Wednesday, May 7, 2008

But wait: There's MORE!!!

I'm seriously concerned that there may not be enough space on my blog: let alone in my LIFE for all the awesomeness I have been experiencing. Well, the best way to alleviate any burden, or blessing, is by sharing. So "here I go again."

Yesterday: Woke up at around 7:30. Jumped in the shower, dressed and fed myself, my Muad'Dib and my children. Headed to the new Lowe's in an attempt to circumvent the stupidity that has become The Home Depot and their "customer service" in the plumbing department. I wheeled the kids all about the place in a brand new blue Lowe's car cart while the faucet plumbing mystery was solved. Also while there, i discovered that Muad'Dib is partial to big red roses. Go figure.

Next stop: Mountain Road Ranch, where Dreampacker took us on a walkabout and pointed out the many different kinds of plants we could transplant to our garden. Included: lambs ear, chocolate mint, lemon mint, yarrow, and two others that Muad'Dib specifically picked out due to his childhood attachment to them. Cute sentimental ninny! We also took some dirt in a bucket.

Then we were back at our new place. For the next . . . uh . . . lots of hours, we set to pruning, cleaning, weeding, digging, pulling, sawing and in some cases cussing out our new backyard.

The most surprising events were:
*I didn't kill a single spider. Even the one that ventured into my glove . . . while my hand was still inside.
*Lemur tried to teach Rivulet how to pray over their snack - when he thought I wasn't listening.
*I got an adrenaline rush when I uprooted a stray tree sprout or sawed through a particularly bothersome tangent branch. In fact, once I surprised an elderly neighbor when I pulled up one such offending sapling and yelled, "Ah HA! I have TRIUMPHED!!!"
*We apparently have an evil vine in the back corner. Like Stephen King's worst imaginings evil. Fruit of the devil vine, I think it's called. I would pull up one end, just to find it attached somewhere else, and if I did finally get a "root", another would whiplash up and smack me in the face. It became downright eerie.
*After many hours of work, the yard was not done. I didn't even get to the front flower boxes.
*Muad'dib was able to repair the leak in the swamp cooler on the first try!

Oh: Muad'Dib was my hero like FIVE TIMES yesterday! Sweet man.
He even sent out for Chinese food (after giving our dirty and muddy kids a bath), so I didn't have to cook. Tropical chicken is delicious after a hard day's work!

After wards, we played Rock Band until bed time. Holy Fun Day!

That night I had very disturbing dreams. Of people intruding. I thought I heard Lemur calling to me when he wasn't. I thought he was walking to my room, but he wasn't. I thought I heard Rivulet walk up to my bed, but she wasn't there. I dreamt of people having keys to my house and giving me responsibilities that weren't mine and I didn't want. What was interesting was that I didn't keep these things. I told people where to go and how to get there. And not in a good way. It was a very unrestful night's sleep.

BUT! I woke this morning knowing that our trash was on the curb and all would be well with the world.
I got right up and went out to find me some rose bushes, purple petunias, creeping thyme and a lilac bush. I came home with all but the thyme . . . though I had to make four stops.
I made lunch for the love of my life, breakfast for my babies and sent my man off to work. I set to work almost instantly. In the windy morning that heralds a coming storm, I planted the two rose bushes and began cleaning out the front garden areas in preparation for planting. A few things I found:
*glass
*Beer bottle lids.
*plastic
*cigarette butts
*a hippo
*a beetle
*a LIVING huge furry spider with blue eyes, a yellow triangle on it's massive back end and a maternal feeling to her.
*Wood chips.
*Violets
*Some of the fattest earthworms I've ever seen.
*Plastic bags
*A die cast car.
and much much more!

