My New Job

Next week at this time, I will have spent 2 days as a Fiddle Camp Cook and Coordinator. (FCCC) This week, at this time, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed: how many cantelope does one need for 40 people? when will I put Zeke to bed? will a rogue hair fall into the Toll Oat Bars that are being made for the first morning? 

I expect there will be a significant lag in postings. 

Good news of the week: my boys' haircuts look really great and I got a lot of homeschooling prep done.

To What Will I Go Home?

We were in the car yesterday. My plan for today is to be gone for almost 12 hours in order to plan our year of homeschooling. Joel turned to me and said, "You know what I think I'll get tomorrow? A razor." 

"For you?" I ask.

"No, the kind of razor that Vern uses on the boys."

Vern is a gentle, experienced barber whom I have considered worth $45 every 10 weeks to turn my puffy, shaggy boys back into little men. 

Joel is a gentle, inexperienced barber who does not consider our boys' hair to ever be worth $45. 

"Do you know what you're doing?" I ask. 

"I've spent the last several years watching him. It can't be that tough," says Joel with a vision.

So, I relent. I put in my little "two cents" about the number of blade I remember Vern using and some advice about leaving their hair a little longer on the top. 

The last time we did something like this, we had our cats shaved. We were tired of their long hair, we had just had a baby, the cats fell victim to my nesting instincts. The outcome of having one's cats shaved is threefold: debilitating laughter, cats who hide, and cats who do not recognize each other (despite having been together for 3 years). I'm wondering if there will be any carryover to the boys.

Projects

I met a friend to go out for coffee. The coffee shop was near Waite Park as was A Store of Wonderment to Me: Crafty Planet. It was incredible. The fabrics were things I wanted to wear and decorate the house with. There were knitted hats, diaper bags, flowy shirts all from material that looked like it came from Pottery Barn/Ikea/A Preppy Part of Finland/I don't know where because, as you may have guessed, I have never seen anything like it.

So, last night I was full of ideas which have now overflowed to my daughters who want to take a sewing lesson there. And that's where my motivation stops. I really don't want to sew, I really don't want to take a class, I just want the really cool stuff that can be sewn. 

That made me think, "What would I do if I had the chance to be crafty/decorative, even if I had to take a class?" And I know: I'd build a retaining wall. I don't even know what I'd retain exactly, but maybe I could spruce it up with hand sewn lumpy cool throw pillows when it was done.

If you're wondering, there is no news on the adoption front. I think about it all the time but that doesn't really count. That's why I think about retaining walls.

Wow!!

I don't usually amaze myself, but today changed ALL that. People all over the world do this every day, many times a day, but I....I have just stepped out into a new world.

Marty: "I'll take a half caff latte with a shot of toffee nut."

Marty: "Sure. Would you like some foam on top with a little design that's almost a heart?"

Marty: "You know, I would. And how much will this cost?"

Marty: "Oh, about $.33"

A Milestone

Today my husband is running around and around and around Lake Nokomis. It's his first 24 hour run that started at 8 this morning and ends, yes, at 8 tomorrow morning. The kids and I went to see him once. We cheered him on, the boys ran with him, I made sure his eyes were tracking and he recognized me. 

We came home, short on gas, food and patience. I sat down to plan out a lovely afternoon when the phone rang. "Mom, it's Dad."

It was 49 degrees and raining today. I knew why he was calling. Within 45 minutes I was back in the car with dry clothes, headed back to Lake Nokomis. 

I had a good 3 minutes with Joel before I had to go. It was time to see Addis graduate from high school. In order to get to her graduation, I had to drive past Children's Hospital. Only a year ago, if I had wanted to see Addis, that's where I would have gone. Tonight I got to see her walk across the stage. 

I'm including a picture from tonight--me a little wild eyed and in clothes that were very appropriate for the library, the bank, Bruegger's Caribou, Lake Nokomis and Lake Nokomis again. Graduation...not so much. Oh well. Addis makes up for it.

Levi's Question

During our garage sale, a lot of people asked about our adoption plans. They also asked if we had adopted before. I told them yes, we had one adopted daughter. Levi was standing there and turned to me with huge eyes. 

"Gracie?" he said. "She's adopted?" 

There's a lot I like about that question.

Weird Things I've Said Today

I think, that when I imagined parenting, I would be sort of Ivy-Leagueish in my conversations with and behavior toward my children. I don't even know exactly what that would look like except that the words dignified, sophisticated and upscale come to mind. 

But here were the two questions I asked today:

1. "Does anyone know where the yodeling pickle is?"

2. "Gracie, find out whose toothbrush Zeke is using. I know it's not his."

I'm pretty sure those questions alone cancelled the Ivy League Imaginings I had. Good thing those imaginings were, oh, 16 years old.