Monday, October 26, 2015

I Sent Owen Home With Green Hands And A Full Tummy

The boys are here and eating pancakes and bacon because their papa is going to be a little late today. Pancakes and bacon have become the default dinner for them around here and no, it's not very healthy but I did put oat bran in the pancakes and a little of this morning's smoothy so there's a tiny bit of fiber and nutrition in them.

I asked Owen how they tasted and he took a bite and chewed thoughtfully for a moment and then said with quiet authority, "The best."

It still hasn't rained but has been gray and heavy as prison walls all day long. The radar seems to show that it is inevitable that we will get rain tonight and the ground is gasping for water so please all-gods-that-be, let some rain finally fall from this cement sky. I feel like my soul needs the relief as much as the dirt does. I also feel like I feel too much and make too much out of it.
But. That is me.

When the boys and Greta got here today Owen wanted to do the puzzle that I got last week at the Costco. It is a one-hundred piece puzzle of a beautiful folk-art picture of Noah's Ark so not too difficult but certainly not completely simple, either. We got straight to work and we loved the images of the monkeys and pigs and elephants and alligators and even two dinosaurs (not of the same breed which explains a lot- DUH, Noah!) and I asked him, as we worked, if he knew the story of Noah's Ark. He did not and I told it to him, the basic outlines of it, and when I finished I said, "It's not true, but it's a good story."
He agreed that it was and he also agreed that it was a bit far-fetched and we discussed how much poop would have been in that ark after forty days and forty nights.
It gave us a lot of pleasure.

When Gibson and I were in the car alone waiting to pick up Owen, the little man did a funny routine and it cracked me up.
"My arm hurts!" he would say.
"Oh no! Not your arm!" I would say.
"Just kidding."
"Good!"
"My leg hurts!"
"Oh no! Not your leg! Do we need to go to the doctor?"
"Just kidding."
"My hand hurts!"
"Oh no! Should we go to the hospital?"
"Just kidding."
When he got to "my little toes hurt," I lost it.
"Oh no! Not your little toes!"
"Just kidding."

I love these boys so much. I love watching them grow. Owen and I played cards too and he knows his numbers now. He knows which number is higher than another. He also did "experiments" and he has gone home now with green hands.
"Tell my daddy why I have green hands," he said.
"You tell him," I said.
"I'm embarrassed," he said.
I no longer have any food coloring. I'll just say that.

I have split pea soup simmering and focaccia bread rising. I suppose we could have eaten pancakes and bacon for supper but I don't really want that. I want to charm stormy weather, cooler weather, rain, into coming down with my soup. Sometimes I feel like a witch-crone, trying to use all of the powers at my commend even if they are so prosaic and plain, to use as spells. Soup and garden-planting, story-telling and kisses.
I went in and kissed Gibson on the head while he was playing with some toys and he actually said, "Thank-you, Mermer!"

"Seven things you don't know about the Kardashians!" bleats an online headline.
There are seven million things I don't know about the Kardashians. I am probably not even spelling their name right and I don't care.
I do not know so many things but I do know how to make soup, to make bread and pancakes, to tell stories, to kiss grandchildren, to root plants, to make a bed, to stroke a cat in the middle of the night when bad dreams come and the cat presents herself to me for comfort.

I don't really know how to cast spells.
I am not really a witch.
But I am, I think, a crone.

That will do until something else comes down the road.

Love...Ms. Moon








12 comments:

  1. You feel too much and you make too much out of it? That is one of your most endearing qualities, my love. Be proud, not everyone gets the gift.

    I'm making clam chowder with lots of bacon. Sounds comforting, as the skies are grey here too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Owen and I drew marker tattoos (crayola, so they'd wash off) on each other a few days ago. He requested Greta, me, a guitar, and a skull. He gave me a ninja turtle, a bottle of beer, a skull, and a damn good dragon face. His ideas. It reminded me of drawing on Jessie and Lily when they were little kids. Oh! And he wrote his one name on his belly, backwards.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You know how to comfort more then a cat my lady.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That sounds like a lovely, peaceful day despite iron skies and impending storms. I hope you wake to the sound of rain on your roof.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mer I think there might be a bit of magic in you .

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well, I think they'd have just shovelled the poop overboard. That was before the days of sewage treatment, after all.

    May you have rain, but not as much as Noah did.

    ReplyDelete
  7. You do life with your whole heart, you make it rain with your spells, you set up shop in our hearts, you ghost through the woods, you mother hens and chicks, you have familiars....

    You inspire me so. I love that you are in this world with us.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Greta? have I forgotten who Greta is? pancakes and bacon sounds like a good dinner to me. we had a nice cool day yesterday after all that rain. I even put my fall lounge pants on instead of my summer ones. warming up though so they will probably go back in the drawer.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Liv- I have never made clam chowder. I don't know why. I do love it. Thank you.

    That Hank- He is getting good at drawing and yes, especially dragons. He is lucky that he lives in a family which doesn't really get upset about things like marker tattoos and green hands. His puzzle abilities astound me. I'm trying to get border pieces together and he's already got half the puzzle put together. That boy...
    He reminds me of someone. Who could that be?

    Joanne- Some days. Not others. Thank you.

    Elizabeth- I did!

    Leisha- All of us have some. I do believe that.

    jenny_o- Yes. They could have done that. Certainly not a luxury cruise, was it?

    Tearful- You made me tearful. Thank you.

    Ellen Abbott- Greta is Jessie and Vergil's dog. She is staying with Lily's family while Jessie and Vergil and Gus are up in NC.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Green hands! Ha!

    Is it possible to be a male crone? What's the male equivalent? Just an old man, I think. A geezer?

    I barely know who the Kardashians are.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Soup and garden-planting, story-telling and kisses.
    I don't think there is much in the world more powerful than that.

    ReplyDelete

Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.