Into the Wild Wood and Home Again

A quiet Saturday morning. Well, relatively quiet; the dog is grumbling and objecting to everyone and anything that she sees as an intrusion, which includes people walking on the other side of the street, random pieces of wind-blown paper, and apparently the morning in general.  I've got an overnight bag almost packed; I'll be heading out of town overnight with the crew (except G, who must work, and who will be tending to the doggo). It's been a long time since I've been out of town overnight; so long, in fact, that I could not find my small suitcase. Or a duffel bag. Likely, both are long gone. So I had to order one quickly, and I found a pretty little quilted thing that will do just nicely. Yes, I could have stowed a change of clothes and the other bits and bobs I need in a regular tote, but seriously, a grown woman ought to have an overnight bag. The big suitcase would have been overkill, to say the least. The game plan (and I use that term literally) is to go to Delt...

I went to a really nice poetry reading by the poet Adam Giannelli last night in Franconia. He was so pleasant, self-effacing, honest, and earnest in his work and in the Q/A after. His poetry is very accessible, which makes it a really good choice for a small community venue as well.  The questions most people posed to him were of the usual sort, focusing on his beginnings as a writer. There was a pointed question about his philosophy of teaching poetry, which, while a good question, really seemed out of place, but he handled it well. Then came the question that made me cringe a bit. The person asking it had already asked a couple of other questions, but this one was odd: do poems come to him in dreams? He fielded the question with good humor, and strangely enough, part of one of the poems in his full collection, Tremulous Hinge , has lines that did, in fact, happen in a dream. But still, odd question.  Poems don't usually just "arrive," they are responses to inner thought...

Thursday, and it's going to be humid and quite warm. T-storms in the forecast for the evening. I think I'll get groceries today (I'm all out of sync but we are also all out of milk). I'm quite sure Holly will want pool time, and I might join her. And tonight, I am going to Franconia to hear this summer's resident poet at the Frost Place read at the lovely little jewel-box of a library, the Abbie Greenleaf. Unless, of course, the t-storms are already raging. Sigh. I hope not.  At any rate, there's a plan in place for today, and likely it'll change here and there, but I like having a plan. I've tried the whole floating through the day thing, and it makes me uneasy. I like flexible plans, but no plan is too untethered.  Most folks like summer break because it's untethered, but I am more happy with a "get some chores done in the morning then loaf about as you wish in the afternoon" vibe. It's not always easy to stick to, but it works for me...

It's Wednesday, and it's a cool start to the day, 51 degrees. I hope that it warms a little.  I am hoping for a quieter, less fraught day. My chattery brain can't seem to settle.  Holly had a rough day yesterday; sometimes the topsy-turvy schedule that the adults have is just a lot of overwhelm for a four year old, and yesterday was filled with tears and drama, shouting and so on. I hope today is a lot calmer for both of us.  That said, I slept til 6:10 (G is off on Wednesdays, so no crazy 4am alarm). I am not having any coffee today because it feels like I've mistreated my digestion lately, and that's something I need to avoid.  Holly has swim lessons, and that's about it. I have some chores to do. Nothing huge. Just getting through the day. I hope yours is a good one. Keep the faith. C

Chilly, damp, overcast... not the kind of morning I can take my coffee to the deck. Though I'd have done so, since it's not a morning that Holly is here early. I can wander room to room, keep quiet, and drink my coffee. Peaceful, eh? Poor kid was at loose ends a bit yesterday, but we managed okay. Mondays are like that. We have a routine here, and it works pretty well. At home for three days, she was following a different pattern, and getting her back into the swing of things takes a bit. She gets a little too sassy and demanding, and I suppose that's a response to wanting to build a pattern for her day on her own terms. It still rankles, though. Today, she's hanging with Meg for most of the day (amen--she needs mommy time badly). She'll be here for dinner time, though, so I'm making one of her favorites, Italian sausage, spaghetti sauce, and pasta. I promised her pool time today, but the weather does not look like it'll cooperate, but there's always tom...

AP Scores are in, and I had a few kids pass. Most got at least 2s, which means they are college-ready, but it does not get them the college credit. Thankfully, they do dual credit, so that they will be able to transfer credits regardless. But how humbling, how grueling, an experience. For all of us.  What do we need to work on? Multiple stupid choice. And, for the lit kids, really honing in on providing credible evidence to build their analyses. All of which I know, all of which I kept harping on. We'll see how this year's crew does.  That said, that's it for school stuff. I'm just grateful a few passed with 3s. Now that we've been through this, I can figure out how to make it work. I know we did so much practice-- but I also know that they didn't really care, some of them.  Sigh. OK, it's summer, and this school stuff can go sit on a shelf.  I finished reading Klara and the Sun yesterday; it took me two days. It's not hard reading, the story is awesome...