Friday, June 03, 2005

"Every morning when I wake up, I experience an exquisite joy-the joy of being Salvador Dali-and I ask myself in rapture,

"What wonderful thing is this Salvador Dali going to accomplish today?"


I found this gem at Janece's place. I embrace it's ultra bright, insightful wisdom, and I also laugh self consciously when I imagine trying to assume the same attitude in my life:

Every morning when I wake up, I experience a dull throbbing in my temple- the realization of being behind before I've begun-and I ask myself in frustration,

"What is that smell?" or "Did I pay the rent?" or "How many pounds can I possibly lose before summer begins?" or "I wonder if there's any guacamole left?"

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Island House Hunting


Well, I sort of went out of town for the weekend...
Maria and I did a little house hunting. We left early Friday and were home late Sunday. In between we saw a lot of houses; most of which were already sold. We saw two that are still possible contenders, but the housing market is as ridiculous in Hawaii as it is in SoCAL, so our confidence is shaken. But as you can see, Maria's grandma (Tutu in Hawaiian) was not completely disappointed. Our visit was brief, but fun. We were in time for the Western Days Parade in town, and fortunately we were able to include dinner at The Kona Inn, which is always a relaxing tradition. Maybe we are meant to find something wonderful when we return at the end of summer with James and Deanne. We'll be meeting our good friends in Kona for a week of tourist fun and sightseeing.

On the plane ride home it became quite obvious that Maria was ready to go beyond nursing and rice cereal rations. She grabbed at everything on my food tray, and stared, wide eyed and longingly at each forkful of ravioli. So, on monday we popped open a jar of sweet potatoes. YUM. Like as in BIG YUM. She inhaled her meal and enjoyed it thoroughly. Add Sweet Potato Pie to her long list of nicknames.


Who else, besides me, is shocked to see that today is June 1st? Shocked. Our baby is 6 months old. Alex is going to be 11 in 11 days. It's time to get ready for summer visitors, plan birthdays... it's probably way past time to find summer camps, but I better look in to that too. I very much want to make a road trip to Soquel and Bandon. We want to camp out, and not just in our backyard. Will we get to the beach? Will we Cruise Grand? Will we do nighttime at The Wild Animal Park?

A few months ago I proudly, almost smugly, thought "Hey, this isn't so bad... I can raise 4 children, home school, bake organic muffins and sweep, mop, sort, order and organize... maybe there's a little more clutter... perhaps some things are sliding... but hey, we're managing." What a huge, delusional crock of Pampers! I am in way over my head and everyday it gets worse. We teach. We clean. We have dinner. And we have stacks of stuff everywhere, and laundry is like a conveyor belt nightmare that never ends. Spiders are taking gross advantage of my kindness, and no doubt the ants will follow. Everywhere I look there is a small, simple project waiting to be completed, and surrounded by all of this is a growing girl, ready to crawl, anxious to be held, fed, bathed, walked with, talked to, loved. I have two advantages: I have an incredible capacity to be the butt of cosmic jokes and still laugh, and I like my life enough to shrug, sigh and keep on trying.