Max is at school. He ate his breakfast muffin on his way out the door. He's going to Creative Writing Club at lunch, and staying late, in the library, until Alex can pick him up from school. He's still working out what to be for Halloween, but never mind any distractions... the boy diligently keeps his life, and ours, in regular order.
Maria is home, on fall break (Don't I wish we were all on fall break? Yes, I do!) She and William are using an architectural app on the iPad to plot out our house, and to make up new houses. She's also whipping up menus, dishes, and fun in her play kitchen, reading, drawing, and taming Mister Foo.
Geoff will be heading into work, soon. His days are long, and full. I'm sorry to say, his CNC router,
Frankenrouter is put on the back-back burner, for now. Still, as busy as work keeps him, he still finds time to be supportive, fix things, develop ideas, and inspire us.
William put up the
cemetery, with the tombstones he made. It's a funny thing having a cemetery in the yard...
I remember last year, and while I was proud of what William accomplished, how beautiful those headstones are, I was feeling a bit of the
creepy association of death and grave markers. But then something really lovely happened. It wasn't a creepy thing, after all. It was
a solemn and dear space, and we all had a sense of respect and reverence. It was not a joke, a mocking-death creation, but an historically reflective gesture, an artistic nod to culture and the human experience. We wound up spending many evenings gathered around a campfire, reading aloud, and feeling a content pleasure in being outside with a kind and gentle feeling for the ones who came before us. William's talents and thoughtfulness brought something lovely to our traditions.
Today, Alex has his Japanese language class.
Last night he came home from his engineering class, where he's been working on some 3-D modeling.
And when he's not at school, doing homework, or assembling our family disaster preparedness kits, he's busy with his start-up company, or designing
marvelous T-shirts... please do vote for his submissions! I'm not sure when the new sketch happened. It is an intriguing part of this morning's kitchen table still life.
And, here is our Foo.
Mister Washburn Foo. Have I told you? He collects Lego bricks. Well, first he sneaks into the boy's room, finds a grey, or black, brick, and then absconds with his treasure, which he hides in little spaces and dark corners around the house. He also has a potato he
loves and plays with, then stashes away. Seriously,
a potato. He likes to take down the bunting I hang, and he sprints through the house to leap up to my bedside window, where he tracks the birds, and quivers with eager anticipation of something
not nice for birds.