Things are speeding up. The next six weeks, maybe eight weeks promise to be wild, even as Ed and I have just talked about how much we've come to love a slower pace. The trick is to alternate: a few weeks of chaos followed by maybe a month or so of calm. Of course, you can't always schedule your crazies. You just have to learn to enjoy them. And I do enjoy them. (Then I crash!)
This morning there is a threat of rain. Nonetheless, the chickens are out, including rusty, ancient Peach, who ventures out of hiding for the first time in weeks! (Then she gets stuck and I have to carry her back to the barn.)
Ed and I eat breakfast...
And then he asks me for help with his tree branch cutting project. And I do help him. We saw away at the high limb (with a loooong rope that has a saw in the middle) and we finally bring the sucker down. How long did it take? A week of work? More? Shush!
(plump flower buds, already!)
I am up to my neck with projects that absolutely positively have to be completed in the next two days and the rest of the morning is spent on those. All the way until it is time to swing by one more appointment that I have before picking up Snowdrop.
During this medical visit where we chat about all sorts of things past present and future, the topic of travel with grandchildren comes up. There is a nurse practitioner-in-training who sits in, taking notes. She's the one who asks me (as I chat about travel as a senior, especially travel with a child as a senior) -- at what age do you think it's good to take a child to, say, Europe? (She obviously is a mother of a potential candidate for such a trip.)
What a loaded question! I can tell you all sides of this dilemma, because I have surely experienced all sides -- from traveling with the young family when Snowdrop, then Sparrow were just babes, to the joy of having your young one come to an age where she can be distracted, nay, dazzled by videos, making for an overseas flight where you can relax.)
Since this medic in training was clearly hungry for details, I told her that of course, the personality of the child helps you imagine what trip is least stressful for you and most educational for her or him. Snowdrop with each passing month has proven herself to be more adaptable to the stress of "when things go wrong." But she can be a picky eater and I reflect on that a bit. "She doesn't like it when different foods run into each other..." I tell the spellbound medical person.
Oh, no problem in our house! I'm used to that! My husband is the same way!
Wait, what?? He never grew out of it?? Damn! That's discouraging!
And then I do pick up the girl under consideration and bring her to the farmhouse.
We have a bit more car time today for various irrelevant and confusing reasons. I talk to her about the article I read in the NYTimes about what kids (ages 11-14) want adults to know about their thoughts, feelings, and such. I ask her the questions that the author had asked a focus group of twelve kids.
The upside -- she definitely likes being a kid and does not wish for a fast track to adulthood (this is true for most of the kids interviewed for the piece as well). The sad moment came when I asked how she felt about security lockdowns in school.
She had had such a lockdown just yesterday. Indeed, when I came to pick her up, the whole school was eerily closed off. No kids, no staff in or around. My daughter texted me that they were on lockdown because of some "incident" nearby.
I questioned Snowdrop about it immediately after she was let out and she seemed then to be just fine, brushing it of as one of those things. But then she went to Girl Scouts and the kids started in on the topic and she admitted today that after that meeting, she felt scared.
Why? I asked.
Because they talked about killing people and guns.
Yeah. Tell me about it...
In the evening I cook up a huge pot of chili. For Ed, for next week, when I will be away.
With love...
