chicken gloves

Sometimes my 7 year old is loud.  He makes me laugh even when he knows I am just about at Mad and don’t want to laugh. He can get carried away with his string bean bouncy body.  He does things that aren’t quite inappropriate but then again just might be.  He has a huge imagination and can remember just about any detail that he encounters.  He is a math wizard and sometimes I wonder if he has enough humility. 

Today I overheard a conversation at the kitchen table as I was crossing through the room.  Just one sentence from my boy.  He said it quietly as much to himself as anyone around.  He wasn’t saying it for show.

  “Never make fun of anyone, except yourself.”

It resonated with me so much.  It was that exact moment when I really, really needed to hear something to encourage me as a mother. I am not sure if I have ever said those words to him but he absorbed it….the knowing of right and wrong.  He has empathy!

So now with each day when I am out in the big world carrying around all my insecurities and my lack of self confidence, I have this.  I am raising children and it is my favorite thing ever, but am I doing it right?  How do I know?  I can do better, I know that!  Sometimes it all flows and the kids go up in height and age and I step back and look at this, the marvel of it all and I feel so vulnerable. These kids need to gain their independence from their Dad and I in the most loving, kind, secure way. And from that very first step that was encouraged with clapping and open arms at each end, they have continued to step forward.

Unknowingly Henry just gave me a big loving boost of courage. 

photo by maggie

PS My husband’s latest deployment was cancelled.  C-A-N-C-E-L-L-E-D!!!

early morning

The sky is gray this early morning and all of nature seems slow to wake.  Even me. 

Some mornings are busy with big breakfast making, but this morning is the kind that calls for a cup of tea and a book.  I have done that already so here I sit at my green desk….

A few months ago my husband brought home a very large old bankers desk that someone had set out for free.  His thought was to have it in the barn as it has a nice workspace top.  It was love at first sight for me and he happily said yes I could paint it and use it.  Actually now that I think on it, did I even ask him?  Maybe it was just an assumption that this lovely man would just give me this lovely desk?  Maybe the sound of my sander was drowning out any protests he might have had? 

Well, anyhow, I have a new green desk.

It took my daughter Maggie and I nearly one whole day to figure out how to get it through the doorway into the sitting room.  We got it stuck and had to climb over it several times.  We broke the outside wooden step on the front of our house.  Actually SHE broke the wooden step as I said 3x “this wood here is weak so DON’T STEP RIGHT HERE”.  But she stepped right there.  Also she continuously told me the desk wouldn’t fit.  But after 6 hours of us flipping the desk every which way and standing with our arms crossed staring at it.  Then crawling over it.  Then taking a lunch break followed by some determination-yelling*, we did it.

Told you so, Mags.

*determination-yelling is when a mother has to tell her teenager to pipe down and do it her way!

 

little Woodrow

We made the mistake of only having one of our two cats fixed and lo and behold we now have two (adorable) kittens.  Do I need to explain it all with our cat getting out for only a few hours and then realizing she was with the big overly-furry-odd-looking cat from down the street???? 

But it is all okay!  Our older girls will each take a cat with them to their apts and we will be left with two cats…Woodrow and Gus…named after Lonesome Dove.

This is Woodrow—as sweet and cuddly as pictured.

And now we will have all creatures of the feline variety get fixed and everything will be just fine.

Hope your summer is purring along like ours…I can’t believe we are on the downhill of July!

 

20 very specific happy things

1. finding something you thought was lost

2. laughing, about anything

3. hearing your child sing when they think no one can hear them

4. when it rains straight down and the windows can be left open

5. a good book that makes you want to read all day

6. the first bloom on a garden perennial

7. a burst of energy at 8pm that makes you  mop the whole downstairs

8. realizing someone has already emptied the dishwasher

9. chatting with a friendly neighbor at the end of the driveway

10. an afternoon nap on the hammock

11. the way a bike makes that tick tick tick sound as you coast in a high gear

12. when a young child holds your hand unexpectedly

13. a long gravel driveway that crunches under your steps

14.  a misty summer morning that burns off into a crystal clear day

15. not needing anything at the grocery store

16. crispy clean sheets off the clothesline

17. a freshly baked oatmeal cookie

18. holding a kitten

19. a new box of crayons and the inspiration it holds within

20. giving a gift to someone you love dearly