Archive

30 NOV 25

Some hours into the morning post-church I find myself with the boys completely rearranging Puck's bedroom at his personal request... he's tired of sleeping on an army cot... During this continued remodel Yali and I find ourselves collecting frigid cinderblocks onto a flatbed cart at Home

29 NOV 25

Wake from dreams of hosting a podcast on textual criticism while solving puzzle boxes of coiled shoelaces before a corporate lunch of Vietnamese cuisine... to the dog chasing the cat down the hallway before rooting her stupid snout through the trash... just at six o'clock on a snowed-in

28 NOV 25

Kids are sitting on my bed sharing a plate of cold pumpkin pie before I've even fully opened my eyes... No straggling today though... Oxbear and Patience have to get on the road before the snow starts dumping up north... “Guess you should bring some winter gear in

27 NOV 25

After eight weeks of patience and careful ear care... Patience is ready to swap out her first studs for something new... but she encounters unknown blood from one of the piercings and there is some theatrical wailing from my bathroom mirror before I'm even fully awake... ...while Yali

26 NOV 25

Open the freezer door that morning to a black skeleton hand frozen in ice... Yali... A golden wind tearing through crumbling goldenrod and oaks past the windows... Patience is gone babysitting with some birthday blooms for "Grandma"... ...Yali is intensely sketching creepy clowns on his old light board.

25 NOV 25

Before I'm even up for the day Oxbear is already gone shooting with friends... texting me notes on the squirrel in the attic whom he's found swinging by its arms from the corner of the roof... caught in his act of trespass... “What should we name

24 NOV 25

It's early... but Patience has already committed a federal offense... “Patience... remember how I told you not to wash Puck's uniform with the rest of the laundry?”... // “Uh...” Putting this aside... Mama gets deep into cleaning for all of the day because Pops is off work

23 NOV 25

Wake from dreams of mountain-cracking earthquake... slow splintering right up the side of it... ...to a little light harpsichord for the morning rush... Oxbear and I had both hit snooze multiple times without realizing it... An hour later in the service... Yali and Patience elbowing each other in the pew

22 NOV 25

Puck flashes out the kitchen door at eight-thirty in full fatigues and aviators... While he zooms off to drill at Jefferson Barracks including a Thanksgiving lunch paid out of pocket by the cadres because funds are gone... how can the Army and “aw that's so sweet” pair so

21 NOV 25

It's a quick day of work under honey glow of lamplight... dripping stone gray mist of rain out the windows... ...while Oxbear takes a gang of kids field tripping on his day off... Yali has allowed Patience to accompany himself and a friend for the morning free skate

20 NOV 25

Rain washed night... driving west past quiet groves of low-flaming crabapples and persimmon... While Patience is hanging with "Grandma" and the Mac boys for several hours... ...all my boys are home where I have already reminded them to stay away from Patience's rented solo dress for

19 NOV 25

A slosh of rain left in the night reveals a full box of kosher salt on the patio table soaked through amongst bottles of food coloring in primary colors... “Yali?...” // “That was me actually”... sometimes Patience follows big-brother footsteps... I forget to ask what this particular experiment was intended to

18 NOV 25

Justin the snake is playing with his breakfast again that morning... sometimes he lets the worms crawl off and dig themselves into his soil-filled food bowl and then they're wasted after drying out in the heat of the tank... but I don't have time to sit

17 NOV 25

After a morning of cold sunshine... and some running and gathering... ...Patience and I hit a Theraplay session in south county where we stencil gold panda tattoos on each other's hands... ...before slinging through Target for gifts and a pair of Stranger Things pajama pants for Yali... At

16 NOV 25

Early morning begins with Oxbear's sous vide screaming for attention from the basement... it somehow shut itself off and the roast dropped sixty degrees in the night... and on the floor below it is a rank cat puddle apparently left in protest against the incessant high pitched beep

15 NOV 25

While Patience is ready to stomp it up five hours southwest later that day... ...Yali is working on his own adventures... vocalizing “Daisy Daisy” to himself about two octaves lower than he would have a year ago... suiting up as Spiderman for action flips on the trampoline... ...asks me to

14 NOV 25

While Oxbear and Patience finish packing to road trip south in Patience's continued quest to achieve the highest level in Irish dance... ...Yali is feeling some dark thoughts about how I've banned him from the chocolate pie in the fridge... “Mom PLEASE can't I

13 NOV 25

Lots to do... Patience is packing for Arkansas early... amenities spilling out of her magenta suitcase onto the floor as she prioritizes... “Guess we gotta test Dad's hair braiding skills” I note... feis-prepared... Meanwhile Yali has snipped all the fingertips off my slick pair of black Under Armour

12 NOV 25

“PATIENCE! I'm gonna make BUTTERFLIES lay EGGS in your NOSE!”... Because my hands are busy packing croissant breakfast sandwiches and my brain is split thirteen ways... I fail to learn what inspired this particular portentous promise but similar to most circumstances around here... the altercation is shortly forgotten.

