March 7, 2007 | Offspring: ecstasy and agony

I ran out for some groceries while the kids were having dinner with their dad tonight. While perusing the produce I spotted a prodigious head of garlic practically crying out for a good roasting, and so I brought it home and did just that. Dinner was much of the resultant goodness smeared on slices of wheat baguette, and while I enjoyed it very much, you probably don’t want me to breathe on you. Or near you.

The kids came home and Chickadee cocked her head to the side as soon as she entered the kitchen. She sniffed her way over to the stove, and beheld the leftover roasted garlic as well as the papery skeleton of the head. Then she peered at me with great concern and cupped my face in her hands. (more…)

March 6, 2007 | Haven't been hit by lightning yet!

When I woke up this morning, I was planning little more than an ordinary day, albeit starting off with a coffee date with a friend I haven’t seen in a long time.

I didn’t even have breakfast on the table when she’d called to cancel. (Damn those unpredictable children and their foolish illnesses when we have coffee to drink! Damn them to hell!)

Oh, well. I’d just stay in and do my work.

Then I checked my calendar and realized I had a mammogram appointment at lunchtime. Clearly I was in for a treat. (more…)

March 5, 2007 | Offspring: ecstasy and agony, Retail Therapy

With all of the recent events and stressors swirling around in my head, I did the only two things that made clear sense.

First: I informed Chickadee that her ass is MINE this week. Slavery is BACK, baybee. She came home from school and did all of her homework for the week and then scrubbed toilets until it was time to go with Daddy. A good start, says I. My house shall gleam by Friday. And she went willingly, and then (unprompted) came and snuggled up with me tonight with her book about divorce and asked me to read with her for a bit. (She may not know why she did what she did, but she is sorry, and she knows she needs to deal with stuff, and she’s still talking. So let’s call it a victory.)

Second: I shopped for shoes. And they’ll be here tomorrow. And it’s a little sad how much that cheered me up, but how can you not be a little happy about $100 shoes for $12? It’s a sign that the universe is still a good place.

March 4, 2007 | Offspring: ecstasy and agony, The Year of Living Changerously

We are home, and it was almost a really lovely trip.

Tomorrow we will get up early and resume our normal routine; the children will lag and I will attempt to hustle them through breakfast and then we will walk to the bus stop and they will go to school and I will spend the day working and hoping that I do not get a phone call from school to tell me something that I do not want to hear.

As for me, I am exhausted. I am glad to be home because next to Otto, I love my bed most of all, and I am so tired I want to sink down into the mattress and sleep for a week. (more…)

March 2, 2007 | Offspring: ecstasy and agony

After spending most of the day a the aquarium, when we returned home it seemed like we needed a little Outdoor Time. Unlike yesterday, today was sunny and mild and gorgeous.

First we all played bocce for a while. What is bocce, you ask? I have no idea. I think Otto made it up. But he had this big bag of colored balls and insisted this was a real game, throwing them at a small white ball and screaming loudly. Oh, wait. I think the kids may have added the screaming loudly part.

When bocce wore thin, the kids insisted they wanted to play tag. This consisted mostly of them clinging to me like spider monkeys, insisting that I was “base” and that their sibling was ‘it” and they were “safe.” At one point Monkey was trying to get Chickadee and she was hanging on me. Otto whispered to me, and when Monkey was mid-countdown (of how long Chickadee got to stay safe), he and I ran off, leaving her baseless. Because we’re mean that way. (more…)

March 1, 2007 | It's not a regret, it's an "experience", The Year of Living Changerously

Hello! We are in Georgia. Drowning.

Hey, kids! This is where we’re going to live! Isn’t it GREAT? Over here we have… mud. And over there… more mud. Also, there is lots of rain, and the sky is a gorgeous shade of gray. ARE YOU EXCITED?

Oh, the weather will let up in a day or two. It’s just that we got in late last night and had to get up early today and have been running around and I JUST NOW had a minute to stop and go to the bathroom, whereupon I discovered that my hair was four times its normal size. But at least I’d been wandering around like that all day. (more…)