It Never Ends (and No, I Don't Have a New Dog)

I took the afternoon off work in order to take the Girl Scouts on a tour of the ice cream shop. We learned about making ice cream and running an ice cream shop and ate a bowl of ice cream. Then we went to the art gallery next door and met with a woman who makes jewelry and she told us how she makes her stained glass earrings and glass beads for necklaces and rings.

After the field trips I took Mary and her friend to the Humane Society to look at dogs with me since I heard they had terrier puppies. The terriers were all gone. We got to pet and talk to all the doggies anyway.

We had Mary's friend with us due to her parent's work schedule. Essentially we had a play date for the 9 year old with one of her favorite friends until her friend's dad came to get her after he got off work at about 5:30.

At 5:41, Mary flopped into the room, leaned over the chair and said, "Will you take me to the park?"

"Take you to the park?! I just took you to the ice cream shop and the art gallery and the humane society and you had a friend over to play for nearly an hour."

"I know. And now I'm bored. And I want you to take me to the park."

"I know. And now I am incredulous. And the Mom Entertainment Mobile is closed."

"Whatever," she said with an eye roll that suggested 19 and not 9.

"Whatever," I said, and flicked my wrist.

Waffle Crsip

We had a long day yesterday - I had a workshop in the morning, Bill had a 20 mile run, we had company over that night for corned beef and the whacking of a snake pinata. We stayed up late into the night playing cards with kids.

This morning Frank and I were the first to be up eating breakfast. We were sitting at the dining room table eating cereal and reading the newspaper together. Frank slurps the milk in his cereal no matter how many times I ask him not to.

"Mom?"

"Yes, Frank?" I made eye contact with him over the top of the newspaper page that I was reading. His upper lip was covered with milk.

"This Waffle Crisp cereal really does taste like waffles."

"Good," I said and I went back to my newspaper.

"Mom?"

"Yes, Frank?"

"Do you wonder what Peyton Manning is doing right now?"

I looked at Frank sitting there very seriously posing the question about one of his favorite quarterbacks and realized that Frank really was sitting there wondering what he was doing.

"Actually I wasn't wondering what Peyton Manning is doing right now."

"I bet he's riding his mustang."

"That could be," I said.

slurp slurp slurp

Boxes

I have not felt up to writing about my kids lately. I am filling my little paper journal with long rambling essays about my dead dog. Her ashes sit in a brown box next to my bedside and I even pick up her box sometimes and carry it around. I always thought pet cemeteries were weird, but I really do need some closure here. It has been icy and snowy and rotten out and I want it to be sunny and green when I take her ashes outside. In the meantime I feel as if I am dragging a little corpse around with me. I am overwhlemed with loss and sadness and embarassment that Maggie's death continues to affect me so much.

So instead of a well rounded essay about my kids which is filled with insight, here is an update.

Frank is now a Bear Cub Scout. He got his Wolf badge last night. His Den also got the Spirit Stick because they were all dressed in their uniforms with badges and neck scarves. They were very excited about getting the Spirit Stick and it over shadowed the Wolf Badge award.

Mary is settling into herself. Her social skills surpass her brother's and sister's social skills combined. Her cooking skills rival mine. Her latest creation is cooked pasta shells filled with Nutella, chopped apples, and marshmallows - something to please everyone. ("It even has fruit in it!" she informed me.)

Anna finished up her speech season and did a very good job with a persuasive speech about Factory Farms ("When you think about where your pork and milk come from do you picture Charlotte's Web? Factory farms: stranger than fiction...").

As always, the kids keep me busy and focused on what is important. I get up, I go through my day and I do stuff like take food to teachers for the parent-teacher conference potluck and volunteer at the school book fair. I am teetering and they right me.