Beauty in the mundane

I think that future me might be interested in the details of a Tuesday. Have you heard of Kara Tippetts? She is a mom of four who is dying of cancer with such dignity and grace. Reading her blog of her last days has been a needed reminder to appreciate the small things. How do we distill our days?

Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day so the kids had a school holiday. To celebrate MLK, the husband took the kids to REI and Hudson got a new bike for his birthday, which is a week away. I am certain Dr. King would be honored.

So, our Tuesday. The husband left around 6:30, and the rest of us slept until 7:30. We had leftover Shipley's doughnuts for breakfast (not nearly as good as fresh Shipley's doughnuts, which the husband got yesterday morning, again to celebrate MLK) then the kids played with Hudson's matchbox cars on a racetrack (which I had not seen in months--where did they find it??) that involved duct tape and also lots of accusations that Harper was making up arbitrary rules that favored her cars. I had our "Story of the World" history cd playing in the background. It was about the Constitutional Convention, and also how George Washington just really wanted to go home to Virginia and tend his farm, but instead became our first president. (Getting all those states to ratify the Constitution was not unlike using duct tape to jimmy the racetrack. Hey! Virginia is making up arbitrary rules! Oh yeah, well maybe our rules are just better than yours, South Carolina!) It was a regular home day, assignment-wise, so at 9 a.m. I pried them away from the cars and we worked on math, Latin, Bible, poetry, composition, and reading. There was lots of wandering out into the backyard by Helena and Hudson to swing and play in the sandbox/whack the Christmas tree with a sword while I worked with Harper on her math. There has finally been lots of playing outside because the weather is glorious. After I undecorated our Christmas tree two weeks ago, we dragged it out to the backyard and the kids have been chopping it and using it as a fort wall. At around 12:45, everyone began to get hungry and I realized we had no bread. I told them if we could finish our schoolwork, we could go eat and maybe go to the library. So things got peppier and we finished up.

Around 1:15 we got in the car and drove to ChickFil-A. The kids have only been there maybe 5 times? since we started a gradual loosening of the general Rigid Healthy Eating Plan a year or so ago. We listened to Hudson's "Story of the World" on the way (Sparta, Athens, Alexander the Great). We each had a kids' meal and it cost $15. The kids always get fruit instead of waffle fries, entirely on their own. I had waffle fries. (Last time we had lunch at Whole Foods it was $32, mostly because Harper and I both got sushi.) We traded our Franklin books in for ice cream cones, then we decide to walk to the library, which is maybe four blocks away, where we planned to check out non-Franklin books (we don't mind Franklin. He is, after all a turtle, but we already have several in our home library.) We spent 45? minutes at the duck pond before we went in. Helena made a duck friend,

Hudson jumped on rocks and talked to some turtles and climbed a tree, Harper dissected an egg she found floating in the water (just a boiled one someone lost from their lunch and not, as I feared, a duckling) and I just generally basked in the sun because it has been absent for almost a month now.

We stayed in the library for a bit and checked out a stack of books, including a wonderful new release entitled The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet. Peter Mark Roget was, among many other accomplishments, a medical doctor and a member of The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Isn't that a delightful name?

We left the library and stopped at HEB on the way home to buy bread. When the kids were getting back into the car, Helena somehow managed to whack Hudson in the head with a plastic pack of scented markers (why are these in the car?) and he responded HIGHLY inappropriately. I tried to negotiate a peace treaty, but he was determined not to forgive her. Someone was waiting for our parking space, so I had to forge a rapid treaty that I am certain will hold zero weight with Jesus.

We came home and Hudson drummed on a makeshift drum set he made of cardboard boxes (loud, also why not drum on the very expensive and neglected drum kit upstairs??) while Helena set up a pretend campfire in the backyard which she surrounded with dolls and stuffed animals. Harper disappeared upstairs to make a yarn pom pom duckling using a craft kit she got for Christmas. I made burritos for their dinner, and the husband got home. The kids got baths, the husband read a chapter from book 3 in the Wingfeather Saga (wonderful) and, after several complaints that Helena was shining a flashlight into OUR EYES MOMMY AND ALSO SHE WON'T STOP TALKING! things got quiet around 8 p.m.

Distilled. Wonderful.

The happy new

It has been a little rough here. Every single day for two and a half weeks now, at least one person in the family has had a fever and other symptoms of viral nuisance. I started it, then a few days later Harper was stricken, then Helena, then Hudson, and now the husband is down for the count. I think he slept 22 hours on Tuesday. Also the weather has been gray and cold and damp. We have watched many movies. ("Bambi" was my favorite. The kids had never seen it. We watched it on video using my parents' VCR! I was wistful at how sweet Bambi is compared to modern animation. No irony, no potty humor, no disrespect...)  We attempted a 1000 piece puzzle that was too hard and kept getting jostled on the coffee table (I hate puzzles. Always have. I can't help but think I would rather be reading.) We have played many, many rounds of UNO (which Helena calls UnA and the other two go nuts correcting her) and also Jenga and Mancala, which Harper got for Christmas. We still have two days left in our Advent book. We will get to you yet, Joseph and Bethlehem. We finally finished our Jesse Tree ornaments. That deserves an entire post.

On New Year's Eve, the poor sick husband was in bed around 5:15, and the kids looked at the calendar and realized it was December 31. Harper asked which night it was that we were supposed to stay up until midnight. I confessed it was this night. We ate a very subpar leftovery sort of dinner, then it was dark and the fireworks started booming, because the people in our neighborhood LOVE the fireworks more than any people group I have ever encountered. The kids and I decided to go take a walk and watch them. Helena and I were still wearing our pajamas from the previous night. She was also wearing a pair of pink sandals from 2 summers ago, and I was wearing my house slippers. I nestled the dog into my coat where she shivered miserably the entire time with the cold and also the apparent shelling we were receiving from the enemy. We ended up at our neighborhood park, and Harper declared we would stay until midnight so she could shout HAPPY NEW YEAR.  It was around 6:45 at this point, and 45 degrees, so I told her probably not.

I did not send out Christmas cards this year for the first time in five, maybe six? years. I really hope no one decides to stop sending me their cards because of this because I would be DEEPLY GRIEVED. It all started when we didn't take a family picture over Thanksgiving, which was generally my launch point. I also didn't make photo calendars this year for the grandparents. Being sick for most of December really cut into my general merriment and productivity.

Here they are before our Christmas Eve service. Both Helena and Hudson had fevers, which I did not realize until hours later.