11 NOV 25

“Patience... time to get up...” // **rubs eyes** “Again?”... feelin' ya kid... Sitting through classes at the table teaching how to calculate a perimeter... begin staring off into space as I will do... Yali notices this and begins vocalizing the theme to The X Files... then starts flicking pencils across

10 NOV 25

“Yali... did you sleep in your jeans last night?” // **belch** “Yup”... clearly he's been hanging out with Boy Scouts... It's a simple start to a day of classes for Yali and Patience... just some squawking and giggling as they carve into a shared breakfast omelet sprinkled

09 NOV 25

Wake to a deep cold that morning... low mist in a quiet world... But the service is full as always... Lutherans aren't much scared of the cold... Afterwards Patience wrapped in layered and oversized pastels laps at her styrofoam cup of hot cocoa like a puppy before running

08 NOV 25

Oxbear and Yali are gone before seven that morning loaded with camping gear to join the Scouts down at Elephant Rocks for the weekend... Patience is dancin' dancin' dancin'... ...coast back and forth on a highway edged in the continuing collage of cranberry and canary and other

07 NOV 25

Kids are shuttled west and south by ten o'clock that morning... ...Patience as paid companion for young master R... ...then shoot down through the Ozarks with Yali to drop him off with a buddy celebrating his 11th birthday... Rip Van Winkle hills glowing in lanterns of all those

06 NOV 25

“Mom look! One of the aliens punctured me!”... just walked out of my room that morning to Yali... a gore of fake blood seeping through his white shirt... “I learned how they do it and got a sponge and got it wet first!” he declares happily as he removes it

05 NOV 25

Yali's amply distracted himself from his math sheet that morning with a Haribo fun pack he knows he can't have with his braces... he's got four gummy bears bracing his bumblebee yellow calculator off the table... ...while I stuff down a boiled egg and

04 NOV 25

Morning is a Jackson Pollock of Demogorgon crunch cereal and burger royales and eye drops and Little Women and handmade flip books on post-its and cranberry harvesting and isosceles triangles and Yali trying to convince Patience that the correct way to spell “poodle” is P-O-D-Y-7... At lunch there's

03 NOV 25

While Oxbear is somewhere over Kansas that morning... ...Puck has joined his siblings' classes following a personal work-out to stir up the circus... ...as usual things get started simply by Patience chatting a thousand characters a minute... more at Puck than with him as his eyes once again begin

02 NOV 25

Shades are lifted to thick mist on a frozen world early that morning pre-church... It's morphed towards sunshine by the time I sit down to our Bible study table and receive a text from Carrie-Bri to the sibling group chat... something about Grandma “burning down her microwave” last

01 NOV 25

Oxbear is already gone to his weekly Saturday morning business meeting when I walk out to kid-activity... ...where Patience has organized her entire candy trove into neatly soldiered lines by brand... ...which of course doesn't sit long without notice because Yali decides to award himself the role of

31 OCT 25

Kids all sleep long that morning... Yali probably due to an abnormal amount of packing tape sounds emitting from the other side of the wall later into the watches of the night for reasons I never fully learn... only that... “I was trying to make something and it didn'

30 OCT 25

Short list of distractions preventing Yali and Patience from completing their classes within an acceptable frame of time that morning... * Comparing the size of a human to a humpback whale * The dog * The dog again * Changing into a suit * Movie script ideas * The snake * A need for eye drops * A

29 OCT 25

Drive Oxbear out to O'Fallon for more all-day team meeting... Drive back home to plate breakfast... Drive to the old school for another volunteer shift where it's Book Character Day and Patience is geared up as Laura Ingalls Wilder in her sun bonnet printed in roses.

