Into the Wild Wood and Home Again

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...

I did not watch any of the festivities. I did, however, doom-scroll far too much for my own good.  I gasped and cringed at the sight of masked, hate-spewing marchers in the Capitol, proceeding unimpeded. After church, I am going outside today to pull weeds, to reconnect, maybe to figure out how to stop the anxious chatter in my head.  Today, let's turn to Whitman, as I often do. I hope your day is one of hope and peace. C O Me! O Life! Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring, Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish, Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?) Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d, Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me, Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined, The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?   ...

I was ten years old in 1976. The country was alight with Bicentennial Fervor; the quarters were minted with the dates, the dividing line on streets were painted with patriotic colors, school kids were given little plastic bags with a hole to hang them in the car that proclaimed "Keep America Beautiful!"-- it seemed we all had something to celebrate. And we wanted to. The country had just gone through the murky mess that Watergate brought, a president had resigned in disgrace, the Vietnam War had come to a brutal and difficult ending, and the country needed to heal. It had not even been a decade since the violence of 1968 with the riots and assassinations. We needed desperately to move forward, and we did, in so many ways. I sat on a grassy expanse of lawn behind one of the storied mansions in Newport and watched the Tall Ships come into harbor. It was breathtaking, exciting, and historic.  In the ensuing 50 years, a lot has happened; much good has been accomplished and much t...