Some days, you just have to do an about-face and pivot. If you planned on one kid sleeping at your place and three show up, night after night, well then so be it! If you thought you'd be walking your campers through the local Olbrich Gardens and suddenly there's a tornado warning, you spend time in the gift shop instead. And spend much more than you intended.
We have done a lot of pivoting this week. And it's been just fine.
It really is because of the little brother's illness -- it foreclosed the possibility of mixing up the households. The big two have been with me all these days just to keep them away from the sick little guy. And of course, their cousin, Primrose, is just delighted.
How's the dynamic between the three, you ask? Remarkably great. I've had to intervene and steer now and then, but mostly they resolve different needs and preferences on their own. These cousins are bonded and the time spent together, even at night, in a tiny and a little too warm room, only reinforces that.
This morning, they stayed in bed until the new rainbow clock (thanks Amazon!) showed that it was 7:15. By then I had had a chance to get ready for the day.
As before, they began their play with their video filming. I really haven't paid attention to what the subject of all this writing and recording is, but it does involve a lot of strange sounds and movements. When Ed comes down for a few minutes (he's been mostly hiding in the bedroom!), they rope him into filming all three.
Breakfast. We have our routine now!
Afterwards, we all get in the car to drop the big two at their Shakespeare camp. It's only three hours long and I pack pack in all that I need to do in the garden in that time slot. But before I get to that, I take Primrose to the downtown Wednesday market. For the flowers.
As we pass a stall with beets, I ask her if we should get some for dinner. I'm so wrapped up in the kids these days that I pay little attention to everything else. Only when I hear my name, do I see that we're buying from Natalie, our farmer and friend from the Thursday market.
It's a beautiful day in downtown Madison! Well, at least in the morning hours.
Back at the farmette, I do snip lilies.
I have a few that I should plant, but there isn't time. 776 lilies in the bucket and now it's almost noon -- time to pick up the big two from their program.
I know we are to have wet weather. Looking up at the sky, I'm thinking it will be very wet and it will come very soon. I hurry them through lunch. Dessert first, to get it done!
We rush then to our first stop: Olbrich Gardens. The clouds burst with pounding rain the minute we enter the informational building. The kids dont care. There's a butterfly exhibit inside. They're happy wandering around the tropical plants, ignoring the few butterflies that pass our way (we see more in the flower fields than we do at the exhibit).
(yesterday they wore lavender, today, coincidentally, green)
As we are about to leave, the tornado watch switches to a warning. Not on my weather app, but the Olbrich people insist that they have an inside track to the emergency broadcast system. So we linger inside. In the gift shop. Where we shop. The kids are delighted.
Our next stop is Clare's at the mall. On the last cousin visit, they all had earned some money -- a grand total of $21.75. They planned to split it three ways at Clare's. Okay, you try to buy something sensible there for $7.25. The first item is easy -- cousin friendship bracelets.
From then on it's one big chore to find something. In an effort to move things along I add to their budget. This is getting to be a very gifty day!
Home at last. I let them finally get to their last project -- one that I know they'll like best -- building a fairy garden.
A sensible person would have them collect stuff outside -- twigs, pine cones, etc., and allow their creativity to take them places. I am long past being sensible. I didn't even have time to bake the clay pieces they made the other day in anticipation of this project. Amazon has more tiny things for fairy gardens than you could possibly imagine. Thank goodness for no tariffs on these goods (yet), because I purchased a lot of tiny things for them to share. (I even had to buy the dirt, because farmette dirt is... too dirty! think: chicken poop.)
Supper? I asked if they wanted pasta or pizza. They wanted both. So they got both. And roasted beets.
I could say that the day ends there, but you know how it is with three kids and a sleepover, all under the indulgent and a tad tired grandma's eye. By the time we finish with a show, a game, and three showers, by the time I wipe up the wet floor and give them snack number 895, well, it gets to be a bit late. Still, they'd obediently stayed in their room this morning until the permitted release time of 7:15. Let's hope they have another restful night!
with so much love...
