in pursuit of wild things

Monday

“If only I could stay in bed and ignore the world today.” Those were my first thoughts this morning. It likely came out as more of a moan than a nice cohesive sentence. But I had to get up and chat with my mother, tend to the kids and encounter whatever else walked into my day. My mother was leaving this morning. She came up over the weekend to watch the younger three while I worked. My husband and Oldest needed to clean out the old house. We got an offer on the house and if all goes well the closing will be in a couple of weeks. One more trip will be required to pick up the last few things.

My mom was already up in the kitchen and talking. She seemed to change subjects at the pace of a machine gun. Keeping up with the change in topics was not a possibility in my current frame of mind. She was chatting about her cats and hoping they were well taken care of during

her stay with us. I tried to count the number of wild cats around her place once and kept losing count around thirty-five. She may have fifty or so by now. I tried to come up with something reassuring to say about the natural hunting abilities of her untamed kitties but nothing would come to mind before she changed her topic again. Small talk has been a difficult skill to cultivate.

I was about to make a cup of coffee. I like to pour my beans in the grinder. I just love the little sound as the beans hit the bowl. I love the aroma that is released and the feel of the grinding. This is my morning ritual. I thrive in an environment with rituals. Just as I was getting my grinder out my mother let me know that she made me “a cup of proper coffee and not that (insert shockingly rude adjective here!) water you drink.” Proper coffee in her opinion is double strength instant coffee. The kind that eats holes through my stomach lining. I steamed a cup of milk and cinnamon with the coffee she gave me and enjoyed a café au lait. I chose to ignore the pointedly annoyed eye roll.

Maybe I should have just pretended to sip the coffee. I’ll try to remember that next weekend when she returns. I am grateful that my mom can come and help us out right now. I just need to get up before her and get the coffee made…a proper double instant mug for her and a freshly ground cup for me. My husband and Oldest still need to return to the old house for one final walkthrough before it passes from our hands.

Tuesday

I did not get this post completed last night. This morning was my five a.m. shift and I thought it best to get to bed. I prefer the morning shift at work. Spending four hours gathering groceries for busy families is kinda like the calmness of mind that knitting provides. I only have this shift once a week. The rest of the week I am in the hurried atmosphere of loading groceries, accepting payment, problem solving (sometimes a little too creatively),  and prepping the department to begin anew.

This morning I happened to notice these cute individual apple pies in the frozen foods that looked like flowers. The little pies came home with me for our poetry breakfast time and they were just as yummy as they looked. After breakfast we started school. Last week we had a Canadian themed poetry breakfast. Friends sent us a gift box of tea, maple hot cocoa, candies, coffee and napkins. We loved the polar bear napkins so much none of us used them!!!! They are just too cute! We read poetry written by Canadians and listened to a Canadian patriotic music channel on YouTube.

Today, Littlest and I read Blueberries for Sal which is such a cute story. We’ll spend the next couple of weeks doing copywork and vocabulary from the story. Littlest wants to make a blueberry pie for poetry time. We also read Pilgrim Stories together. The part of the story that mattered the most to him was that the sister retrieved her brother’s boat from the pond. Religious freedom did not enter into his thought stream at all but at least he noticed the charity amongst the siblings…

Last week I gave Sparkles a little tour of where I worked. I thought it might help her to see that my job is not horrible and that my co-workers are really nice. She has been struggling and blaming herself for all of the changes at home. We had a long talk about her behavior, hormones, being a victim of mean girls, the struggle to accept her illness, how losing trust does  not mean losing my unconditional love and her sudden need to wear certain undergarments. That last one was sorta the hardest for me. We are going to have to have “the TALK” fairly soon now. One of my co-workers made her a crochet clown after learning about Sparkles’ illness. We didn’t have the easiest morning out but I hope to take her out again sometime later for something more fun. Tomorrow we are baking some salted caramel cookies together.

Other moments that I wanted to remember have slipped my mind. I find it hard to write and keep up with things these days. My head is cluttered with thoughts. I hope to cut back to about twenty hours a week once the new hires are trained. I miss sitting down to write and keeping my blog updated. I do not really know how I feel about events until I try to put words to my experiences…writing is catharsis.

Canadian themed table

Oldest in tree at old house

Sparkles with her crochet clown…I like the heart eyes

Littlest reading to me