28 OCT 25

Wake to Yali already sitting at the breakfast table with a white board and dry erase marker carefully drawing a “no sign” over the words “no Patience”... which may or may not indicate a double negative but for his purposes this clearly means war... ...before I remind him that the

27 OCT 25

Puck's hazel eyes are almost fully glazed over as he stands in the kitchen... back leaned up against the counter while I rinse dishes... he's only been back a few minutes from an overnight at J's... and Patience has spilled out about a full

26 OCT 25

Can't get out the door on Reformation Sunday before the kids' waterpik falls into the toilet and mascara gets scrubbed into my sweater which is the shade of oatmeal but there's no time to fix that... Back in an icy ballroom downtown under a dark

25 OCT 25

Eight forty-five... murder of crows splits above the Old Courthouse behind a full wall of glass in the ballroom... full-silver and cold now with rain a county behind... and Patience is warming up a reel for the first competition slot of the morning... ...while biggest brother drives back down to

24 OCT 25

It's a cold sun cracking out another October morning,.. Patience is busy taping her dance shoes in a new style... Puck is researching 100% Australian sheepskin seat covers for the Lincoln... And Oxbear and Yali are meeting one of Yali's best pals at the Zoo for

23 OCT 25

Morning's stacked with English muffin sandwiches and costume pieces and ordering electrical tape and pocket notebooks for the weekend and more of those dreaded math flashcards... Then after running weights back and forth in the yard Puck requests a haircut mid-morning... Yali and Patience crowd into the bathroom

22 OCT 25

After serving Puck a plate of eggs and pinto beans... ...and listening to Yali's persuasive speech on why he needs to purchase a charcoal sweater vest from Amazon to complete his Hogwarts student of wizardry uniform... ...Patience and I are back at the old school where the Spanish

21 OCT 25

It's a sleepy house that cracks into a cold morning of work... pot of soft-boiled eggs on the stove... ...Patience walks out of her room snuggled into a secondhand Alaska hoodie from her aunt... clacking her press-on nails together... she's already drawing a caricature of “Puck

20 OCT 25

Steady thumping of weights from Puck's room that morning... ...while Patience gladly takes a break from “order of operations”... as she later explains to her Aunt Irish... “I already know everything I need to know in math... I know what five times five is"... and so she

19 OCT 25

A cold and shiny rattling wind outside church glass of all colors... in the basement six tables of Bible study adults sit to play Lutheran distinctions Jeopardy! just for fun... **cough cough** nerds!... our table wins... Meanwhile Yali is the only boy at Sunday School that morning where apparently one

18 OCT 25

Boys are gone fishing by seven that morning... Yali snaps a photo of a flaming amber sunrise for me... red sky at morning... While they're out catching and releasing bass and catfish... Patience is busy reheating a bowl of rice for breakfast with another episode of “Little House

17 OCT 25

Morning begins... Patience experimenting with shadow puppets on the wall... Yali hustling through the living room in his suit-coat over another fake-blood-stained shirt... I guess “cowboys” is on pause this weekend... It's the eleven o'clock hour and the whole family is field-tripping to Cahokia... sounds of

16 OCT 25

Yali's sitting by his snake's tank early that morning watching him roll lethargically through the mulch the day after horking down some kind of huge Canadian green worm... “He's a fat cow” Yali laughs at him as he pushes his plate of scrambled eggs

15 OCT 25

Oxbear's off work preparing for his flight to Quito the next morning... ...while Puck is gathering together the pieces of his car... the whole drive-shaft and disassembly in a large Tupperware to deliver to a mechanic in Lemay for further analysis and many hundreds of dollars... An hour

14 OCT 25

Yali is already busy toasting tiny marshmallows with a handheld lighter walking into the living room before classes that morning... don't roast and drive please... They're chugging through work sheets... after some dramatics from Yali... math flashcards are his apocalypse-now... he roars right into Abram in

13 OCT 25

Aware in the early morning that something is standing over me... waiting... patiently... open my eyes to a pair of other eyes staring down at me from above... “Can I make pancakes?”... While Patience busies herself with a bowl of batter in the kitchen before classes... …Puck throws himself out

12 OCT 25

Yali leaving Sunday School in his new black suit which he now wears to help Oxbear “elder” at the early service... pulls two quarters from his jacket pocket... slaps them into his friend's hand... his friend confirms payment and is pleased... Yali's two thousand dollar betting

11 OCT 25

Thick mist over the world early that morning... Oxbear gone to a business meeting... returns with a paper sack of breakfast sandwiches to share... Yali's already busy at the bathroom mirror... applying fake blood cuts and scabs to his face with an old toothbrush... hopefully an old toothbrush.

