The Sound of Laundry

I found myself dialing in on the hum and rhythm of my washer and dryer this morning. It's such a familiar, ordinary sound in the home, but it's funny how many thoughts the sounds are bringing up today. When the washing machine is running . . . it gives me the feeling of buckling down for the day, it tells me that it's time to get to work. When the washing machine and the dryer are both humming, I feel like I'm making progress. And then when it's silent, it's calling me back in for the unloading and reloading. I guess all that humming and whirring is the sound of "work." And though I mostly hate laundry, and have honestly let it ruin my day more than once, there is something about the warmness of the laundry room and the good smell of detergent, dryer sheets, and clean clothes that makes it all more bearable.

Evening In My Neighborhood

I love my neighborhood in the summer right around the 4 to 5 o'clock hours. That's when many of the working neighbors start arriving home . . . the potato chip delivery truck takes its place in the driveway next door, vans with ladders on top and company logos painted on their sides pull into other driveways up and down the street. And within minutes the quiet, green neighborhood that has rested all day wakes up. Garage doors are opened, lawnmowers are started, grills are open and lit. And with those sounds comes the smells of fresh-mowed grass and the smell of charcoal and grilling burgers. Barking dogs come bursting out of open patio doors to get their first chance to run through their yards all day. Neighbors wave a "hello" from across the street as they open and close mailbox doors. I like this time of day. It's familiar and normal. It feels like home.

God is in the heart . . .

I knew this day would come for one of my kids . . .

Liam is eating his lunch today, chicken nuggets and applesauce, and he asks me, "Does God like chewed up food?"

"What?" is my response.

He repeats, "Does God like chewed up food?"

"What do you mean by that," I ask.

"Well, if God is in the heart, doesn't chewed up food go by the heart? And if He's there he might get some of the chewed up food."

What do you say to that, to a 4-year-old?

"Well, I guess God doesn't mind the chewed up food so much," I tell him.

But parks are happy places . . .

Parks are so nice. Parks that are kept up nicely, with shady places to rest, and pretty flowers are really just delightful. Parks that are just starting out, though, just aren't that nice. Part of the draw for us when we chose our current house to buy a year ago was the 10 acre field that our backyard borders. The only things in the field were grass, a big red barn, several groves of trees, wildflowers, and two very cute red foxes. When you looked out the back door, it looked like we lived in the country . . . looking out the front we're reminded of the large neighborhood we live in. Soon after we moved, however, a note was put on our front door by the village that those 10 acres were soon going to be made into a park. Mixed emotions ensued. I mean, great a park . . . i can see straight into the field, so that means it'll be like 10 extra acres of "yard" for us to enjoy. Yes, there will be the noise of baseball games in the summer (I can hear over-zealous mother's yelling at their sons now to "hustle, hustle"), but really I think it will be great. But what is so sad, is the absolute destruction that is now taking place to make that lovely field into a park. For a solid month, excavators, chains saws, wood chippers, and other equipment has been whirring from the field. Most of the groves of trees have been brought down . . . ground has been dug up for water lines for the concession stand. So this will go on, we're told until late 2009. And really the saddest thing of all to me is what the field was before it was the field/park. It was horse stables and grounds for over thirty years. We missed bordering that by just a few years. When the owners stopped raising/boarding horses just a few years ago, they sold the land to the village at an amazing price. I would have loved watching horses graze out in that field while I drank my coffee in the morning. Instead I see piles of dirt and tree stumps . . . bright orange marking tape and black paper temporary fencing. Maybe once the park is finished, and lovely and useful, I'll forget the "ickiness" it has been in it's construction phases.

Remember when . . .

Remember when your kids were little, and at some point you had to be away from them for a weekend or a few days. When you returned home, you went to hug your kids, thinking they would be so overjoyed to see you. But instead they start bawling . . sort of like laughing -bawling, but out and out crying no less. It used to happen every time we've had to leave our children. I was trying to imagine tonight for some strange reason what the emotion must feel like to a child in that moment. Is it the shear relief that makes them cry? Are they angry that you ever left in the first place? Maybe the rush of emotion of just how much they love you or how great it is to see your face again hits them and makes them cry. I don't know. I was just thinking about it. One of those sweet little kid things that really is sweet, but really curious.

Tonight, I had just finished reading, "The Rainbow Fish" to my four-year-old. He was running his fingers through my hair as he often does when I'm reading to him. And then he looked at me and said, "I like how God made you." Followed by a super sweet smile.

It's the nicest thing any boy has ever said to me.

New Year . . . now write

I got excited about a New Year's Resolution this year . . . and I don't usually do resolutions. Well then, 72 hours into the new year, Josh was in the car crash and it becomes hard to resolve to stuff when you're helping someone heal from a car wreck and run the house single-mom style. But now . . he's on his feet so I can start thinking about stuff again. So I resolve that I'm just going to write at least a little bit everyday. I found this great book that's full of little ideas, scenarios, situations, that inspire you to write. It has writing "starters" such as sentences that you fill in the blank , and then the idea would be to keep on writing off that starter. It asks you to describe specific people from your past. Stuff like that. I'm so excited. So I'm kind of jazzed up about that. The end.