April 29th
Grumbling thunder in the night's middle... just a little...
By nine o'clock while Oxbear chats with his friend from Algeria over coffee...
...Patience and I are helping kids crunch-time through tables of dioramas... simultaneously trouble-shooting pool noodle rings into coral structures and tie-dyed coffee filters scrunched into anemones...
Home to pick up the boys... a dark rain in the west and Puck wants to cover the Jag if hail pops through later...
...walk our global entourage through Home Depot for tarp and bungee cables... Yali and Patience grab small bags of chips at the check-out...
As we drive out to St. Charles county the rain breaks... thunder and lightning as we arrive to representatives of both Mc and Be families watching the storm from the porch...
Pause briefly inside while B entertains little A and little R with what appears to be trails of kite string... as Carrie-Bri pulls a homemade berry crumble from the oven... “I'd offer you some but, uh... little A and little R made it and I'm pretty sure there are some foreign objects in there...”
Then after fully admiring the slightly peeling maroon paint of the majestic vehicle... Puck turns to me with a... “Let's get lunch” // “What is it this time?... Puck-getting-a-car-celebratory lunch?” // “Yes”...
About fifteen minutes later all three kids are munching on burgers and fish sandwiches as we drive home through a pelting rain...
It's early afternoon and the “to do” list don't stop... but the biggest item of the day is assisting Puck with Army National Guard considerations... which mostly looks like playing “sounding board”... this takes a couple of hours...
While this is happening... Patience pulls out all the paints and brushes to create more “art squares” for the wall... swirling colors together into what Puck thinks is some kind of fever dream as he pauses from intense discussion to note... “This is not art”... Patience pretends to be offended before joining Yali to fight over various fort plans around the house and yard... as the rain has tapered out of a wet green world...
After Patience prepares dinner – she's getting good at this... potatoes in particular all near melty-goodness in olive oil and oregano – it's back to the studio for the little dancer...
As we walk out the door... Oxbear hands a yard snake to Yali... probably scared out of his pit by our lawn guy mowing the lawn... he's wriggling around in Yali's gentle hands as we leave...
Read up on the work of 16th century friars in Central and South America while Patience is in class...
Return to Yali's snake wrapped in coils in the terrarium as Yali makes introductions between his mom and "Justin"... safe distance introductions (I don't care of it is garter)... while Oxbear has rocks and cedar chunks from that one limb that fell weeks ago dehydrating in the food dehydrator to improve his habitat...
As kids tuck into bed... tears for Yali's freshly released toads happy to return to the wet wild “so Justin doesn't eat them” he sniffs... then somewhere around ten o'clock walks back out of his room with one of his baby molars in his hand... "Don't forget the money"... as he walks into the bathroom to wash up...