March 9th, 2025
Yali pops awake that morning – wide eyes – sharing recent dreams of bullies and snakes...
Short an hour of sleep... Patience leans up against my shoulder throughout the service, sniffling from spring allergies through shoals of thunderous pipe organ...
Yali is feeling pretty good, pretty cool in his leather bomber jacket which his Sunday School teacher also appreciates... “When you're done with that jacket, can I have it?”...
Meanwhile Oxbear and I sit with some of the older folks with all their styrofoam cups of coffee waiting for the Galatians class to start... Oxbear works on folding a dollar bill into a bow tie at the table which makes one of the 90 year-old gentlemen chuckle and marvel at such an idea...
Class begins shortly later, exploring elements of Law and Gospel... “The apple tree does not produce apples to become an apple tree... an apple tree produces apples because it is an apple tree...”
Return home with a box of Tony's Donuts for a couple of hours while...
...Oxbear naps
...Puck is roaring in loud conversation and laughter gaming online in combat with friends from his Zenbooth
...Patience is practicing putting on blush with a brush in the hand-carved mirror from India while asking about my cousin D's green bean casserole (which she loves and wants to make herself)
Patience and I leave at one o'clock for the Big House in Weldon Spring while Oxbear and Yali drive out to St. Peters to return Gloria's Bible and cake carrier...
Also at the Big House are Francis and Hilda, nearly ready to “break ground” on their custom-designed Norse-inspired dark red house in Jefferson County... and Sally coming off another “week from hell” at work... conversation around the living room includes topics such as mice and wasps and chickens... lawn chemicals and stalkers and human teeth pulled out by the roots (Sally's country house was sold to her with some unexplained oddities left inside it)...
Back in our county again, the kids and I drive Puck to work then hit the park once more... Yali whistling languages to imagined gnomes and whisper-languages to trees as both kids play trolls and bears down the path... crunch of dried forest growth in winter earth and rocks... crusty lichens green ivies and new mosses... pause to count the rings in a few chainsawed stumps... 62... 66... over 70... Yali stops us to watch a fat robin bathing in a cold puddle...
It's a fried chicken and mac 'n cheese kind of night... while Puck finishes a quiet shift at work, the remaining four of us sit on the couch with dinner and a viewing of “Wild Robot”... one of the few films out there presenting adoption as a story topic... Yali cuddles up near me... “This movie always makes me emotional...” he says quietly...
It's getting late... Puck calls to check on our stock of bananas (low)... the kids change into pajamas and brush their teeth... Oxbear is in the carport curing his 3D-printed violin in a foil pan of dry cement... pick up Puck from work waiting on the corner with a bag of bananas, peanut butter, and protein mixes for work-outs this week... everyone home together in a warm home with happy pets and cozy beds for the night...