January 20th, 2025
The day begins with Yali coaching Patience on how to sing “Cotton-Eyed Joe” from the other room...
It's so cold – about a four degree windchill – that we're all home for a lazy morning...
- Kids play Roblox together (and with cousin R online) for a few hours, building worlds, and no fighting(!)
- Oxbear returns from J's with a gas station find, what looks to be handmade knit mitten-gloves in dark chalky blue, and to discuss the ASVAB with me
- Lots of “busy” things for Mama like : managing finances, printing statements, dishes and laundry (always), watching (in pieces) a travel documentary on Israel, finish reading the last chapter of Richard Ayoade's "autobiography"...
- Oxbear begins soldering what's called a craft “gumball machine” (which actually has nothing to do with gumballs), and successfully repairs it
- Also, a 6.0 earthquake in Taiwan... some peoples' day was more exciting than they wanted it to be...
Kids outdoors in the frozen glaze of snow and ice still on the ground for sixteen days now.... their allotted daily sunshine and fresh air... spend most of their time breaking up a deep frozen puddle with rocks... “It was so much fun!” Yali announces later
Patience returns indoors in the mid-afternoon for half an hour of speech therapy from my laptop with Miss S in Sequim, Washington, before slapping through her hornpipe and reel in preparation for next month's big competitions
Yali meanwhile – fractured through with a lot too much sugar that late afternoon – translates himself into Wild Man and needs some time calming himself, while I work beside him, resting on the floor wearing a cowboy hat, twirling a spoon on the floorboards, mesmerized... his method works and he's feeling pretty good
After dinner Oxbear spends time scavenging stamped metal buttons and velvety loops off unused coats from the hall closet to upgrade his knit gloves... “Pretty please...” he hands the goods to me...
While the kids are read to from the world of Beverly Cleary (who lived to 104 by the way) in their bunks...
I finish some tortilla chips and medium queso dip that somehow has my eyes watering anyway, then modify Puck's gloves while watching Jeopardy... he is very pleased with the results...
Best quote from my recent read...
“Green is stupid.” – Richard Ayoade