The Short List

Today as I sprung from my bed with the sound of the alarm I was quite certain I would be returning to it’s comfort before long. My eyes, though wide open, felt stretched and dry from tiredness and the rest of me, though moving, was slowing with each step. I went to my chair to make my prayer list and give to God what there was of me and relished the moments of quiet I find so early in the morning. After my time of “enduring” I closed my notebook and thought of all that could or should be done today. It struck me that sticking to the few important things might be a good idea, as those particular things tend to be taxing on me and the boys. We needed groceries, that’s a real doozy of a blow to the day for me. It exhausts me. Owen has been begging to go to the library and I would like to take him. As this was a somewhat rainy day it seemed logical to go and get something good to read. Thinking of the rain and overcast sky made me think of taking outdoor pictures. There is a park not far from the library, I mused, why not take the camera and get a few shots of the boys. The other two “must do” items for the day were cleaning up a very, very, very messy kitchen and writing a script for a skit for Night of Laughter.

I did go back to bed for about 30 minutes after making my short list and the thunder rolling in with the overcast sky was perfect for settling back into the quilt and pillow. Very restful and sweet. Owen woke me again by laying his head on my arm as he stood by my bed and announced quietly, “Ivan’s awake too.” So I got up and got the boys downstairs for breakfast.

My short list proved to be exactly what I needed for the day. I cleaned the kitchen and completed my grocery list, got the boys dressed and we were out the door around 9:30. The library was fun. It’s a small library but we fit well enough and were able to find the items we were looking for. I signed Owen up for the Summer reading program and then we picked out five books to begin our first week as participants. I also picked up Mary Poppins, something I had never thought to do before as I had never considered that the movie was also a book. Silly me. We have been listening to CD’s from the kids meals at Chick-fil-A that include songs and funny stories incorporating letters and letter combinations to help kids learn. One story talks about popcorn and uses as many “P-O-P” combinations as possible to tell the story. At the end the narrator says something about reading Mary Poppins. Owen laughed each time he said it and I realized that he has never heard of Mary Poppins. This spurred me to look for the book myself as I have never read it, I’ve only watched Disney’s wonderful movie depiction.

Once we checked out the boys were ready to release some energy so we went to the park and walked around until we found a good spot to take some pictures. Ivan, who I would like to get 18 month pictures of, was not terribly cooperative. He was very tired and most of the pictures I got show him looking down and away. I will probably try again but the overcast sky was a great atmosphere and there are a few that turned out quite well of Owen and the two of them together. Just as I had decided that we were done trying to get pictures, Owen took a tumble and scraped his knee. Oh, the crying that commenced. He was in pain, I know it hurt, but my what wailing. We were able to make it to the community center at the park and clean it and get a bandage. He yelled and complained and I began to lose every ounce of pity and had to resist the temptation to treat him roughly as I dressed his wound. What good would that do though? He would just continue to wail. I finally asked him if he wanted some lunch and the remembrance that Sonic was right around the corner dried him up pretty quickly. He loves their grilled cheese sandwiches and was quick to devour it once he had it in front of him.

After lunch we did our grocery shopping, taking advantage of the only race-car shopping cart available which allowed Owen to sit down and not walk on his ailing right leg. The air conditioning was a welcome relief and the shopping was finished quickly and without incident.

The boys went to their naps, only complaining a little, and slept like logs. When they woke up I decided to pull out our library finds and Owen immediately wanted to hear about Mary Poppins, so I read…and read…and read. I had expected him to lose interest as this was a chapter book and full of words I know he doesn’t understand. The book is also older and written about a family in England I assume so the language is a bit different than what we are used to. He was very interested despite that, and seemed to be taking in all that did make sense with real wonder. We read through the first two chapters and he wanted more but I had to fix dinner so we took a break. After dinner I read chapter three but insisted we stop to get ready for bed. Once the pajamas were on, the teeth brushed and the prayers said, I put Ivan in his crib and Owen and I sneaked back to the play room to read chapter four. He listened and asked questions and laughed and enjoyed it so much it was tempting to keep going. I expect that we will finish the book much sooner than I anticipated but that is fine as I am enjoying it more than he is and don’t like to stop reading to sleep between chapters. I really believe he will enjoy the movie so much more after we have read the book so I’m excited by what we will experience in the next few days.

Oh…I did finish my script too, so my list was entirely checked off today and I think I’ll reward myself with a sliver of lemon blueberry pie. Ah!