You’re probably wondering what happened to me. Aren’t you?
She said she’d be writing every day. Then it changed to “except weekends.” That made sense. I wouldn’t want to work weekends either. But now it’s been a week and still no word. What happened? Is she dead?! …checks Instagram… Nope. She’s posting there. …gasp… She’s being a bum!
Well, in a way, yes, but there were extenuating circumstances. And, because I love to tap away at keys, and because I know you’re just DYING to know, I’m going to tell you about it.
It all started on Monday night when the Legos called to me. All at once I was whisked away to the Ilse of Lego, never to be seen again.
“This was what you wanted! You said so!”
“Yeah, remember?!”
‘Lego King! Lego King! Take this baby FAR from me!’
“You said the words and here we are!”
“Yeah… no guys. I think you’re confusing things a bit. That sounds like a mix up of Labyrinth. And there is no baby to take away.”
“Hmm… we didn’t notice. We figured it was some kind of new slang we didn’t understand. Doesn’t matter, though! We were all pretty sure you would prefer to live here and play with Legos all day long. So, we made it happen. All the sets are free, the instructions aren’t too small for your eyes to see without glasses, and everything is organized in small drawers and bins. Best part? Nothing gets lost, not even the smallest pieces! You’re going to love it. We even have a minifigure that looks just like you, right down to the red ponytail and Wrangler jeans. You can even put glasses on it for library scenes you build!”
“That’s awesome guys, really. I love it. But I need to get home. No need to go into why. You’ve seen all the movies and read all the novels. You know why. Now… take me home. I promised to make cookies.”
As you can imagine, they were visibly disappointed. On the way back, they tried several tricks and distractions to get me to say, but I had to insist, and we finally arrived just before sunrise on Tuesday.
As per the usual magic, no one even noticed I had been out all night, and I wasn’t even tired. I got up ready to write the day’s blog post, but then another thing happened. This one wasn’t so magical. On Monday afternoon, my youngest came over to work on his car. He had gotten a few days off in a row with the hope of finishing it before he had to return to work. I didn’t expect him to be up so early on Tuesday, but this kid was determined to get busy.
No writing for me. My whole morning routine was shot due to distractions of a fun kind. I had breakfast to make, and then I had to go to the grocery store and … you know, that kind of stuff!
That was… let’s see… Tuesday and more plans were made for Wednesday. While he was in Ireland, he had potato cakes which we were determined to recreate, so while the sun was working its way up, we made a batch along with eggs and sausage and toast. Leaving the kitchen a ginormous mess, I went to read some of my book (which I’ll tell you about it a minute, keep your pants on!) and then start the rest of my day.
It’s amazing how much time I spend cooking and cleaning when my kids are around. It’s satisfying. Sadly, I miss being that busy. I have learned a few things over the last few years, though, and decided to roll with it and not get all crazy trying to do everything. My morning routine would just have to go by the wayside until the house returned to its normal occupancy of two.
I couldn’t help with the frustrating job of working on the car. I’m useless in that department. But I could make cookies to soothe the soul, so I did. And I made sure there were plenty of snacks, and dinners were made with leftovers for the next day.
Then my other boy showed up the next day to help, and work on his motorcycle, and the youngest headed back to down to work. By Friday afternoon, everyone was gone again. No, even with the loan of engine hoist, the car wasn’t fixed, but progress was made, and grandma loaned him her car for the week. We all pull together around here.
I rested in peace all of Friday afternoon by starting another book, and finishing it this morning. Don’t get crazy on me! It was a children’s book by Neil Gaiman called The Graveyard Book. Have you heard of it? I wish I had when it came out in 2008. My boys would have loved hearing it, probably over lunch instead of at bedtime. They loved the dark stuff, but would prefer it during the day, with ample time to get the details out of their heads before dark. I’ll tell you more about that book later, too.
Oh, yes… there is one more thing. (Columbo style) Another problem had come up on last week and it involved this website. Something went wonky with the WordPress update and Jetpack, so it isn’t working, again. …sigh… The site works, but the Jetpack plugin is FUBAR. I tried fixing it myself but failed. My husband knows what to do, but he’s been so busy with work and helping the boy with his car I have to wait my turn. Maybe he’ll get to it today. We shall see.
The site being down, along with some things I’m reading, my mood, and other things, has me thinking about what I’m doing here and on social media. There are so many people on the internet speaking their minds and hearts. Am I saying anything that isn’t already being said? Am I just taking up more space?
A lot of these thoughts came up while reading Words Still Count with Me. I think I’ll go through that book and write more about that later. For now, I just wanted to jump on and say… “I’m still alive! But I’m badly injured.”
PS We have new family motto: “Non Sequitur – Ad Infinitum,” meaning, it does not follow to infinity. It all started when the conversation went like this:
Son #1 had just arrived and came in eager to discuss the rule of law and morality while I was doing the dishes, when Son #2 walked in from the garage.
Son #1 to Son #2: “Why do you think you need to pull the motor? Mom and I were just discussing anarchy.”
Me to Son #1 and #2: “Speaking of non sequitur, I made cake.”
We all started laughing hysterically. THIS is our family, at all times. It can be exhausting, and no conversation is ever over. I wrote our new family motto on the fridge, along with what I planned on making for dinner, so that I wouldn’t forget.