Friday, Mar 20, 2009 | Chores, Kevin, Kids, Sick |
Images from our March Break week …
Fooey has sadly picked up a virus (CJ too), and this is how she has spent most of today, wrapped in blankets, though I’m pleased to report she is eating (cookies) right now. Good news, though: she quickly got over her fear of her dad’s crutches and knee, and was a good-hearted little nurse-helper for much of the week.
CJ enjoyed his first complimentary grocery store cookie earlier this week!
Apple-Apple was in need of entertainment this morning and leapt at the opportunity to wash the dishes. She very patiently washed and rinsed the whole pile.
And here is Kevin headed off to work earlier today. He got good news yesterday from his doctor: the new xrays show that there is no displacement and the fracture is healing. Next checkup and more xrays in four weeks.
Thursday, Mar 19, 2009 | Chores, Kevin |
Chores around the house Kevin does when not immobilized by a broken knee: takes out the garbage, organizes the recycling, empties the compost, gives the kids baths, changes the occasional diaper, does virtually all outdoor work, sings the children off to sleep, puts CJ to bed, makes breakfast, drives the big kids to the walking school bus on his way to work, and this one, which only occurred to me on Monday–cleans the fish bowls! There’s probably more I’m forgetting right now. Phew.
Maybe this will bring me and the fish closer together.
Wednesday, Mar 18, 2009 | Writing |
For those of you forced to endure even one minute of my ongoing, seemingly bottomless writerly angst, this post is for you. Here is an excerpted acceptance letter I received earlier this week from the editor at The New Quarterly (which is a very fine Canadian literary magazine that has stood the test of time):
“I am thrilled with this story, the leaps and turns it makes in the later section from the heat and humiliation and incomprehension and secret delight of the child trying to make sense of her surroundings … to the more mature suspicion of her own memories and motives. The way, I guess, that it moves from the specifics of a particular time and place, from sensation, to a more distanced, abstract, reflective mood. … Consider this story accepted (for the summer or, more likely, the fall issue) …. I hope you are feeling a mounting excitement yourself about what you are doing with these stories, the shape they are finding.”
It goes against my instincts to post Good News Related to My Writing, especially with Compliments; hopefully I won’t regret this later. But if I’m sharing the agony, it seems fit to share a moment of joy, too. This particular writing project is well into its third year, and has seen a variety of conceptions and forms tried on and discarded, and this letter echoes my own feelings (and egregiously superstitious hopes) about its current shape: “a mounting excitement.” There’s still a heap of hard, even excruciating, work to be done before it reaches anything I’d dare to call to a book. But. Nevertheless. Yes. This moment is here to be enjoyed. It isn’t necessarily going to lead, directly or indirectly, toward something else, it just is what it is; and it’s good.
Wednesday, Mar 18, 2009 | Holidays, Kids |
The “Leprechorn” visited our house today. We’d heard from a friend on Friday about this tradition (new to me) … leave a cup/bowl/bucket/yogurt container on your steps on St. Patrick’s Day and receive some treats (in the case of the friend, chocolate-covered almonds). We had none of those, but not to worry, Mommy, the Leprechorn will bring some! Albus took charge. He instructed the girls where to leave the container, he searched for suitable items, including these four green balloons on which he drew lucky clovers with permanent marker. He secretly placed the container. And he waited patiently for someone to notice it. Here it waits in the sunshine, while the children play and play and play.
Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009 | Kevin, Kids, Photos, Spring |
Experiment’s done. I’m going back to the single blog, and will mingle photographs haphazardly with words, hang the consequences and messiness. Life is messy. Here’s what we found in our backyard today: snowdrops poking through brown earth; a toddler who looked as comfortable as the old-timers in the sandbox; children climbing and running and imagining; one man resting his leg and supervising.
