31 December 2013
sticky note
December 2013
MAYA: “Mom, wasn’t Albert Einstein like the first person to walk on the moon?”
COLE: “No, I think his name was Harry Johnson or something.”
Mmm hmm. I wrote down their conversation a few days ago on a sticky note, and I’ve been holding onto it ever since.
I want to remember it, because late one evening very soon -- hours past his bedtime -- Cole (8) will call out from his bedroom loft in a voice quite large for our little house, “Mom, did you know Albert Einstein conceived the theory of relativity and Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon?!”
Maya (9) -- also still awake -- will peer up and over the pages of the second book she’s read that day and retort, “Obviously, Cole. Who cares?” Like clockwork will follow her litany of nightly inquiries: “Mom, who’s taking us to school in the morning? What time will we be leaving? Can we leave early because… In my lunch the day after tomorrow, will you please pack… Did you remember…”
“Maya, go start a company,” Paul (39), reclined on a too-short-red-couch and clad in his signature hoodie and plaid pajamas, will interrupt without looking up from the screen of his phone. And across the room, wrapped in a blanket with a spacer heater at my feet -- sinking into the recesses of my old, oversized chair -- I (35, no 36… wait, I’m 37?!) will sigh and look up from my own book. The fire in the wood stove will burn. Big Mama (our Christmas tree) will glow. Orange (our Island County Fair goldfish who died and came back to life -- long story) will splash about in his bowl. And with one accord, Paul and I will cry out: “GO TO BED!!”
Sooner or later, our kiddos will settle to sleep. And in the years that quickly follow, we will fondly recall the good ole days when Cole and Maya slept in lofts, Paul and I sank in saggy couches around a fireplace and our children still wondered anything aloud without Googling it first. The details of those days will likely blur into those of the next; eventually, they will fade.
I remember being perplexed by oldies radio when I was a kid. What is the point? I wondered. But 14 years into the 21st Century, clutching my landline, hardback books and the US Postal Service for dear life, I’m dragging my feet and resisting change. I continue to send out a letter on red paper each December in this age of instant connection, and I think I get it.
It’s not so much the years to which I’m clinging, but these moments captured on sticky notes. As time turns, schedules swell, pants shrink and kiddos grow, I’m accepting(ish) but also grieving a crucial truth to this story we are living: what once was is no longer and what is won’t always be so... SO, I write and take note and reflect and give thanks. And I hope that one day, long after you’ve tossed this letter, I will happen upon it filed away in a box somewhere. I’ll dust it off, smile and gratefully, I’ll remember.
Sending love to you and yours this December,
Abi, Paul, Maya and Cole.
MAYA: “Mom, wasn’t Albert Einstein like the first person to walk on the moon?”
COLE: “No, I think his name was Harry Johnson or something.”
Mmm hmm. I wrote down their conversation a few days ago on a sticky note, and I’ve been holding onto it ever since.
I want to remember it, because late one evening very soon -- hours past his bedtime -- Cole (8) will call out from his bedroom loft in a voice quite large for our little house, “Mom, did you know Albert Einstein conceived the theory of relativity and Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon?!”
Maya (9) -- also still awake -- will peer up and over the pages of the second book she’s read that day and retort, “Obviously, Cole. Who cares?” Like clockwork will follow her litany of nightly inquiries: “Mom, who’s taking us to school in the morning? What time will we be leaving? Can we leave early because… In my lunch the day after tomorrow, will you please pack… Did you remember…”
“Maya, go start a company,” Paul (39), reclined on a too-short-red-couch and clad in his signature hoodie and plaid pajamas, will interrupt without looking up from the screen of his phone. And across the room, wrapped in a blanket with a spacer heater at my feet -- sinking into the recesses of my old, oversized chair -- I (35, no 36… wait, I’m 37?!) will sigh and look up from my own book. The fire in the wood stove will burn. Big Mama (our Christmas tree) will glow. Orange (our Island County Fair goldfish who died and came back to life -- long story) will splash about in his bowl. And with one accord, Paul and I will cry out: “GO TO BED!!”
Sooner or later, our kiddos will settle to sleep. And in the years that quickly follow, we will fondly recall the good ole days when Cole and Maya slept in lofts, Paul and I sank in saggy couches around a fireplace and our children still wondered anything aloud without Googling it first. The details of those days will likely blur into those of the next; eventually, they will fade.
I remember being perplexed by oldies radio when I was a kid. What is the point? I wondered. But 14 years into the 21st Century, clutching my landline, hardback books and the US Postal Service for dear life, I’m dragging my feet and resisting change. I continue to send out a letter on red paper each December in this age of instant connection, and I think I get it.
