I'm back from Michigan and back from being sick. Fortunately, I got sick first. After my husband (who really needs a nickname--I'm thinking about referring to him from now on as The Man) got sick two weeks ago, I knew my time was coming; I only prayed it would come before I got on the plane to Grand Rapids. Thank goodness it did. By the time I boarded Continental flight 5122, I was right as rain. The turbulence threw me off again, but that's another story.
Today we get back to the routine. Last week was spring break for the boys, who mostly just flopped about the house in between playdates. It was a low-key week once I got home from Michigan. Everyone stayed up too late and slept late in the morning. We still haven't recovered from last week's time change.
Today, I start working on the book again--I'd written around twelve pages before the plagues hit our house; today I hope to reach page thirteen.
Last night Will and I sat down with the Johnny's Seeds catalog and made our list. We are going to be flower gardeners this year. The Man will handle the vegetable beds while Will and I tend to glorious foxgloves and delphinium. Jack will sit on the screened porch with a book and watch everything grow.
I woke up around 4 a.m. on Saturday morning haunted by the thought that Will is slipping out of our grasp. He got sent home from school the Friday before Spring Break for fighting. It embarrassed him horribly, but it probably won't be the last time. He's not aggressive or a bully, but if you do him wrong, watch out. So there's that and the fact that he has spent the whole winter playing family room hockey and not doing much of anything else. What has happened to my creative, imaginative boy?
So Saturday I got out the crayons and paper, and we sat together at the table watching "Tales from Avonlea" on DVD while he drew and I worked on my quilt. Saturday afternoon, I unpacked the puzzles.
When I opened up the seed catalog last night at dinner, Will got very interested. We made a list of the seeds we want to plant, and he said that today he'll cut out the pictures from the catalog so we'll remember what the flowers are supposed to look like.
Poor Will, the second child, the boy left to his own devices by his exhausted, distracted parents. It's so easy to engage him in projects and plans (unlike Jack, who mostly likes to be left alone to read), that it's a crime we've let him wither on the vine with his hockey stick this winter. We've led him to a life of crime!
But the flowers will save him. And the coloring. And all those lovely, irrascible folks in "Tales from Avonlea" with their old fashioned exclamations--"Fiddlesticks!"--that crack Will up, make him laugh and laugh.
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8 comments:
We're on the same page over here. Neither of us slept last night because we were racked with guilt re: our #2. Yep. Wither on the vine is the way to put it. Sigh. You, my friend, act... I tend to wallow and never surface from the depths of feelings. I challenge myself to act! Erin is also going to garden, but with Daddy. They built the raised beds together. They're doing vegetables. But I should add some flowers in the mix to remind me to help Erin bloom.
Danielle, I highly recommend popping in a disc from "Tales from Avonlea" into your laptop and engaging in some project with Erin on the dining room table while you watch it together. Maybe you could draw plans for flower gardens and make collages from seed catalogs. It will do you both a world of good.
Here's to page 13!
I feel that slipping-out-of-my-hands thing all the time, especially with the getting in minor trouble at school thing. Although I comfort myself that maybe it's better to have a bit of fight in you than to put up with anything from anyone.
The garden sounds like a good bonding thing and like it will be good looking too and good all round really.
Oh, and will be sure to look out for Tales of Avonlea DVD, I think that sounds great too and would like to get the kids into the books when they're ready. The young Anne ones anyway, maybe not Rilla of Ingleside - too wary!
Is Tales of Avonlea an animated or a 'real people' version? We love 'Anne of Green Gables' so I'm sure we'd love those too!
Good luck with page 13!! Hopefully it'll be a dam buster and you'll be on your way with gusto.
Mr Busy loves to be involved in everything the family is doing. Woe he she who refuses to play with him. What can I say, he needs a brother to play cars with LOL.
Victoria and Tracy, Tales of Avonlea, based on stories by L.M. Montgomery, who wrote Anne of Green Gables, is a "real people" (as opposed to animated) series set on Prince Edward Island post-Anne (Anne is sometimes referred to, and her adoptive mother, Marilla (sp) is a recurring character). It's done by the same people who made the Anne of Green Gables movie. There is much that is quaint about it, but it's surprisingly unsappy. There's a great cast of cranky spinsters and widows who are always being difficult and judgmental, but still remain--amazingly--lovable. It's a great series to watch while you're doing something else, since you can miss huge swaths of action and still figure out the basic plot.
Victoria, I have to say I agree that I'd rather have will have some fight in him than get walked over. And his fights are righteous. I worry, tho, that he goes from irritation to blows a little too quickly for the civilized world.
Good news: Page 13 has been written, and a few more to boot!
The title for your post will be true for Will too. He will be "Back Again." Those imaginative, creative types always return to their roots. The depths of their hearts will call them back. They can not deny their true selves that are full of all the possiblities that the world can hold. Good and true possiblities housed in small bodies with big hearts will prevail. Have faith, dear Frances, have faith.
Thanks, Susan--I'll do my best to keep faith!
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