writing without a plan. (rambling, in other words)
I had a web hosting snafu this week and the blog was down and out for a while.
But I’m all back now and I think I have a plan. (It was actually very comforting to receive the texts and messages alerting me that my blog was unavailable. Made me feel loved by you guys, knowing that you read the words and click over to this space. Thank you, friends.)
I’m a little here and there with a handful of loose ends these days so I don’t have a stopping or a starting point tonight as I write this.
Last Sunday we had baptisms at church. Man. I start to tear up as soon as the songs begin. There’s something refreshing and hopeful and tender and hard and lovely about the symbolism of baptism.
I find that I’m a cynic where I don’t want to be and hopeful when it seems hopeless and who can even pretend to completely understand their own heart really?
This afternoon Otto was sitting down to put on a pair of shoes before going outside to play. It was wet and cold and the shoes he was sliding on were summer shoes and he was wearing no socks.
“Son,” I said to my boy. “I think you’ll be cold if you wear those.”
He grinned at me.
“Never you mind,” he said.
Uh? Okay?
This week one evening it was about nine o’clock and bed time was, you know, something that should have happened about twenty minutes earlier, and Berg was standing in the kitchen. Starving. Wanting to fix a sandwich. (A mayonnaise and cheese sandwich. With salt.) Eat an apple. Have some yogurt. The boy was hungry.
And I thought to myself – this is just the beginning. I’ll be fixing breakfast and lunch and dinner and second dinner. For a houseful of teenagers. That’s my future you guys. (And it’s not scary at all.) Plus, I’m banking on these kids fixing the food for me. They are really capable cooks.
Maybe I should focus my energies on learning how to home grow everything – to offset the enormous grocery bill I’ll be staring down. (I’m a shamefully terrible gardener though. All green things die when they see me.)
We are studying astronomy this year for science. It’s pretty cool. Except I actually do not care. I mean, like, I sincerely have zero interest in Mars or space rocks or comets or the gravitational pull of anything on any other thing. Bergen’s interest in All Things Science makes up for everyone else’s lack of interest however.
Did you know that “dreamt” is apparently the only English word that ends in “mt”? (Mosely’s journal taught us that today.)
I don’t know why, but my kids love quinoa. Literally love it. At dinner they kept raving about how great it was. “Is this cheap, Mom?” one of them asked.
“You know. Relatively,” I said.
“Then why aren’t we eating this EVERY night?”
“It’s great with everything. Cheese. Butter. Corn. Onions. I bet broccoli. Just anything.”
You guys. I served them sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, quinoa and a salad. They acted like it was a royal feast. (They are so satisfying that way. It’s nice.)
In other news, our chickens are finally beginning to lay eggs again. Ryder dreams of entering their pen and annihilating them.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll be back with a more structured blog post.
Until then, thanks for enduring my nightly wind-down ramble.
(The pictures helped – right?)
15 Comments
Hilary
This is perfect. I feel like I was with you for a day.
d powell
My Uncle Jim and I are going to raise a massive garden this summer. You be sure to stop by and we will fill you up..
darrell
laceykeigley
I’m going to go ahead and assume you really mean that.
I’ll see you in July. 🙂
Sandy Scaringi
The pictures are always great but so are your words…ALL of them. Everything green dies with me too but Lana, you have encouraged me to maybe try again! 🙂
Lana
That is how I learned! You learn by doing when it comes to plants. You can also plant radishes when the lettuce goes in, if you like them.
laceykeigley
She might inspire me too! 🙂
karen
i love your posts. the real. the deep. the funny. the sad. the living. and rambling ones are just a part of that.
you’re living. and i like that.
laceykeigley
thank you.
Rachel
I’ve only been reading your blog forever. But periodically I’m like “Ryder? Now which kiddo is that?”
Which made the chicken thing particularly funny to me.
Sorry!!!
laceykeigley
Ha!
That comment cracked me up!
I did want to name a child Ryder so it seems a reasonable mistake.
I also wanted a child named Greenleaf but it never worked out.
Lana
I actually like rambling posts the best. My advice is to let the kids do the gardening and you do the cooking! Who knows, maybe they have green thumbs! Besides, kids like to play in dirt and get excited about growing things. They can plant lettuce seeds on March 15. Just buy inexpensive seed like from Dollar General and they will grow fine. With all the rain we are having there is no need to even water once they get going. After the ground dries out from this round of rain is the time to dig a garden plot. Just a small one to start. Come to my house with a 5 gallon bucket and get some black gold from my compost heap, it grows wonderful everything!
laceykeigley
Yes – I should let the kids do the gardening. That’s a great idea. I think they can handle BOTH – cooking and gardening.
Can I try lettuce in a pot instead of a plot?
Lana
Yes. I grow mine in a long, cheapie plastic window box. If you have trouble with squirrels getting in it you can scatter chopped up orange peels over the soil. My squirrels think I planted them a salad bar. (grrrrr…)
Sara
So….I looked up “dreamt.” I didn’t know it was a correct past tense of dream. You learn something new everyday.
“Our hearts are deceitful and sick. Who can understand them?”
Not me, for sure.
laceykeigley
You DO learn something new every day.