slice of life

I got up this morning around 4:30 (that’s AM, or I’m-An-Idiot in the morning) and wrote for two hours, realizing, in the process, that I’m going to have to do a metric fuck-load of research to get part of this story right. Fine. If that’s the work, that’s the work.

Back at the yurt I crawled into bed for a blissful 37 minutes of more sleep before demands for breakfast commenced. Toast with nuttella and goat milk for the kiddos, coffee, double cream for me and Paul, then off to milk the goats. Emma, Lucy’s almost-full-sized baby, has taken to drinking all the milk before I get there, so milking doesn’t take very long. I sit and day dream while the girls finish eating. It’s very peaceful.

Next up, aikido for Sophie. She’s been nervous about her new class, a homeschool class (thus the middle of the morning time-slot), where she is the youngest member of a multi-age group. The other kids have been wonderful with her though, helping her out, taking her under their collective wing. I have offered, several times, for her to return to the little kids class but she swears she doesn’t want to switch back. So she bravely marches in. And then she got chosen to be “it” for tag, and all was well. She was BEAMING as we drove off for lunch at the local cafe (sushi in the plastic box, the kid’s favorite, plus banana bread, an odd combo, but it worked). Heck, I was beaming for her. Sometimes her small victories can take on the significance of bearing the flaming torch into the Olympic Stadium, you know what I’m saying?

Home again, and an hour-plus of yoga for me (ahhh) while the kids painted themselves, and each other, in the yard. Wonderful Indian Summer weather facilitated this. It is simply GORGEOUS today, blue, blue skies and sunshine, but not hot, and whenever the wind gusts up, it leafs everywhere. Then to the Noah House for drawing (while my stretched-out hip joints vibrated from what I’d just done to them). Luc is still drawing Tiamat (from the play we saw a month ago) most days, and has figured out how to tape together a multitude of paper pieces to get one long enough for his vision of her. Sophie is into monsters. Today was the Meatball Of Terror. I’m not making this up. I mostly doodled and relaxed in the sun.

Next, because they looked so slender running around in their body paint, I suggested making oatmeal cookies. I’m like the witch who is trying to fatten them up so I can eat them. The kids really hated the cookie idea, of course. Pure mutiny.

The only fly in the coffee so far today has been, well, a fly in my coffee. Ew.

But now they are running around outside eating warm cookies and I’m typing this. A terrifically, normally, domestically, lovely, good day.

You’ve got to just suck the marrow out of days like this.

Because they pass.