This past weekend was totally fun. It was mostly family-oriented, as most of our time is. 

Saturday morning I went to a lecture/class on storytelling for children. I listened to one of the area’s best storytellers/puppeteers (Karen Vianni) talk about how to tell stories to our kids, why we should do it, and what to tell. Storytelling is big in the Waldorf world, especially for the young child. It is preferred to reading books aloud because the child responds differently to a story that comes from within you, that you create, and because without a book to look at, he can make his own pictures in his head. That exercise is critical for children’s development. Picture-making is thought to be key to problem solving and creative thought. 

Vianni says that parents ought not to believe that only traditional stories that have been memorized word-for-word are worthy of telling. Rather, parents should tell stories about the natural worls for stories from their own lives—that children are fascinated by what their parents were like as children, how they grew up, what they did, what grandma and grandpa did, etc. 

Because I’m always the class blabbermouth, I mentioned that you don’t have to tell your kids only the exciting stories—the ones with the crisis and climax—for they are often too intense. Lucas doesn’t want to hear about how Little Girl Sara Got Trapped by the Snake and Couldn’t Get Home. It’s too scary! I learned that the hard way because I told that story to him when he was maybe three. I was used to the traditional dramatic structure that we all expect from our entertainment: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, then denouement or catastrophe. I thought I had to make it exciting for him. “Please, don’t” was basically the reaction I got.

I’ve been practicing a little here and a little there for a few years now. I don’t do it all the time, but I do it now a lot more often. I started telling Lucas stories that are more about everyday things, like about going to school as a child or picking oranges off our tree in the backyard with my brother, or special things like when I came home from school and my mother had all the ingredients for making cookies out on the table and ready to go. You know, stories that are pictures of life—pretty similar to the way Lucas lives, but with small differences that are interesting to him. 

I also tell him stories about his own life, about things that happened last year or even yesterday. I don’t actually name the characters (us), but just say things like “there was a mommy, a daddy, a big brother, and a baby brother” and take it from there. And often when I’m finished telling the story, he says with great warmth in his voice, “Mommy, that was a story about me, wasn’t it.” And I say, “Yes, dear. It was.” 

I’m not an educator or an expert in child development, so I don’t really know how memory works in children his age, but I do know that Lucas is old enough to remember things from his own life now. I hope that by telling him about things that happen in our lives—mostly happy, everyday things—perhaps somehow these events and feelings will sink deeply into his psyche and slosh around in his unconscious. I hope that from his own inner well of memories he will someday be able to pull stories of his own to tell his own children, or even to me in my dotage.  

My good friend J is having twins—today! I received an email message this morning, saying that baby A is breach and because he is presenting first, she will have a C-section today to have her babies.

By now, all is probably done and I’m just waiting to hear how everything went. I’m praying for her and her husband and her two baby boys, who are full-term, (probably) fraternal twins. I am soooooo happy that she was able to carry them to term; their health is much more likely to be very good now that they’re fully “cooked.”

And I can’t explain it other than by admitting to a secret, masochistic stripe in my personality, but damned if I’m not totally jealous! I can’t help but wonder what it would feel like to carry two babies, birth two babies, care for two babies. Completely crazy, I know! One is hard enough. 

But now that I’ve done the singleton thing twice, I can’t help but wonder if I could hack the double-trouble of twins. So that’s weird, I know. 

But there’s another part that is less weird and more miraculous: the fact that two new lives begin today. Two new beings are arriving here on Earth, and they come embodying the hope of every human being who ever lived. In my view, newborn babies have only just left the other side, the Oneness with Everything, that we wonder about and crave, the thing so many of us hope to return to someday. They come in spiritually and physically intertwined with others, bound to mother. Then they spend the rest of their lives simultaneously separating the threads to establish their own individuality and reweaving them together with others’ threads to build connections and community. 

The moment of birth is so mysterious and unique, and I am honored to have experienced it twice. I’m wishing J a safe, respectful, magical birth and happy, healthy babies. Blessed be.

I hardly ever see them, but I hold  them in my heart always. Happy Birthday to  

zindelo 

and Bryn! I admire their brilliance, their unstoppable creativity, and the way they both pursue their bliss and myriad interests.  I love you guys!

1. This morning, Ian has another one of those killer 3-hour meetings where almost nothing gets accomplished and it’s a crazy-making mix of evasion of responsibility and obligation and finger-pointing. Bureaucrats will always be bureaucrats, I suppose, but in the process, they are slowly raking my darling over hot coals of stress. Good luck, honey. I love you.

2. I hate it when Asher cries when I drop him off at the sitters’. It is part of the normal process and completely age-appropriate for him to do so. And I know he does not pine for me while I’m gone as much as he would like me to believe. Still it rends my heart into little pieces to hear him sobbing as I walk out the door. The upside: without him around, I can think and work, and be myself for a little window of time.

