Upon examination

Among other disturbances, there will be a point to Wednesday's post this week. Because Harper is turning SIX on that very day. We aren't having a party this year, just a special day with family. Though she and Hudson decided we still need to have treat bags (nope) and they brainstormed at breakfast yesterday what should go in them. Daddy's will have LOTS of COFFEE, they decided. Mommy's will have a JUG of WINE. This is funny on many levels, but let me please assure you, gentle readers, that while I do on occasion partake of a glass of wine, I do not, and have not EVER, imbibed from a jug.

I myself have been disturbed (and all of Jerusalem with me, like Herod) and I need to snap out of it. This morning was horrific. Truth be told, I might have considered opening my very heavy treat bag and sneaking a nip from the Jug.

We went to the music store Saturday morning and Hudson showed off a little on a big drum set. The husband seems to think it's time for an upgrade. I think we need a new refrigerator instead. Harper didn't mind everyone making a big deal out of Hudson, but then she decided she wanted to go try out some guitars. She scored herself a pink ukulele by picking the strings to find "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" on the first try. Did you know there are ukuleles that cost upwards of $2,000?? We did not buy one of those. She would have had to play that really hard Rachmaninoff piano concerto on the four strings to earn that one.

My mom has been having me clean out my childhood closet one plastic bin at a time each time we go for a visit. Last time we picked up the pace and there were five plastic bins that needed attention. One of them was a huge black foot locker that I took when I moved to Hungary and it was full to the brim with letters. Letters written to me back when people wrote letters. That is a LOAD of letters. I was tempted to dump the whole thing. Then I read one, then hours later I had read many. And I had cried and laughed and marveled at my sweet friends and family who wrote to me. And marveled at all of the things (and even a few people) I had forgotten. I decided to keep most of them, of course. Figuring the days of old and gray and nodding by the fire may be enhanced be these memories. I also found my old journals and I was tempted to toss those too. Because, it turns out, and I'm going to contradict Socrates for a minute here, an unexamined life might actually be better at certain times. I had MANY (and it pains me) YEARS (pain) of my life where I spent far too much time introspecting and writing about my FEELINGS (mostly sad, misunderstood, adrift--with no real cause, mind you) when I should have been, in hindsight, taking a brisk walk. Or serving the needy. Or reading a decent book. Or studying the Bible more seriously. Perhaps making a salad. Anything but whining about how SAD I felt about not being able to DO ANYTHING about ANYTHING. It is actually mortifying to remember some of the events I recounted in excruciating detail. I had this very visceral reaction as I read, as though these things happened to someone I don't know. Snap out of it! I wanted to yell at this sniveling little ingrate who had not one thing to be melancholy about. I stopped reading at some point. But I put them back in the plastic bin and not in one of the many huge garbage bag. Maybe for someday. I did find a real delight in just the basic details of ordinary days. More Proust, then, and less Plath. There, it's decided.

A few books the kids have delighted in this week:

1. Max's Words by Kate Banks and Boris Kulikov: Max has two big brothers who collect stamps and coins. They do not share. Max decides to collect words, which he uses to make stories, which he uses to entice his big brothers to finally share their stamps and coins. The illustrations are ingenious.

2. It's Quacking Time by Martin Waddell, ill. Jill Barton:
A curious duckling finds out he's getting a new brother or sister duckling, and is amazed to hear he himself also came from an egg. Adorable illustrations. A good companion for Pig's Egg by Katherine Sully and Sam Chaffey

3. Ms. Turtle the Babysitter by Valeri Gorbachev (I keep meaning to google him to see if he has a famous family)
Three little frogs want their babysitter to learn to jump. She promises to learn, and she does! Sweet illustrations.

4. little blue and little yellow by Leo Lionni

I think this is the first book he wrote. Very simple illustrations (like torn pieces of construction paper) portray little blue and little yellow who hug and, much to their surprise! become green! We got a Leo Lionni treasury a couple of months ago and a there's something odd about most of his stories. But in a good way, I think. Harper especially likes them. In fact, she told me she wants a stuffed little blue and little yellow for her birthday, even though I told her they would not make green if they hugged because there is no such thing as soft fabric that has the quality of translucence (is that even the right word?). She claims not to care. Does that mean I need to return to Hobby Lobby again tomorrow (I went today to retrieve 'tan' food coloring to make the stingrays she wants on her birthday cookies.) and figure out some way to devise little blue and little yellow??

5. Along with the Mr. Putter and Tabby series, which she continues to enjoy, Harper likes a series about Cowgirl Kate and her horse Cocoa (written by Erica Silverman, ill. Betsy Lewin), and another about a muskrat named Cork and a possum named Fuzz (by Dori Chaconas, ill. Lisa McCue).

Know what Helena likes? Getting into everything at very inopportune moments. She wiped her bottom with a Clorox wipe while I was trying to get something out of the oven tonight. Thankfully, she was wearing a diaper at the time. She also is slightly obsessed with the pink ukulele. And she manages to get the frets messed up (and thus the tuning goes off) with very little effort. You can imagine how this displeases the big sister, who prefers her life perfectly tuned. Can't imagine where she got that particular trait.