:  at the orthodontist, with the homeschool assessor, the cable guy, etc.  Any holes in the schedule left time for some ‘to-do’ list items for EOR and ETSS.  This morning we took out the trash, turned off the AC, loaded the car and drove to DC.  Always a long trip, it also always seems a good deal longer than you remembered while you are in the midst of it.  We brought the Penderwicks of Gardham St to listen to, bought a new lap desk for AM and turned the backseat into a jumble of crayons and paper and sudoku books and wikki sticks.  The drive was still amazingly long and boring, but the noise from the backseat was more muted thanks to all of the fripperies that helped to create a sound barrier.

Pops arrives in a few days to whisk the boy away on his 2 month long ocean voyage/Florida vacay–the extra belongings needed for this trip made the Subaru even cozier.  Life on the sailboat calls for a bicycle and a rip stik,  as well as a million bathing suits.   We did the bulk of the packing yesterday, and  for the first time ever, Elliott neglected to pack a stuffed friend for the trip.  Just one of a zillion little instances that will break my heart into bits as my sweet boy grows up.  Last night, I order a box of books to arrive from Amazon just before the Wild Dog Moon sets sail.   I ordered a few things I knew Elliott was eager to read, and then I added the Wrinkle in Time books to the cart.  It seemed like he was old enough to be interested and I knew his reading skills are were up to the task, but still, all of those L’Engle books seemed like tales designed to entertain the older child, not my sweet tot.  In the end, after a chat with Albert, we agreed that he’ll love them and so they stayed despite the ache in my heart.  2 short years ago he was just mastering Frog and Toad.  Now Astrid Meklit owns (and adores) the F & T books and Elliott has moved on to meaty chapter books that keep him enthralled for hours,  I’m so happy to be raising a voracious reader, but really, it’s all going by in the blink of an eye…

This week, we’re finally going to squeeze in a trip to the zoo (it seems the weather will allow it this time) and then we’ll let Elliott choose the rest of the activities until he departs, even though this means another  trip to Air & Space  is inevitable.   My friend Amy recently wrote so beautifully about the anger and frustration that so often accompany parenthood and her desire to parent more lovingly.  As the weeks roll by and I’m the only adult in sight for days on end, the balance is so often tipped–less laughter, fewer games, more grouching and impatience from me (at both little people, but at the bigger much more frequently).  This week between Elliott’s two lives will restore some balance, I think.  More games of Othello (complete with singing–my signature defensive strategy), more unhurried meals, more museum fun might help erase the lingering bad taste of the last few weeks.  As the boy sails away for 60 + days without us, I’d like to think he’ll look at his life from afar and think happily of the life we share, not think happily that he’s managed to give us the slip.    I know that as he grows, this push/pull of early adolescence becomes more powerful,  but I hope that somewhere, lodged deep in his brain, is the unconscious memory of my indulgent smile, of a love too powerful to name.

Just tuning in after nearly a week of snatching every precious moment for ‘Potterland.’    Astrid decided to become a demanding baby, after several months of requiring little care.  Seriously–I could leave her in a box for hours, taking her out only when I felt like being amused.  Okay, not really, but this week she’s learned to crawl so she’s less content to play quietly on the rug at my feet while I quickly read another dozen pages–selfish baby!  Her locomotion enthralls though especially since its mostly of the backward variety and because she can’t see where she is going, she often gets trapped under things–funny for us, scary for her–her frequent forays under the couch inject a bit of excitement into a quiet afternoon.  When I wasn’t rescuing her, the other child in the family made his demands known.  Despite his proficiency as a reader, he’s not quite able to tackle HP on his own, so I was forced (often at wand-point) to put down my own chapter so that I could turn back to read to Elliott.  Again, so selfish!  In the past week, his sleep has been seriously disturbed and while Albert blames HP and his many charms, I know better.  Our earthquake last Thursday night scared him silly.  We’ve reassured him, talked about fault lines, worked on our earthquake kit, and visited the damaged stores in our neighborhood to see that they are back to business as usual (as we live in the epicenter of this latest quake,  several of our village stores lost windows and just had a lot of mess–things off shelves, etc. )   but I think it will take some time before he sleeps deeply again.  In the meantime, as Astrid begins to sleep through until morning, we can look forward to at least one visit from Elliott each night.  The night after the quake, he was desperate for reassurance, “Tell me it won’t happen again for a LONG LONG time.”  And it’s so tempting to give my guy that comfort, that ease, but it’s as fake-believe as anything in Harry Pottter.  Instead all I can do is help him get ready for the inevitable and hope it doesn’t happen for a long long time. If it does though, we’ve got wands and lots of them.  Those glo-wands come 12 to a box, and we bought two boxes, because if we don’t need them for an earthquake before we leave,  they’ll make excellent Harry Potter wands. We’re covered either way, just in case…