10 OCT 25

Patience is already in a furious scribbling of drawing pencils and cootie catcher templates with a mug of hot cocoa... Yali hack-coughing into convincing me he needs a break from math class that morning... Mobile mechanic hacking open Presley's dashboard to finally remove the plaguing driveshaft... Classic Halloween

09 OCT 25

Oxbear already at an early coffee meeting mostly without the crutches now... I'm prepping tea and toast for the young ones and organizing paints for Yali's day of art and printing off cootie catcher templates for Patience... “She might need to use your crayons for this

08 OCT 25

Oxbear's knocking around the house on crutches and Yali's feeling sore all over from dragging the trampoline across the yard yesterday and a little “ick”... but they still scoop themselves out the door with bowls of eggs over easy pushed into their hands from Mama “for

07 OCT 25

Hand vacuum whirring in the living room in the seven o'clock hour... Yali sucking up the ant invasion... no evil villain cackles though... As I pull eggs and bread for breakfast... he's organizing cardboard in the living room before class... “I'm making the Armor

06 OCT 25

Everyone's home in the afternoon for awhile between Walgreen's for athletic wraps and back from overnights and neighborhood jogs and play therapy and Red Robin with friends and making more fake blood in the kitchen and fencing class... just missing rain shedding somewhere south and east.

05 OCT 25

“YOUR SON OWES ME TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS BECAUSE I ATE AN ORANGE PEEL! HAHAHA!”... one of the three boys of Yali's Sunday School posse half-shouts in laughter at me as they tumble out of the building together... “I do! I owe him two thousand dollars!” Yali laughs in

04 OCT 25

“And remember Yali... you need to get your fishing equipment prepared for your Scout outing Tuesday evening...” // **dramatically throws his head backwards** “Oh gosh...” // “What... is your social life just too demanding for you?” // **grins** “No...” // “What are your plans for today anyway?” // **bigger grin** “SCIENCE!” While I leave Yali

04 OCT 25

Nine AM out in Byrnes Mill dropping off Yali with a friend and his grandpa for exploring Meramec Caverns... leave him watching “Floor is Lava” playing with their one-eyed dog after chatting with the grandpa about the cave on his property that needs exploring once the debris gets cleaned out.

She's 10!

Yali's feeling good apparently... doing “the worm” across my bed early that morning... “How're your teeth feeling today?” // **braces shine back in a big grin** “Good!”... Patience is in the kitchen already celebrating her most-looked-forward-to day of her year... assisting Oxbear in mixing chocolate chip pancake

01 OCT 25

Yali feels like his teeth are attacking him that morning... so after a dose of Tylenol switch on some Harry Potter for the mopey fellow while he stays home with the big boys... ...as Patience and myself spritz over to the old school for another volunteer shift... a little conversation

30 SEP 25

Braces time... Yali is slouching in a chair in Dr. K's office suspiciously watching the twenty minute informational video with me before his appointment and not feelin' it... his eyes read a dark “I HATE ALL OF THIS AND I'M GOING TO BE MAD AT

29 SEP 25

Patience is busy cutting white cheddar cheese with a pocket knife in the kitchen before sitting down to class... ...while Yali wearing his Harry Potter robes turned inside-out is carefully popping 3D-printed claws onto each of his fingers... then something about face paint halfway through Creative Writing... ...and Patience gets

28 SEP 25

Radio's featuring some high-powered American Gospel that morning while Yali's snake contemplates these tunes resting his chin on a stick in his tank... Yali walks out of the bathroom his hair split down the middle and slicked 90s style to check out live fat bear week

27 SEP 25

Yali's crooning Bruno Mars probably louder than necessary on an early Saturday morning down the hall... cracking into the high notes that aren't as silky anymore since his voice changed in the summer... makes him laugh... Oxbear is already gone to an early business meeting with

26 SEP 25

Head cold doubles down in the night... and it's hopped quarters down to Patience now too... Yali is already buzzing the RC Tesla in the living room... Patience asking for the location of the jar of apple butter... both of them sketching jack 'o lantern designs at

25 SEP 25

Head cold is crackin' that morning but not enough to stop our trip to the Eckert's country store in Belleville across state lines... Puck even returns early from an overnight at J's to join our 48-minute drive through a patched and crumbling East St. Louis