3. Art class is fun! Our teacher is a little … well … maybe it’s a hard thing to teach people how to draw. She says stuff like “See this line from here to here is the same as this line from here to here” while she moves a dry-erase pen over a white board, and by the time you look up from your own drawing paper to try to see what she’s talking about, she’s moved on to something else. You miss all the “here”s and “this line”s and it’s like listening to a foreign language made up of unclear nouns and pronouns. “Say what?” Nevertheless, we enjoyed our fifth drawing class last night. We’re now working on drawing faces in profile. We all drew Audrey Hepburn and I drew Lee Iacoca afterward. I’m happier with Lee than with Audrey. I find that I can’t stand to go super-slow. I have an impulse to keep moving and work quickly with bold strokes. I don’t know what that means about me. Maybe a handwriting expert could say …

Lucas was sick again starting on Monday, so he stayed home yesterday. Fortunately, he was better by this morning so I shipped him off to school like usual. So far this week, it’s been intensive parenting and housekeeping (not that you could tell) and not much else. I’m trying to cultivate patience and a great affinity for chopping wood and carrying water. Trying. For me, chopping wood and carrying water translates to: laundry. Heaps of laundry.

My dear friend

thaemos

  helped me in that regard last week. He came over and fixed a shelf above my kitchen laundry that has ALWAYS DRIVEN ME CRAZY. I have a top loading washing machine, and the shelf’s position prevented me from being able to open the washer all the way. Until I figured out a bizzarre wire-hanger-and-huge-soap-container “hack” (which Thaemos called “brilliant!”), the lid used to fall and hit me on the shoulder or the top of my head while I reached in repeatedly to lift clean, wet clothes out of the washer by the single handful. Thaemos not only did the awesome corrective carpentry to remove the interfering shelf, he also let Lucas help him, which meant that for two blessed hours a week ago, Lucas was so occupied by Thaemos’s teaching and tools, that he did not yammer at us. While the work was being done, we drank (wine? cocktails?) and Ian fixed yummy steaks on the barbecue. It was just wonderful.

Lucas is so completely enamored with Thaemos. He loves the tools. He loves that he gets to help. He loves that Thaemos explains everything so patiently. Thaemos even asks Lucas questions, such as “What tool do you think we need to do this part of the job?” and “What will happen if we do/don’t do this?” and “What’s the next step?” Lucas thinks really hard about each of these questions. When he answers correctly and Thaemos praises him, Lucas’s little face lights up and his cheeks flush with pride.

And the refrain? “Safety Third!”

My eternal blessings on the carpenter, for now my laundry meditations are so much easier!

— Publishers Weekly, 3/10/2008 7:41:00 AM

(http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6539799.html?nid=2286&source=title&rid=1416814534)

The U.S. publishing industry emits over 12.4 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, or about 8.85 pounds per book, according to the findings in the just-released report, Environmental Trends and Climate Impacts: Findings from the U.S. Book Industry. The study, coordinated by the Book Industry Study Group and the Green Press Initiative, looked to establish industry benchmarks related to publishing’s impact on the environment. The cutting of trees for paper was found to have the most significant impact on the industry’s carbon footprint, although the report says the use of recycled paper and fibers has increased over the last several years.

Today was awesome! 

It started with a clean house. Then our house was filled up with new friends and good food. We invited the family of one of Lucas’s school friends over for brunch. I’ve been hitting it off well with this talented, intuitive, smart, and funny mommy, Kelly. We’ve had tea together a few times and have really enjoyed getting to know each other. This was our first opportunity to get to know Kelly’s husband, Jon. They have three children, and our kids all got along pretty well. Their oldest son was a little too old to play with the little ones much, so for part of the time, he read and part of the time he hung out with the adults. The others played outside after brunch, drawing chalk pictures all over the patio and pathways. We all had such a wonderful time together. We found common ground. It was relaxed and easy. It’s such a good feeling to make new friends!

Then we went to one of my favorite places, Capital Nursery, and spent some my birthday money from last year. We bought two fruit trees, which is really exciting to me. Some of my fondest memories from childhood involve me and my brother waiting for the fruit trees to flower, watching the fruits grow and become ripe, and then gorging ourselves on the produce. The house we lived in from my birth until I was 13 (right here in sunny Fair Oaks) had two enormous orange trees in the back yard, two cherry trees, a plum tree, and pecan trees, too. I have never in my life since had oranges as good as the ones produced by those trees! They were as big as grapefruits. 

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about those special memories and wishing that our yard had some fruit trees so that my sons might have a similar happy experience while they are growing up. It will take a long time before the trees are big enough to produce much, but today we bought and planted a cherry tree and an apricot tree. The cherry is truly a marvel of modern science! (Well, what do I know? This could be very old science.) It’s a marvel to me because it’s one tree with three branches and each branch is a different variety of cherry: Bing, Rainier, and Van! 

CalCherry.com (http://www.calcherry.com/ccab/consumer.cfm?varieties=1) says:

	BING This popular cherry has red/mahogany-colored skin and flesh. The stone is relatively small, while the fruit itself is crisp, firm and juicy. Consumers enjoy its sweet, rich flavor, which is the reason that it’s the dominant variety.
	RAINIER This cherry is recognizable by its golden/pink blushed skin color. It’s a finely textured variety with firm, clear flesh and colorless juice. The Rainier offers consumers a very sweet, delicate flavor.

