mute hands

Life in this house is being boxed up and stacked in the front rooms.  And though it’s really not much fun to put things in boxes and constantly be tired and sweaty there is a steady hum of excitement.  Our new life is around the corner.  We are all together in Texas again and though we are trying to enjoy the little time we have left here it is really quite busy.  And it’s ridiculously hot.  Have I mentioned Texas is hot? 

Thoughts of writing often fill my mind, it’s the finding time part I struggle with.  Everything is a priority at this point and I can’t help but dream of quieter times when I can find the calming beauty of the everyday. 

Happily we found a house.  I can’t stop thinking about it and am anxiously counting the days until we have key in hand and the kids can run up the stairs and find their rooms.  It will be a happy day for my heart.  The house is old and rambling and makes me think of this book…

Until I can sit under a parasol in the lush green grass reciting dramatic poetry to my new neighbors, I shall keep on with the packing and sorting. 

My children are anxious to help, here is a story…

This morning my son Sam was struggling to get the vacuum up the stairs to his room.  At first I felt proud of my boy.  What a loving child to vacuum his room without being told.  But then I realized it was early and some of his sisters were still asleep upstairs.  So I hopped up the stairs and asked him if he could wait a bit.  He had this weird look on his face that wasn’t quite the whoa-my-mom-is-gonna-be-mad-face.   But it was close.  In the midst of my confusion Henry was pointing on the carpet saying EWWWEWW.  As if on cue Molly came in and asked Sam if he vacuumed up all his dead skin yet.  What? He had peeled all his sunburned skin off his back and left it on the rug two days earlier.  It was like a magnificent science experiment for them.

The moral of this story is not about telling those who are taking care of your kids to make sure to enforce sunscreen when you are out of town.  It is about how you should never buy a used vacuum as it’s probably got some gross stuff in the HEPA filter.

And that, friends, is all I got.