true love

Valentines Day 2010: no flowers, no chocolates, no candles. No weekend getaway. We haven't even slept in the same bed all weekend. Yet I am weak in the knees at the sight of Dr Lundberg at the clinic lunchroom table decorating sugar cookies with his 5 kids after being up all night to deliver a baby. He can barely keep his eyes open, has pink frosting on his tie and chocolate on his cheek and all I want to do is grab that man and kiss him hard.

Yesterday I'd promised to take the kids to the cheap movie in Pullman. Nothing worse than sitting in the second row of an overcrowded movie theatre on a gorgeous day watching singing chipmunks. Thank goodness I'd grabbed the roller blades and we could spend the rest of the afternoon on the Chipman trail. Max not only kept up on blades but he did it without whining or moaning! After the trail we went to the clinic and had a great skate in the empty clinic parking lot with Tony.

Thursday I took Marcos thrift store shopping in Moscow and Pullman. It was amazing to be back full circle to shopping in thrift stores with one kid, following a careful budget. It was like returning to my roots.

The week's high point was a kid-less hike up the Butte on Tuesday with a group of my favorite girls. The week's low point occured on Friday afternoon at the school. After helping to host Eliza's Valentine party I went to look for Marcos and discovered him in the teacher's copy room with a butt-load of poop and his pants around his ankles. Thankfully, my friend Jaylynn had discovered him and held him at bay until I got there. I was so mad that his subsequent bath was cold enough to freeze his little gonads.

I'm officially released from nursery, my happy place of toys and snacks and cute toddlers that are not mine. I am praying for personal progress passion and adolescent excitement as I assume responsibility for the 12 and 13 year old girls. I was reminded today to act quickly on spiritual promptings, not to wait. Today, not for the first time, I heard lines from my patriarchal blessing repeated in my setting apart blessing. It gave me courage to dive head first into the sea of puberty and 12 year old drama.