A Road Less Travelled

Do you ever turn on the stereo with the intention of listening to a specific song, and find yourself gripped by the music that comes on? It’s not what you wanted to listen to, and it doesn’t quite fit your mood, but it’s far too pretty to just turn off. This just happened to me with the sound of rain on the roof. I was just about to turn on some music when I heard the rain, just soft enough to be drowned out entirely by music. So I stopped and listened to the rain instead.

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Today Arianna is turning eight. Happy Birthday, Nanna!

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Last Sunday Seth, the kids and I broke the futon we used for a sofa. It had been going for a while and this was the final straw. Something inside snapped, we heard a loud crack and that was that. So now we needed a new something-long-to-sit-on. A brand new sofa would be too expensive so Crystal hit upon this dea that we could make a bench and put the futon matress on that and call it a sofa. Then she was looking into patterns for said benches and found a really good idea. We have a nook in our family room that used to be a large closet. It is the exact same lenght as our futon matress. So all we needed to do is build a seat and we had a back and sides. It was going to be so simple. Tuesday Crystal and the boys went out and bought some wood and we set to making a bench. We got hung up on the legs, but after they were on the rest was not too difficult. And we put it where it went, put the mattress on and now we have a very comfotable futon-sofa-thing. The kids like it because it is higher than the futon was and so they climg up and jump off. I almost fell asleep on it yesterday and Samuel did fall asleep on it today. Hurray for Crystal!

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I hope you all figured out that we returned from our travels safely. It seems I never got around to mentioning it, as we got home and real life immediately came on full force with all it’s distractions. There are several blog posts that I’m thinking about writing. I haven’t forgotten about posting my version of our Erie adventures, and I may relate some Denver adventures as well. However, since there’s so much real life going on around me, I may as well take advantage of it for my blogging needs. First off, an announcement. This announcement should properly have it’s very own post, but alas, it’s not going to. Theresa is expecting a baby. They’ve heard a heartbeat, and Theresa is feeling normal morning sickness, neither of which happened with the miscarriages, so we’re very excited and hopeful. I’m excited enough that so far I haven’t minded the extra food preparation I’ve had to do while Theresa was busy vomiting. Then again, I haven’t done that much more food prep than normal. Yet. Maybe with more practice I’ll figure out how to assemble all parts of a meal to be ready at the appropriate times. Every single time so far that I thought I was on top of things and I had it all taken care of it turned out that I forgot just one thing until it was too late. It’s almost impressive, since I don’t repeat the same mistakes on a regular basis. I just come up with new ones. It’s probably based of some sort of complex rotating schedule, “Every other week overcook the vegetables, except when you’re distracted enough to forget them altogether. On the alternating weeks (but only during the full moon), burn the food, but catch in time to still be edible in spite of the smoky taste.” I find myself being reminded I need to blog by the oddest little bits of life. This morning I brushed Elsie’s hair. There was nothing unusual about it–her hair was quite snarled but that’s hardly unusual. But it seemed blogworthy. It was the same with the garlic I was chopping on the cutting board. Then there was the very calm conversation with Samuel, reminding him of the way he was supposed to act, and prolonged by discussion if not quite argument from him. I managed to not even come close to yelling at him even though I’d stopped to talk to him while in something of a hurry to get to the bathroom. In other news, after three days running, I finally managed to finish mopping the kitchen floor. The first two days I started too late in the afternoon and had to stop to work on supper. By this time there are a few spots in the first corner that I mopped. I have the feeling that this should distress me, but I don’t really care. I’m just glad that the entire floor has been mopped at some point during the last four days, even if not all at once. Despite other post ideas bopping around in my head, this will likely be the only post I publish today. This afternoon I need to clean the bathroom and if at all possible start on supper before Theresa and the children get back from fencing class. I was also rather suddenly reminded that Gabrielle and I have come round to our turn to clean the church building again. Since tomorrow and Saturday are rather full for both of us (game night and Arianna’s birthday party), I suspect that most of my evening will be spent scrubbing toilets and countertops at church. At the moment I am just tired enough to wonder why there are no good theme songs to sing while scrubbing toilets. This will be a sore lack in the soundtrack of my life if it is not remedied. With that thought I must leave you–I have a bathroom to clean.

