Monday

With the three Madison grandkids, I had three tries to get school drop-off to work perfectly smoothly. It was hugely more complicated because I was dealing with three kids, two different schools and three lunches and snacks to send with them. Here, in Chicago, I am charged with taking only one child to school and she takes school lunch so there's not much prep to worry about.

However.

It's Chicago! Her school borders on the downtown area. There is rush hour traffic. And the parents aren't out on vacation, they're stressing over their younger one's ears, so I don't need to add to their worries by getting any drop-off details wrong.

The solution? Go over the plan in your head, especially the routing, many times, and do this in the middle of the night so it stays fresh, and get up just after five to give yourself a whole hour before the girl herself has to be up. 

Talk about over-preparedness!

Still, as a result of excessive planning, it all goes smoothly.

Breakfast, brief play, all of it.

It is freezing cold outside (in Wisconsin we had a dusting of wet snow) so it's time to take out the winter jacket and winter cap.

Primrose is agreeable, tho she notices the utter silence in her house without little Juniper (or her parents) in it. I shake things up by pretending to be traveling granola. She laughs all the way to school.

And now it's time for me to drive back home. 

(With a pause for a Chicago morning coffee at La Colombe)

Turns out that Snowdrop has another school-free day (who knows why) and so she (and working parents) is waiting for me to get back to the farmhouse so that she can come over for a visit. I tell her that can happen as soon as I get home, but only if can plant bulbs in the early evening. Those bulbs HAVE to go in today and tomorrow!

But in the end, I put in zero bulbs. The wind is blustery and the occasional snow squalls are enough to send you inside. 

Okay then, tomorrow for sure! In the mean time, she and I do our read-play-eat routine in the comfort of the warm farmhouse.

And so it's a full day. Beautiful in all ways, though as always, it's hard to leave behind the Chicago bunch. Primrose had asked if after I'm with Snowdrop today, I could come back and do a pick-up there, back in Chicago. She wasn't totally serious, but there was a wistfulness in hearing her muse like this, certainly on my part. It's not easy to leave those you love, even for short periods of time.

Still, I have before me a few days with Ed (before we go off on our own adventures later in the month) and there's no doubt that this is wonderful. I'm not allowed popcorn yet, but we have our shared time in the evenings and it, too, is priceless.

With so much love....