A Running Collection

George will be back tomorrow. He's been in London for five days. Five days of Oxford and presentations. Five days of pubs with ale, good steak and mushroom pie. Five days of tea and coffee in little corner spots That are so tiny, he can't hardly sit inside. There was camping out two nights in a tent Then visits with friends from Durham days. We've made it through. We've taken care of the sheep and chickens. We've played outside under a warm sun. We went on the perfect hike across the pasture and through the woods Harvest Fests. Hay rides. Grandmother. Drawing. Dancing. Spinning in new skirt. Airplanes. Big boxes. Music. Shooting darts at balloons Then target practice on the white board bulls eye. When the children sleep, the silence is golden and awkward. This task -- raising children and waiting for one to come is massive. We've all missed daddy with tears, with frustration, with trying to buck the system. The days that were slow, slowed again. And now with 3.5...

Saving Christmas It was a surprise. I came home after a morning out and there stood George, our friend Brandon, and the children with proud faces. Across the the table, hooked on chairs, and spread out on the counter lay piles of charred Christmas ornaments. "We saved Christmas mama!" They did. All the ornaments were there. Some totally fine, some yellow, some black with soot, some coated in something, some already moldy from the rains - but they had saved them. A mama's eye's and heart should have rolled with it, but it was the kitchen and it was covered in a large black mess. I shared my thanks and looked through the piles and joyfully found some favorites in tip top shape. It was hard to avoid the thought process of the aftermath it would create and my attitude sort of showed. The children saved Christmas for mama and I saw a mess to pick up. It took not just a few days, but four to catch the spirit. We've cleaned what we could and tossed the rest. There ...

The barn/shed burned to the ground in the early of Friday morning. I stood on the back porch as 10 firemen fought to control the blaze. The wind was blowing and the land is dry, but it didn’t come to the house. It didn’t hurt the animals. We are all safe. It is a blow to normalcy. A blow to the ebb and flow of every day. It was an extension of the house. Storage for Christmas, bikes, our summer produce in the deep freeze, tools, cages, suit cases, furniture, a crib, high chair, car seat bases, booster seats, brewing supplies. Animal fed, garden supplies, lawn mowers, double stroller, double bike chariot, tent. Of course it was all well used. Of course it was a collection of years of hobbies. But we look at it and all is a pile of rubble and it is okay because we are here, we are together, we are not hurt, we are not destroyed. We are safe. We have beds. We have each other. It is time to think through what is most important. It is time to have a Christmas ornament decorati...

Play. It sets the ground for crazy creativity, hilarious ideas and conversations, and remarkable inventions. I watch this morphing of ideas and suddenly I realize we are in a dream world filled with a completely unique set of rules, manuals, ideas, ways of traveling, ways of communicating and collecting. Oh the collections. Amelia is our collector. George Wilder is our dreamer. A visit to Amelia’s room might lead one to believe we kill birds for her feather collections. I’m sure in the last month she has collected enough cardinal feathers to supply one cardinal with a new set of wings. She has emu feathers, peacock feathers, goose feathers, turkey, chicken, sparrow, blue jay, dove, cardinal, mallard duck, Asian pheasant and a great horn owl. They are in groups; they are in vases, in bags, and in baskets. George Wilder dreams. He dreams of riding on the back of a wolf, of becoming a vulture bat, of flying jets all around the world, especially to Africa. He has a book from grandmother th...

Grandmother Boggs has the children for three days. Three days to sew, clean, garden, get hair cut, run errands, read, clean, organize, bank, grocery store, consignment store . . . It is crazy. I've made lists and checked them off. Seriously, all of it. Crazy, I know. I've had a blast collecting essentials for baby from consignment stores, consignment sales, friends, friends of friends, craigslist, local stores, big retail stores, online. I'm still short a few items and I'm excited to see who might want to sell some to me. I'd much rather use used if possible. Here is the list: 1. Two booster seats for the car with backs (we have a Subaru and we've gotta get all three of them across the back seat!) 2. An infant carrier George can use like a baby bjorn 3. A small pack n play (graco makes a "mini") with the sheets 4. A stroller frame thing that the carseat can snap into You can simply respond to the post in the comment section if your interested in conduc...