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Okay so an off-hand comment in a blog post has turned into my sister bugging me about writing it up as a post. Fine, Adiel, here goes. A couple of years ago the best show ever to air on Fox was on Fox. I know that saying this was the best show on Fox really isn’t saying much, but please believe me when I say that Firefly was a mighty fine show. It ran for eleven episodes before Fox decided it was too intelligent for their viewers to enjoy. Firefly combined an intelligent sense of humor with a fine knowledge of what makes for a good story. At first, the show looks like science fiction, but it deals with Western themes and has a lot of western color. They are flying around in a spaceship, but the captain carries a six-shooter. My brother Jonathan watched Firefly faithfully for the eleven episodes it ran and when the series was released on DVD he bought it. The DVD has three episodes that were never shown, though I disavow any knowledge of episode 13. It was like the makers of Firefly realized that they were making a show on Fox and wanted to live up to Fox standards. Beside that episode they are all fabulous. When Jonathan bought the series he was generous enough to share with me because he knew I would really like it. And then my Dad started watching the episodes with me and then we infected the rest of my family with Firefly. The rest, as they say, is history. When I moved to Illinois I brought my copy of Firefly with me. Seth and Crystal were also fans and I came to find out Raquel had watched the series when they aired. And then Raquel found some strange Firefly personality test and we found out who we were. And it fit somehow. So we started figuring out who the rest of our number would be. And here’s what we came up with. For those of you who know who I am talking about please understand that these are not direct correlations. The matches are more along the lines of broad strokes and generalizations. James is Mal. Mal is the captain of the ship and he is the leader of them all. He has a very strong personality and usually has some crazy plan that actually works out. Theresa is Inara. Inara is the mother of the whole crew. She is the nurturer and the gentle one on the ship. The others go to her for comfort and she mothers Kaylee and River. Seth is Simon. Simon’s role in the show is mainly as River’s big brother. There is strength in him, but it is different than that in Mal. He If Mal’s the one you look to for guidance Simon is the one you go to for advice. Crystal is Zoe. Zoe is Mal’s second and a fierce woman. She can be kinda scary when something she loves is threatened. I know that this doesn’t sound much like Crystal, but I have seen her when she’s mad and when something has threatened on of her children and she is scary. There is a softer side to Zoe that you don’t see much, but you know it’s there. I think Crystal is the reverse of Zoe. Raquel is River. River is the girl the government messed with and turned into a psycho assassin. In doing so they monkeyed with her ability to function in reality so she’s often the one spouting nonsense or the truth backwards. That isn’t actually what makes Raquel River. River is the one that everyone works to protect because she’s a troubled girl. But when River kicks into assassin mode she could defend them all if she had to. And she has. I can’t think of specifics that I’d want to share, but that is very much Raquel. We work to shield her or at least to support her, but when you get onto something she knows and cares about she could probably fight the battles for us. Me, I’m Kaylee. Kaylee is the spunky kid. She’s the ship’s mechanic and everyone’s little sister. She’s the one with Christmas lights around her doorway and a teddy bear embroidered on her coveralls. She can usually find something to be cheerful about even if it’s a mutated cow fetus that is being passed off as an alien. Kaylee looks at everything with wonder in her eyes. There’s someone who’s been brought into our circle, but I’m not sure exactly who he’d be. The best I can come up with is that Jon is Wash. Wash is not quite like the rest of the crew. He fits with them, but he doesn’t function like they do. Jon is one of us because we said so, but he doesn’t quite work like we do. Simon I mean Seth said it was a bit of a stretch, but I don’t think so. Do you have an opinion, Jon-who’s-never-seen-Firefly-and-doesn’t-know-who-I’m-talking- about? There are two other characters. Jayne is the thuggish muscle of the group and Book is the conscience. A friend from Erie who might be moving out here soon called Jayne. Now all we need is a Book and we’ve got the whole set.

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“Drink from the harp and we’ll be fine.”

“After three beers and a whiskey I don’t think I’ll be juggling any eggs.

” “You didn’t do the thing where you grabbed the upside-down crown and your clothes fell off, did you?”

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Here is the corollary to Gabrielle’s “Dinner with the Lansberries” series of posts.

After supper the children run

upstairs to play with everyone.

For them there is no greater fun,

the bluest sky and warmest sun,

could never make a day so bright

as “My friends came over to play tonight.”

The grown-ups sit below and say,

“What a relief they’ve gone away

and taken all their noisy play

so quiet conversation may

take the place of the children’s trite

“My friends came over to play tonight.”

Our quiet talk soon turns to game.

With words for toys we fly to tame

each spoken phrase that it may name

for just one, vict’ry of the game.

Oh, can it be? I think it might–

My friends came over to play tonight.

More serious pastimes soon ensue

but perfect targets tempt me to

toss some pillows thrown straight and true.

Well thrown pillows I will not rue–

though a mad chase starts. I’m sure I’m right,

My friends came over to play tonight.

Far too soon they have to go.

They stand to leave; goodbyes are slow

nearly drowned out by children’s woe.

It had to end but at least I know

this somehow makes it all come right,

my friends came over to play tonight.

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Big doings are happening at the Ben-Ezra house. Noah has started potty-training. Justice has started solids. And I made a replacement for the Ugliest Shelves. That’s right, I actually replaced the Ugliest Shelves. It was a tough decision. I knew that all of my readers would be heart-broken, but on the other hand a work of better quality would work better and be something I wouldn’t not be shamed by. On the gripping hand it was fun to make a hanging craft storage thing. I made it out of the same purple cloth I used on the Ugliest Shelves and hand-sewed the whole thing. It has all these little pockets that are custom made to fit the tools I wanted to fit in them. It’s hanging on my closet door and, so far, has been so very useful. But still, remorse tugs at me. Don’t worry. I’ll get over it.

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Last night we ate dinner at the Lansberry’s. We have assimilated another into our midst and it was his not-birthday party. We sang, we ate, we chattered. We stayed far too late and discussed whether the ceiling was on Raquel’s side or Seth’s. I almost hit James with the plastic cork from a non-alcoholic champange bottle and then spent the rest of the evening fiddling with the metal wire the held the cork on. A serious conversation broke out around the table, but it didn’t last long. Raquel and I shared our ideas for who of us would be what Firefly character. We talked about mopping and Seth still insisted that the ceiling was on his side. We left far too late, but had a wonderful time.

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imaginary worlds

beckon me

through the mist

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