April 1st, 2025
Mama's sleep-hungry brain ignores the alarm clock that morning... so when I get up later than I meant, there are already the remains of eggs and toast in the sink while Oxbear and the kids are deeply invested in a Minecraft marathon before Oxbear starts work...
It's a cold morning as Yali and Patience reluctantly join me for math sheets at the table where Yali decides it would be fun to pretend that he and Patience are conjoined twins during class but quickly gives it up because neither of them are left-handed (anymore)... so he begins carving up gala apples for the both of them as I begin mathematical instruction, until...
“Puck!” Patience greets him happily as he wanders out to shop for wallets on my laptop... “Yes!” Patience encourages him... “Stay out here so we don't have to do math!” (she knows the distractions are inevitable... reminds me of a quote one of Puck's female classmates left in his yearbook one year, something like... “Thank you for always asking so many questions in class that it helped us get out of doing work”)... Puck listens in as I introduce equivalency fractions for about a minute, then looks at both kids with a villainy smile... “She's lying” he tells them... so after Puck has successfully dismantled math class, it's time to once again leave for Yellow Bird...
Yali and Patience race each other to the mustard yellow door of their classroom-house that morning to learn all about trees for the day...
...while I return for the next five hours to Vivaldi and cleaning things and organizing things and researching things... and discussing unusual forest-buried structures along the Mississippi on Google Maps with Elmer over text during lunch break...
When the kids return mid-afternoon, Yali has a deeply-lodged splinter in his thumb from all his outdoor activity... spend awhile in surgery with tweezers and a seam remover as Patience holds my iPhone flashlight above the offended digit until – success!...
By this time Patience and I drive Puck to his four-hour work shift where Patience and I also stop inside for some light shopping... and Patience visits Puck in Produce for avocado recommendations...
Home again... Patience helps wrap and grill burritos and slice cucumbers for dinner while I wash dishes...
Meanwhile Oxbear and Yali return to their Minecraft marathon as somewhere down the road police sirens begin cooking... “They're after me...” Yali explains calmly... “for doing THIS!” **spontaneous dance moves across the living room floor**...
Driving to the studio after six o'clock with movements from Scheherazade over the radio as Patience tells me about the existence of jalapeño M&Ms (she loves some spice)...
And while she jigs and reels for two hours... I sit with some Justo L. González early church history... sky turning textures of undersea blue into ebony...