(Since I spent the whole weekend on Internet fast, I am fudging it today.)
We ordered something last week that arrived in a big box. The girls fit into it, though barely. C wanted me to close up the flaps then open it like a birthday present. I pulled the flaps back and exclaimed, “Why, it’s […]

tell me when it’s time,
i say; my eyes fall closed
my head falls back
but i still clutch the wheel,
though i give up on ten and two—
it’s seven twenty-five.
my fingers dig into soft ridges
regular as pie crust, and
i wait, and breathe, and
only once do i peek, and two eyes glare red rage:
trust her, with a snarl. soon […]

…I feel pressure to have something worthwhile to say!
Perhaps some dots.

The divine miss m continues to be fever-free. That 103 thing was just a blip, I guess? She is really working on molars 3 and 4 though. Woke up at 1 a.m. (six hours after Motrin) with the intermittent, self-pitying pain cry. “I’m doing my […]

Back at work, back at preschool, back at daycare, and I’m not preaching until the 20th/21st. Life is good.
I’m having lunch with Listing Straight on Friday! Woohoo!
Had a nice birthday. R sent some gorgeous flowers to the church. We also had ice cream cake, though I’ve been craving pineapple upside-down cake for some reason, so […]

The divine miss m is completely back to normal health-wise. So we’re back to only dealing with the impending molars.
Little she-who-is had a sleepover with MaDear. They went to see Charlotte’s Web. They both really enjoyed it, although she kept asking me why the farmer wanted to take the pig to the smokehouse. Time to […]

The divine miss m is much better. She’s still waking at night for various reasons, but hasn’t had fever all weekend. The snot river’s dried up, minimal coughing. Breathing treatments are prescribed through Tuesday; then we’ll see. We’re hoping she’ll be back at daycare tomorrow. She seems to be getting pretty sick of our house.
Meanwhile, […]

new mexico
(for little she-who-is)
in the bath
she presses her palms
like a prayer together
then peeks them open
to let the water pour through;
and the shriveled knuckles,
the stones of flesh, the fault lines,
are O’Keeffe’s pink-white cliffs
that once cupped ancient waters
just as devotionally.
hand
(for the divine miss m)
the rocking chair is her Everest.
she will scale it, with or without my
permission or […]

9:30 a.m.
Preschool dropoff goes better than yesterday. No tears, but she still seems reluctant to go in to the room. Luckily the preschool director, Presbyterian-Quaker, is nearby and helps ease the transition.
noon
MaDear meets me at church and we head into the meeting house for the “preschool Thanksgiving program.” The children file in by class. […]

So little she-who-is refused to say the pledge of allegiance in preschool today.
She’d been having a very off morning, and the teacher, a very gentle and sweet person, apparently “told her that I [the teacher] might need to talk to her mother [me] about it and she decided to cooperate.”
My thoughts, in approximate chronological order:

Whoa, […]

I took little she-who-is for her flu shot today. I picked her up early from L’s house and casually told her where we were going. As we pulled away she said, “I think the doctor is closed today.” Later she said, “I already have the flu.” As we sat in traffic she said, “Maybe we […]

This morning I was walking on the treadmill while checking in with my boys via Tivo.
I’m no fan of Barry Manilow, but he was on the Colbert Report on Monday, and he and Stephen sang a duet. During Stephen’s bit I noticed that the treadmill had slowed way down. I looked down at the cardio […]

On the way to church/preschool, with NPR playing in the background
C: Mommy, he said “killed.” Who’s being killed?
RM: switching off the radioSome people in another country far away from here.
C: Why are they being killed?
RM: Well, the United States is fighting people in a war.
C: Why are they fighting?
Hell if I know!
RM: Well, the United […]

I.
So little she-who-is came to work with me this morning–she seems to feel OK, just a little puny with a low-level fever. So I brought in a couple of videos that she watched while I had a meeting or two.
We walked in first thing this morning and ran into the preschool director. Mrs. S greeted […]

Little she-who-is has a 102.5 fever.
We discovered this just minutes after she threw up on the kitchen floor.
I’m doing a happy consolation dance that the kitchen is hardwood, but that sound you heard was the other shoe dropping!

I am preaching the world’s most boring sermon tomorrow. Really! It bites. But in the immortal words of my sister Will Smama: “If you got a dog, walk it proud.”
The divine miss m is feeling much, much better. She’s just about back to her normal grinning self–nighttime sleep is not quite back to normal though. […]

Tuesday night, 7 p.m. The divine miss m goes to sleep after much cajoling, rocking and Benadryl.
10 p.m. RM and the Mr. go to sleep.
11 p.m. M is awake again and manages to settle down for 10-minute stretches–just long enough for one or both of her parents to settle back into their own bed. Then […]