Finding Things

And the A-Man (A-Saint?) came through!

I found the keys in a box of books – who knew? YAY! Which means I can get into my mailbox, and what did I find? A Buttload of mail!

Thank you SO much for all of the lovely cards & small, fun items! I promise I’ll do an itemization for everyone’s eddification at a later time – when I have more time – when I FIND more time.

They mean the world to Gerry and me, and make all of us laugh. The Buddha’s & the tiny crocheted angel dolls were especially appreciated by the kids! I want to put the Buddha in an angel dress. Hi, I’m 4.

I spent a good part of today trying to find places to put things.

I’m starting to clean out the kitchen, get appliances and unused dishes squared away – a little at a time. It’s pretty much the way I packed the house oh, about 6 months ago. Feels like yesterday. Feels like 100 years ago.

Max found his sweet spot – he’s finally figured out how to connect with the ball, and although he’s not hitting homers, he’s making HITS! I keep telling him I’d be proud of him no matter how he did, but I do get a thrill when I see his incredibly happy face. All the way home from the ballpark on Monday he told me about his ‘strategy’ to hit against the pitchers. Who knew my son knew from strike zones?

We’ve found a sink & faucets (for both kitchen and bath) and a toilet. Life is good. Now I know how big to make the hole for the sink in the mosaic vanity I’m going to craft.

I have to get going on that crazy thing.

Gerry rode with me to pick up the kids from Lake Phalen today, which is a lovely park in Eastern St. Paul. It’s so exciting for the kids to swim in a lake – a new experience for them – and they’re LOVING the canoeing and kayaking!

As we drove home we found a few of our friends out on their front lawn, so a brief stop and a kid exchange and we had an impromptu playdate all worked out. This feels so good I can hardly express it.

While the kids played, I rearranged the front porch – we’re tossing a bunch of stuff to make room for the kitchen overflow. Since we’ll have folks staying here, filling in for me while I’m in France, I want to get a decent, working kitchen set up in the basement – and have a logical place for other kitchen stuff so it’s totally out of the way of the workers – and our friendly nannies.

It was hot, I was pushing and pulling and lifting and carrying – so hot. By the time I finished I felt that my legs were spaghetti (the muscles were overcooked, and the bones were dry and brittle, bad combination)

I worked up to the evening, but now we have the sofa on the porch arranged so that it can be an extra pull out bed if we need it. And a cool – if a bit noisy – place to sleep!

After all that work I hobbled into the kitchen to get a diet coke (thanks, Amy!) aching, in pain, exhausted, and it dawned on me;

He’s getting better about taking pain meds when he needs them, but whether this is because the pain is greater I really don’t know. He keeps mum about a lot of stuff.

As he stops his drugs we’re both interested – a bit fascinated – to see what effect it will have. His doctor wants him to be off all meds but the pain meds when we go down to do the blood & marrow transplant.

So between writing a few patterns, running kids around, carrying microwaves to the basement (and the new one to the kitchen), rearranging the porch, submitting classes to TNNA, sendng out letters of agreement, finding & making corrections in patterns from Romantic Hand Knits, library trips and laundry, I gave myself a break and visited www.simondelivers.com to order groceries and staples.com to order the kids’ school supplies. I realized that if I don’t get all the stuff on their lists now, I won’t have a chance in August.

I also realized that neither kid has luggage, so I ordered them backpacks for school – which they desperately need – with wheels so they can use them on their trip to NJ/Boston when running through airports. So much to remember to do. So many lists. I’m afraid I’ll lose my place. God I hope the kids don’t get lost.

Simon Delivers was amazingly well priced, and the delivery fee was only $7 for our $80 order. Woo. Plus, we get a first time order discount of $20, so it was definitely worth a try. If it works well for us, it will be a VERY good way to make sure th
at Gerry & his mom get groceries delivered to the hotel when I’m gone (there’s a kitchenette, they won’t need a LOT of groceries, but it’s nice to know they can be well supplied!)

It’s also a relief to know that when my sister in law or my good friend are here with the kids, I can order groceries and take one task off of their minds. Sometimes it’s fun to explore a new grocery store, but sometimes it’s a frustrating chore.

Thanks so much to the posters who suggested simondelivers.com – I was glad to find it.

And thus I found a little bit of peace today – a chance to sit still for an hour when I might have been driving to Cub foods on a hot afternoon and filling a shopping cart. The time I gained was spent answering emails.

I’m working on finding a totally quite time and place to just meditate.

I need to return to my knitting. None done today. Very sad. I missed the Guild meeting, too. I was busy moving stuff around the front porch.

I’m finding that I miss the company of other knitters.