thurdsay thirteen mid-october

It's been a while since I did one of these!1 -- Each morning, after the girls get up, they get their lap desks (Iris' is blue, Charlotte's is pink) and they get paper and crayons to draw with. Then they come into the kitchen and sit side-by-side on the floor and draw and visit with me while I make breakfast. This has curtailed my listening to the news as I cook, which is just fine with me ... I'd much rather the company of my rapidly growing daughters than the newscasters lately. The scrambling of eggs and the cutting of fruit are punctuated with pauses when the girls ask me to look at their latest creations. Iris has been drawing pumpkins and cats, and Charlotte's focus is on underwater sea life and scenes from the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. There is usually some elbowing and "She's touching me ...." involved, which is to be expected ... heh heh.2 -- I've read the first draft of the novel all the way through and have made all sorts of marks and suggestions throughout. Now I'm going back to the parts where I have noted big changes or insertions need to happen and I'm writing those. It feels really good to be back at it. The friend I'm working with in editing the book just had a baby and took a month off from editing duty, and I took the month to walk away from the book for a bit and let it rest. I did a lot of knitting, instead, and picked up some books to read, which always energizes my writing. I was able to write 8 pages yesterday ... and whenever I finish a bit, I read it out loud, because that makes things stand out that I otherwise might not notice. I ended up in stitches yesterday, because I realized one descriptive paragraph I had written was full of words that started with S! It was like I had channeled Dr. Seuss or something for a moment and ended up writing one tongue-twister of a paragraph.3 -- Despite the fact that I don't drink coffee anymore ... I still go to Starbucks now and then for some tea. I went yesterday and got some Tazo "energizing" decaf. The woman next in line ordered black tea and grinned at me, "Ahh, another tea drinker, how nice!" I chuckled and said that many would think we were crazy for going to a coffee joint like Starbucks for tea, but it's fun. I told her I had quit coffee after a long love affair with it. "I started drinking coffee when I had kids ..." I explained. She shook her head and replied, "When I had kids, I started drinking wine!"4 -- Before I went to Alaska, I spent three months working at a retirement community so I could save money for my trip north. I really enjoyed my job and the people in the rooms and apartments. But it could be a sad job some days ... if one of the residents passed away, there would be a red rose at the nurses station in the morning.5 -- Josephine has become a part of the family and the kids are desperate for her to get to a point when she can come out and walk on our hands. She's now pretty comfortable with me putting her on my hand and transferring her to her perch when I clean her cage. I clean it every other day. If you watch mourning doves, you'll notice they spend a lot of time on the ground looking for food and scratching around. Jo does the same thing, so I got rid of her food dish and sprinkle her food on the floor of her cage instead, with grit for digestion and little treats (broccoli, apples, oranges, lettuce, celery greens, millet sprays). Since she eats on the ground where her poop lands, I want to be sure it's cleaned regularly and she seems to get a gas out of the whole process.6 -- Jo is a ring-necked dove, and up until a couple of days ago I thought she was a "white" version of ring-necks ... but, as you'll see in this photo ... there is a dark line emerging at the base of her neck!7 -- Yesterday there was a really bad accident on my way home from Iris' preschool. A motorcyclist and an eighteen wheeler. Yeah. It wasn't pretty. All four lanes of the highway were closed and there were lights everywhere ... the cyclist was evacuated by helicopter and I'm trying to find out if he made it out alive ... It was very sobering. And what was almost as disturbing as the accident itself was the commuters' response to the delays. I watched as people cut each other off, screamed at each other, and nearly caused more accidents in their impatience. I wanted to scream myself, "Do you realize someone might be DEAD up there?!" I know I've had my moments of frustration while stuck in traffic on the road, but, honestly, sometimes there are bigger things going on and we need to take a moment to calm down. We can be late, if it means someone else gets help quicker or a situation that took 3 hours to clean up and investigate is done well. We would hope for the same thing if we were the ones involved the accident.8 -- I used to be glad to let my political beliefs known, but now I keep them more or less to myself. I stopped putting signs out and bumper stickers on my car, because I think it's very upsetting how strangers can use these things as excuses to be confrontational. The political climate lately has me wanting to hide at home until Nov. 4th. I should note, though, that the last time I had a political sticker on my car (years ago) it gained me a friend. A woman saw my sticker, asked if I was from Vermont, and when I told her I grew up there she said, "I just moved here from Vermont ... I don't know anyone and our kids look the same age ... can I call you sometime?" It was the coolest thing! We were friends for several years, and I love to tell that story.9 -- The other day Charlotte was thinking back to our trip to Cape May and the "mouthwatering" taffy we had ... what she meant was "saltwater" taffy!10 -- We went to Iris' parent-teacher conference this week, and her teacher told us how Iris had come to the rescue for a little girl who didn't have anyone to play with on the playground. It was really sweet ... and then later her class was sitting on the edge of the story carpet for their afternoon book and Iris was alone on the one edge. When she said quietly, "I don't have anyone ..." one entire side of kids got up and ran over to pile on her! I love this age!11 --I have Indian corn hanging by the front door and someone is eating it ... one kernel at a time ... hmmmmmm ...12 -- I have an idea for my Halloween costume and I really hope it comes together ... I just need to borrow blue coveralls from the sled dog kennel I used to work for ....13 -- I love comic book/graphic novel movies. Though the last Spiderman was pretty bad. My favorites are Hellboy and Sin City (disturbing ... but, hey, Clive Owen's in it ...). We just watched Ironman and I'd watch it again! I can't wait for the latest Batman to come in the mail and for Hellboy II (directed by Guillermo del Toro, who did Pan's Labyrinth ... shivers deliciously) to hit DVD ...Happy Thursday, everyone!