Two bags of dirt garbage later, it rained and I put Rivulet down for a nap while watching the Bee Movie with my children. Lemur was a puppy. It was an adorable moment. Then I got back up and planted the petunias, my lavender and the other purple daisy like thing I bought. I came inside and Lemur and I planted a little forget-me-not seed in a tiny little pot. He was very excited.
I came downstairs intending to rest, but then saw a trailer on MySpace for TWILIGHT the MOVIE!!! Guess who plays Edward?! The guy who played Cedric Diggory on HP4! I'm so excited.

This day has been so great. And it's not even over yet. I haven't even included everything! I'm so tired my brain and my aching fingertips are skipping over things . . . I hope nothing important. Oh yes. Something important:

So I'm inside, we've planted the plants in the little planter and I am about to go rest. Then I walk into my room, the natural light dimmed by the darkening clouds overhead as another storm nears. A lamp sends a muted golden glow over the deep blues that make up my bed and I see the raindrops begin to fall. Like a dancer, like a ghost, I float to the sliding glass door, unlock it and slide it open just enough for me to step out onto my porch. Then I listen.

I listen to the sound of rain falling on the aspen leaves. I listen to the soft murmur of cars distant enough to refrain from being bothersome while close enough to make that rumbling chorus that can remind one of the sea if they are that sort of person.
There is no longing. I begin to cry a little. So relieved at having beauty right there. I don't have to seek it out, I don't have to fight for it. It has come to me. Releasing a deep sigh, I turn to see my son staring at me quizzically.
"Uh, mom? What'r you doing?"
"Listening to the rain."
His face lights up, "Ooo! I want to listen too!"
He brings his shirtless self over to stand next to me, and I slide the door open a little bit more to accommodate his little frame.
We are silent for a moment before he wisely says, "It sounds like a storm!"

Oh, another important! Lemur is on the phone with my mom, then hangs up without notice, while she is still talking. He has a smile like the very devil and starts to laugh a little. I tell him that it was very rude to hang up on Nanny.
The next twenty minutes are him trying to regain control of the situation through anger( I wonder who taught him that . . .;)
Then, as i sit down to the computer he comes to the office door and says, "I'm just so angry at you!"
My "Why?" is met with his attempt to slam the door while he huffs and puffs his little cheeks at me (he is embarrassed and searching for words.)
I remind him that he needs to Stop, Breathe and Think (once again, preschool was worth every penny!)
He does then says, "I'm so frustrated when you tell me I'm rude!"
My reply was this: "Lemur, do you know what my job is? It is my job to teach you how to grow up to be a great man like Daddy." his eyes get wide with surprise. "You like Daddy, don't you." he nods. "Grandma DreamPacker had this job when Daddy was just a little boy, and she told him when he was being rude or when he wasn't nice or when he did something not safe. Now he's a good man. And now it's my job to help you be a good man."
"You mean, like Daddy?"
"Like Daddy, and Papa and all your uncles and like Grandpa. They are nice, aren't they."
"Yeah."
"And they are smart, aren't they?"
He nods again.
"Do you want to grow up to be like them?"
He nods again.
"Okay. You need to remember that Daddy has his job and I have mine. My job is to tell you when you are being rude. To teach you to be polite and kind. To teach you modesty and truth so you can be a great man like Daddy. I'm sorry if that bothers you sometimes. But it's my job and I'm going to keep doing it."
He was remarkably calm and seemed to digest all of this very well. "But mom?"
"What honey?"
"You don't have to be mean when you tell me."

The student so often teaches the teacher.

How can my days be so full?! How can I survive when I am brimming over with all my life is and strives to be?! I don't know. And I'm not complaining either!

5 comments:

Muad'Dib said...

Now THAT's awesome.

WildBound said...

Lemur...brilliant.

Fedaykin said...

You mean to tell me that you and the sentimental ninny were weeding and I wasn't invited!? I'm hurt.
Awesome post. I loved that storm, the black clouds reached out to me like they used to.

CowboyBob said...

Beautiful writing. Vines do entwine. Along with listening, I love to smell rain.

Desertbound said...

Thanks again, Sayy.