Bits

I have lost my wine glass. It's just not that big of a house. Or yard. I had it half an hour ago. I was pulling dandelions, making zucchini bread, doing dishes, watering the lawn....and somewhere in all of that I set my wine down and forgot where. Then, I asked my son, "Have you seen my glass of wine, I can't find it"? As soon as I said those words I thought, that's not the thing to ask your ten year old. Oh well. I'll probably find it in the yard tomorrow, miscellaneous bugs crawling about, or more likely, dead from alcohol poisoning. You know what it means when you misplace your wine? Go to the cabinet and get a new glass :)

We found a fuzzy caterpillar. Weeks ago. (I'm liking fragments tonight) We put it in a jar (I said "three days, and if it's not a cocoon, we're letting it go"). In a day we had a cocoon. I kept it inside the house on the counter.
Waited. Went to Kansas. Came back. Still, a cocoon. Then, one morning, there it was, a speckled moth. The cocoon was so cool. It was as if that caterpillar had plucked all the fuzzy fur off it's own back and made the cocoon with it. I love nature. Of course, we were hoping for a Monarch butterfly. But the miracle's the same anyway, I guess.

Today is my dad's birthday. He would have been 91. I met some old guys (I say that with the greatest affection possible) in Kansas and a couple of them were in their nineties. On one hand, it could have been a sad thing, missing my dad, feeling that whole, "it's just not fair that he's not here" thing. But it was actually pretty cool seeing some men in their nineties that were still hanging out, sipping coffee at the drug store and telling stories. Some of them I met going into stores where they worked! Yes, working and smiling at ninety-one. I'm happy some of them made it. I like that there are those guys out there telling me the stories that my dad would be telling me. I like to imagine him there. That's why I made the zucchini bread. For him on his birthday. Happy birthday dad.

On being a mom. The deal is, I love my son. The deal is, also, I cannot wait for school to start. I do not get those mothers who want to spend actual TIME with their kids DOING CRAFTS. I will gladly spend time with Jay while we drive around town doing errands and even gardening together out in the yard. But PLAYING?! He can play during recess. I'm counting down the days (18) until he starts fifth grade.

I really love this next quote. I try to do these things, and sometimes I'm not successful. But I think if I just remember this quote, I'll improve.


How far you go in life depends on your being tender with
the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with
the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because
someday in life you will have been all of these.
--George Washington Carver