VAN This late-season cherry is appreciated for its refreshingly sweet taste and deep red color. Consumers love to snack on Vans, one after another.

The reason I picked a cherry and an apricot is that they are both available only for a limited time in the summer. And they tend to be expensive in the grocery stores, so I thought it would be groovy to pick and enjoy our own fruit!

We planted the new trees this afternoon. Then Ian worked on our hacked-and-slashed drip system to repair it. I made a wreath out of pruned, bare wisteria vines that had been trying again to climb up our redwood tree. Lucas played; Asher napped inside. It was such a gorgeous day! 

We rounded it out with a lovely steak dinner cooked by Ian. Asher is currently grumpy because he’s tired and I’m on the computer instead of cuddling him. Lucas has gone to bed a happy and tired boy. Sometimes life can be so peaceful. And I am grateful.

Yesterday and today I sent Asher off to the babysitters’. (Hi, Beautiful Sitters!) I wish it was because I had crazy amounts of lucrative work to do while he was gone, but that’s not why. Mostly it was because I need a break. From him. 

Don’t get me wrong. Of course I love him completely at every moment—even when it’s 3 a.m. and he is SCREAMING in my EAR, even when he’s BITING my LEG, even when he’s PINCHING my BREAST with his fingernails so hard I want to scream.

But still. It’s time I had a tiny space to myself. I planned a coffee date for each morning. Both coffee dates canceled for very good reasons.

So, without big projects to work on or coffee dates, here’s how I spent these two glorious mornings: 
* dealing with paperwork
* finding all my 2007 business expense receipts
* updating my business spreadsheets in preparation for Taxes
* paying bills and moving money
* invoicing
* writing a little fiction

Yes, I agree. It doesn’t sound all that fun (except for the last point). But having space to think, to accomplish little tasks was just spectacular. It felt sooooo good. My desk is still a giant mess, but the piles are smaller. New file folders now exist, and I have a trip to the office supply store planned. 

Yay for the mundane. Sometimes it’s just what you need.

A couple of days ago I received a check in the mail from Cengage Learning. Sounds like one of my textbook clients, right? Nope. Never heard of them. The check has a vendor number and a charming amount of $472.75. It sports invoice numbers and descriptions that I’ve never seen or heard of before: “Century 21 Accounting.”

So I called Cengage Learning. I got transferred. I was on hold. I got transferred again. Eventually, I spoke with a nice woman named Laurie, who eventually figured out that there is another Sara Wilson in Ohio who also is a freelance editor. I got the other Sara’s payment for some accounting book that she worked on. 

Turns out I’m in the AP computer system because I’ve worked for one (or more?) of their imprints before. The check cutter person just picked Sara E. Wilson instead of Sara Wilson out of a drop down menu.

Laurie was embarrassed. I joked with her, “‘Course, it’s nice of you guys to send me a pretty check like this.” She shyly asked if I would return it. I will return the check today. 

I had one request though: I asked Laurie if she would please let Sara Wilson in Ohio know that Sara Wilson in California is lookin’ out for her.

Yesteday I had urges to dig in the dirt. Throwing caution to the wind, I took my boys out in the late afternoon to OSH for some garden plants and seeds. It turned out to be just the perfect thing for all of us because when we got home, we hung out in the front yard and planted a dish garden with grass seeds (to make an Easter table decoration—it will eventually have a little bunny romping in it and maybe a pond). Since it was after 5 p.m., we decided the rest of the plants we bought would have to wait until tomorrow. 

My mother stopped by to visit us. The boys splashed in the water until daddy arrived home. Asher had about 3 inches of water in a plastic bowl that entertained him for an hour. Lucas ran around the yard flinging water from a green watering can. He spun around, pretending to be a sprinkler. Eventually, he just poured the water over his own head, and enjoyed it so much, he then did it a bunch more times. By the time Ian got home from work, they were both soaked from head to toe. Grandma was a little surprised that I let them play in the cold water in March, but she got over it. 

Being out in the elements was balm for all of our souls.

Here are some spring pictures I took today.

Today, Lucas had a play date with Andrew. We (perhaps optimistically) planted a spring garden together! My kitchen garden patch of dirt now sports 24 small green plants:
* 6 kale
* 6 lettuce
* 6 sugar snap peas
* 2 zuchini
* 3 bush beans
* 1 lemon boy tomato

We sang to the plants as we put them in the earth. We said welcome to the garden and told them to grow strong and true, and to give us lots of yummy food to eat. We marveled at all the earthworms we found, and were pleased that they are making our soil better. It’s possible that we’ll get another frost, but we decided to risk it. It’s such lovely weather here at Wilsonia that we couldn’t resist.

We saved the flowers (petunias and pansies) for planting tomorrow. The boys ran out of steam toward the end of the project–especially Asher, who was ready to go inside and be clean and dry. (I had to give him another bowl of water to splash in to keep him from crawling over the top of our newly planted friends.

(This is the before picture, with everything ready to plant.)

I have to fix all the drip hoses because our lawn service company whacked them all to pieces, and I should get a layer of mulch down ASAP.  All in all, a good day’s work.