It’s not so much the years to which I’m clinging, but these moments captured on sticky notes. As time turns, schedules swell, pants shrink and kiddos grow, I’m accepting(ish) but also grieving a crucial truth to this story we are living: what once was is no longer and what is won’t always be so... SO, I write and take note and reflect and give thanks. And I hope that one day, long after you’ve tossed this letter, I will happen upon it filed away in a box somewhere. I’ll dust it off, smile and gratefully, I’ll remember.
Sending love to you and yours this December,
Abi, Paul, Maya and Cole.
23 November 2013
22 November 2013
31 October 2013
october
This October, I overheard the adorable, midday musings of my eight-year old: "Hey Maya, who do you think is more powerful, Anakin Skywalker or a Genie?"
Happy Halloween!
30 September 2013
23 September 2013
last day
On an overcast afternoon three months ago, Paul, the kids and I snuggled on the comfy couch at DBBC with notepads, pens, a laptop and an agreement that "no idea is a bad idea." We brainstormed our second annual summer to-do list... and now it's September?!
On the heels of twelve glorious weeks of sunshine, fall was in the air today. The clouds hung a little lower, the air was a bit cooler, we received a winter's supply of kindling and had soup for dinner.
Tonight, the last of the photos have been downloaded and uploaded(!!). The swimsuits, beach towels and tents have been packed away for the season, and my beloveds are tucked away for the evening. Autumn has arrived, and it's time to file our list away. But before then, we remember...
On the heels of twelve glorious weeks of sunshine, fall was in the air today. The clouds hung a little lower, the air was a bit cooler, we received a winter's supply of kindling and had soup for dinner.
Tonight, the last of the photos have been downloaded and uploaded(!!). The swimsuits, beach towels and tents have been packed away for the season, and my beloveds are tucked away for the evening. Autumn has arrived, and it's time to file our list away. But before then, we remember...
What we’d like to do this summer – 6/24/13
University Village
Movie Marathon*
Cash Flow for Kids
Purchase and Play a New Board Game*
Complete reAWAKENING curriculum – Abi
Purchase Cole’s Baby Book
Complete Cole’s Baby Book
Visit Mr. Slater
Host Wellington Parent Potluck
Purchase a Beach Bag
Purchase Real Beach Towels/Blanket
Purchase New Kids’ Bath Towels
Museum of Flight*
Family Road Trip to Coeur D’Helene, ID
Visit the Mannings
Visit a Water Park (Silverwood /Wild Waves)
Washington State Fair
African American History Museum*
Swim Lessons
Family Dinner at UBGCC
Walk On Date to Ivar’s
Get a New Laptop – Abi
Blue Fox Drive Inn
Purchase Space Heaters for DBBC
Family Dance Marathon
Discovery Park/ Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
Seattle Underground Tour
Purchase Summer Math Workbooks
Get Dental Insurance/Switch Health Insurance
Family Dentist Visit
Make Homemade Ice Cream/Frozen Yogurt
Cascadian Farms
Helium Balloon Letter Release
Family Swim – FOR REAL
Garden Maintenance
Fern Maintenance
Purchase Adirondack Chairs
Wall Climbing
Get a Bike – Abi
Visit all five Whidbey Libraries*
o Oak Harbor
o Coupeville
Visit the Gum Wall
Oak Bowl*
Eat a Donut
Picnic at Perego Lake (bottom of Ebey Rd and Hill Rd)
SeaFaire
Whidbey Island Highland Games (August 10)
Whidbey Island Music Festival
Whidbey Island Race Week (July 14-19)
Clean out Personal Files
Clean out the Studio
Visit Oak Harbor Waterslide Park
Detail Ruby
Purchase a new DS game(s)
Get knives sharpened
Summer Scrapbooks
San Juan Islands
Yesterday, to celebrate solidarity, to commemorate the official end of a marvelous summer and to gratefully step forward into a new season, we marked one last item** off our list and went to a delicious dinner in Seattle.
22 September 2013
camp-o-rama
Labor Day weekend we slept in a field overlooking the Sound at our first Camp-o-rama -- a Whidbey family tradition that's been going on for decades.
Complete with three-legged races, gunny sack races (yeah, I just learned what a gunny sack is; see below), tug-o-war...
forts on the beach, a bonfire, s'mores, camp songs, a potluck...
(What's that, you ask? Oh, Seth bought a prize pig at the Island County Fair a few weeks earlier, dug a hole in the ground, then he roasted it -- the pig that is. I'm serious.)
Paul brought corn for 100, then he flew a kite.
We'll definitely be back next September.
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