Well, then!
If you look at the last post, the post from this morning, you’ll see that I had planned to go to Santa Cruz with the girls today. We had just started on our way when I got a text from one of my best friends telling me that she was pretty sure that she was going into labor. I texted back that we were on our way to Santa Cruz, and did she need me to stay around instead? At that point I just pulled into a parking lot and waited for her reply, and pretty soon her husband called to see if we could take their boys when we got back from Santa Cruz. I told them that I was turning around and heading back to my house, and that they should just bring the boys over. An hour later, they still weren’t here, and I checked my phone to find a message that the contractions had gotten stronger and that they were just heading to the hospital. I called to find out where they were so that I could come get the boys, and discovered that they weren’t at the hospital- the baby was apparently in a hurry, and my friend gave birth at home, as they were heading out the door for the hospital! So her husband brought the boys over, and they spent the day with us. We made a cake to celebrate their new little baby sister’s birthday, and the kids played and played.
And while they played, I read a book. An entire, lovely book. It was The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley- the 2nd in the Flavia de Luce books. (I wrote about the first a couple days ago.) These books are really very good. Solid mysteries, great complex characters, interesting diversions and misdirections. I just got the 3rd on my haunted Kindle, and will be starting it tonight. And finishing the book today puts me at 35 books finished so far this year, which is ahead of where I need to be for my goal of 50 by the end of the year.
Also, I had a realization today about homeschool. I think I’m overthinking it. (Ha! Imagine that!) But really, we homeschooled all last year, it just wasn’t official. And Z learned a ton, and it worked just fine. The way we live, the things that we do, on the whole, are educational. We were going to go to the Natural History museum today, and when my mom commented that we’d be doing two field trips in one day I kind of laughed- I wasn’t thinking of it as a field trip, just as a fun thing to do. So I just need to take a breath and remember that I know what I’m doing. It will all work.
And just so I have them in an accessible place, some quotes that have struck me recently:
“Inspiration from outside one’s self is like the heat in an oven. It makes passable Bath buns. But inspiration from within is like a volcano: it changes the face of the world.” Flavia de Luce’s Aunt Felicity
“Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.” Khalil Gibran
“No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness could we but see – and to see we have only to look. ” -Fra Giovanni
“We have a choice. We can seek for the bad in others. Or we can make peace and work to extend to others the understanding, fairness, and forgiveness we so desperately desire for ourselves. It is our choice; for whatever we seek, that we will certainly find.” Dieter Uchtdorf
“The secret: Do good work and then put it where people can see it.”
“The day you realize that you’ve always had, like Dorothy’s ruby slippers, the power to get where you want to be is sobering. It’s the day you grow up. You finally understand that the quality of your life, good and bad, has been in your hands all along. Now you have to make the choice to perceive that reality as a burden, or a gift.” – Lisa Duggan
And now I’m going to go read. Bye!
You are a good friend.
It’s official. 😀
You are such a good friend! I love that you made a cake to celebrate the new baby. I’m sure the kids loved it!