24 SEP 25

Bee garden heavy in bold gold and bright white in night rain... Yali is already awake with SpongeBob... carefully tracing costume accessory prototypes into cardboard... slide him a slice of peanut butter toast before he leaves with Oxbear for play therapy... but not before testing out four empty La Croix

23 SEP 25

Oxbear still a little travel-logged that morning adjusting twelve hours back... Puck researching running shoes on my laptop while his siblings molasses their way through math class... ...while Mama serves cream cheese bagel sandwiches to the hungry crowd... they (and also apparently the dog) have blasted through almost two full

First day autumn

Oxbear takes a day after travel to rest a big head cold and cough by accompanying a passel of staggered morning dental appointments the next county over... ...as Puck calls me wondering about the laundry status for his morning date with a pair of running shoes around the neighborhood... Two

21 SEP 25

Yali is very busy hot gluing strings to his 3D-print web shooters before church that morning... ...while Oxbear is in Detroit waiting for his last flight... A few hours later when I ask Puck if he plans to join our Toyota shuttle to the airport... his Pavlovian response kicks in.

20 SEP 25

Puck is up in the six o'clock hour asking for breakfast... Mr. Prepared doesn't have to report to his first Army drill in Festus until nine o'clock but he's ready well-early... Throw out plates of scrambled eggs and toast to the tribe

19 SEP 25

Somewhere between Yali flipping a bag of almonds through the air which then splashes Patience's glass of chocolate Milo drink across the table and Puck sleepily emerging from his den for a plate of breakfast... “You all want to go to the zoo?” // “YES!” It's only

18 SEP 25

5:21 texts roll in... video of Oxbear cooking with fire.. pad Thai and sour spicy soup and curry... preparing to meet a group from Myanmar the next day... A few hours later... bees feeding in their perfumed jungle of gold in sunlight... Puck watches amazed by the volume of

17 SEP 25

Between classes and volunteer shifts and the dance studio... afternoon is still feeling a little spicy... kids lounging on a baking trampoline with cherry-pineapple monster pops elevated above a crispy yard... Puck finished his yard sprints earlier before the heat got too hot... and by evening is back whacking at

16 SEP 25

Head popping with seasonal allergies... all that pollen stacked through a chunk of the Midwest bristling in drought... Oxbear calls for morning updates ending his day across the Pacific... Patience decides to spin him a somewhat specific fiction for a little flavor in the conversation... “Puck got a girlfriend yesterday.

15 SEP 25

All three kids have already stashed themselves back in my room in the seven o'clock hour to chat through thoughts... ...before Puck splits to the treadmill in the basement... he hates running... decide it's probably not a convenient time to share how his aunt ran ten

14 SEP 25

Early morning hours... Oxbear somewhere in North Korean air space... texts me later at 5AM from Seoul... two flights left... Ninety minutes later Yali blasts from snores to shooting-down-the-hallway-to-the-shower in under ten seconds... he will not sit in the pew without a freshly washed scalp of midnight locks... Twenty minutes

13 SEP 25

Deliver Oxbear to the airport about seven-thirty for his flight to Minneapolis... Breakfast nachos back home... (only for Mama)... Patience gets stomping at the studio half the morning... Rumblings about Taco Bell from the soldier-man down the hall... back to his fat cat with more cash wads from roofing and

12 SEP 25

After the grab bag morning class mix of fights and crazies... Yali and Patience suddenly find equilibrium in the mutual activity of creasing and tearing and folding and pencil-labeling squares of red and blue paper for nearly three hours... by the end of it they've labeled two hundred

11 SEP 25

Yali and Patience sitting across the table from each other... spelling work sheets and pencils... glares of annoyance at each other... smooth jazz not helping... “Patience I'm gonna SHRINK you and then once you're SHRINKED I'm gonna STOMP on you!”... Patience's response

10 SEP 25

To the races... While I'm out running errands before eight... Oxbear and Yali buzz south to play therapy... Then I'm back to grab Patience for our volunteer shifts... Oxbear and Yali return for Puck to bring the car out to Wentzville... he and J have a

09 SEP 25

Exit my room that morning to Yali talking loudly down the hallway... “Patience! I picked up Justin while he was eating worms and he was smacking and it was SO GROSS! Haha!” Another water main break is announced via phone/text/email around eight o'clock as Patience inspects

08 SEP 25

Monday begins with another water main break in the area... while Yali is busy modifying a face mask with gaffer's tape at breakfast... and Patience totes out a full liter of milk to drink with an aluminum straw... Yali then grabs his snake from the terrarium to join

