Being Deliberate

Coffee and Quiet and Rain. The noise -- the washing machine singing clean clothes. It is Friday. Waffle Friday. The sticky is gone from the table, the dishes are put away. The animals are fed. The children are at their Friday co-op. William takes a nap.

Think Time.

Where has February gone? It came to us with a nasty cold. George worked diligently on job talks and the dissertation. It sent us to the farm so George could write and we took along a stomach bug from Athens. We returned to hibernate and keep the bug from spreading.

In all of this:

William has learned to sleep through the night. He has learned to talk and cackle and hold his pacifier by jamming his thumb way up in the hole. He loves to talk with George Wilder and watch the children play. We walk, we talk, we bounce, we sleep. We are tired at the end of the day.

Amelia is our chicken girl. She runs to them in the morning and talks about her plans for them at night. She will sell you their eggs! She finally figured out what that means and how it works. She understands that eggs mean money to invest.

And Amelia will be reading in the wink of an eye. We love sitting down to practice new words and play with them and then read the book that holds those words. It is magic.

George Wilder joins in the fun. He writes out the words and says them with us. He can only read "frog" he says. Frog is a start! George Wilder, as you can see is woven into the lives of us all, but he is his own as well. He loves motors and cars and airplanes and animals. He loves Lucy and he loves to make music. He will be our fiddler.

And the writer here. Practicing joy. Practicing finding the good in each piece of dirt and tears and arguments and frustrations. Working to laugh and extend the invitation to my children to laugh with me. Practicing hugging and asking who needs a hug. This is something I've not thought to do, but after being touched and pulled and poked and prodded, I forget that a hug for a child is crucial. I ask, "Who needs a hug?" George Wilder runs for a hug every time. Amelia smiles and collects one as well.


I've stopped to deliberately learn new songs with the children. Ones that we can play the banjo and the fiddle to. "The fox went out on a starry night" is such a fun one to sing to, but I seriously had to sing it over and over just to learn the words.

I used a YouTube video to learn how to crochet. Seriously, it is a deliberate move to find new ways to reach out from the comfortable wiping down of counters and folding of laundry mountains and vacuuming of floors. . .

This life is beautiful and that is what I want to see! And with that William wakes!
Deliberate. That is it.

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