07 SEP 25

Leaving early for church that morning in a frosty plume of sunlight... Patience squawking way too loudly for the sleeping neighborhood about french fries... Yali shooting rubber bands from his 3D-printed Spiderman web shooter wrist cuffs... Oxbear playing some sea chanty about beans and rice from his phone as he

06 SEP 25

Couple of cold crab rangoon for breakfast... yum... Oxbear sleeping in to tackle a sore throat picked up in Nashville... Late in the morning when Patience gets backs from the studio... it's a battle of preference in the living room between Patience's “Little House on the

05 SEP 25

A soft pop-pop-pop from the roof before seven that morning suggests that workers have arrived to finally begin replacing the scalp of this old house and all the damage from Mr. Timber back in the spring... Kids are already a splatter of giggles crawling around on us before exiting the

04 SEP 25

It's fifty-seven degrees at the alarm that morning... Yali is already pounding around the house – tortured artist – looking for scotch tape... the old VBS t-shirt he spray-painted over for his next costume needs another coating in the basement... Some learning explosion of clocks and nouns and Russian para-athletes

A day in the life : mama

Prepare soft-boiled eggs on toast for everyone's breakfast... Switch on Mozart study playlists while reviewing borrowing in subtraction with Patience and wishing Elmer a happy 37th birthday on the sibling group chat... Work on place value and flashcards with Yali as Patience interjects with a... “Morgan taught me

Back-to-school

Hazy sunrise washed over by a low and unexpected rain before breakfast that morning... Slip on Yo-Yo Ma's Baroque cello album in effort to calmly transition the nine year-old and twelve year-old from summer break to back-to-school... It's mid-morning and classes are rolling out well... Patience

01 SEP 25

It's early for a holiday morning but Patience is already in the kitchen making a stack of pancakes on the stovetop... “Mom!” Yali hurries over to me... “My snake ate four worms!” // “Wow he's a hungry boy today... did you... guys... why is the box of

31 AUG 25

August wraps with a breakfast potluck at church where Patience fills her plate with so many heavy layers of savory and sweet that she almost drops it by the time she reaches the end of the buffet table... Afternoon... Oxbear is driving towards Nashville again with Theodore and Gloria for

A little later

Celebrating twenty-one years two days late... looks like dropping kids off at Nana's and Papa's for a few hours to sort through old jewelry and bake two-layer chocolate cake and play UNO with cousins... ...then drive south through thick green of the northern Ozarks under August

29 AUG 25

Patience is already wailing... and wailing and wailing... K-Pop around the house early morning... in those sassy braided pigtails... slurping Kool-Aid out of an aluminum straw from a glass mug... Yali walks out in a full panda suit to counteract the K-Pop with a little lip-syncing to O-Zone and '

Twenty-one

Our 21st wedding anniversary begins with Oxbear's first attempt at bread-making already being consumed by all the kids in large quantities... as Patience simultaneously feasts on more watermelon-with-mustard before leaving for her next babysitting job in St. Charles County... At the Big House young R is ready for

27 AUG 25

Puck has cleared out the all-fruit lime popsicles in the night... guess the “they're only 80 calories each” really went to the heart... and the stomach... While I step outside to text back-and-forth with the dentist about rescheduling an appointment for one of the kids... ...Yali's

26 AUG 25

Sitting for their first “listen” to the St. Louis Symphony's annual “Picture the Music” contest music selection that morning... Patience closes her eyes and envisions “pirates fighting in England”... while Yali sees himself “eating a giant sandwich”... later he confesses that the music didn't inspire this

25 AUG 25

Yali warily follows the orthodontist back for another set of X-rays that morning... he knows braces are coming... but not today... Patience finishes her appointment early... running a finger over the new rubber chain of ocean blue bands across her bottom teeth... “It's gonna feel weird when these

24 AUG 25

Chatting with the new vicar about his background as a kid-missionary in Africa and his Korean wife that morning during Bible study while Oxbear tries to help Rev. Karg with more technical issues for the lesson on Daniel... Yali and Patience walk back from Sunday School with paper bags of

23 AUG 25

Oxbear gone to an early meeting before all-day shooting club and burgers and coffee for his buddy's 44th birthday... Yali shaking a tub of “Favorite Day” trail mix like maracas slowly turning it into dust before I realize what he's doing... peanuts and raisins are extracted