The new baby in our midsts continues to be a major hit. Everyday I'm met with pleas of, "Can't you pleeeze have another baby?" The short answer being, "No." Pretty much the same as the long answer. There is rarely a moment when the new little one doesn't have 10 sets of fingers touching her.
We are diligently working on Voice Over for the Germany DVD right now, so with each scene of Germany comes more begging, "When are we going back there again?" It's funny how in hindsight the nettle soup now becomes, "So good." When the first time around it was just ok. Now, the idea of walking through the forest and collecting nettles is so quaint and inviting since we're living in the desert. There are no forests around here for many, many miles and it certainly does look inviting on screen. I don't know what it is about this time of year but it always makes me anxious to get moving. The girls dad is in Japan for business right now and calls conveys messages of fall leaves in Japan and I feel like I could sell my soul for a bike ride through the countryside stealing persimmons. I know, not technically a nice thing to do. But when I lived there I lived near a very large orchard that I'm sure did not miss the few I would eat along the way. And then we'd stop in at an onsen for a nice bath and meal and then bike home again. This was of course when I was in my 20's and had no kids, but now the girls are finally old enough to keep up on their own bikes- but here there are no great bike paths. I mean, they are well maintained and paved with asphalt, but they are definitely not great! Biking along a concrete-lined 'river' with no trees overhead is not great. We are here in AZ right now for the grandparent factor, which has its perks, too. But I certainly sense a move coming on...
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Day 11 of the 29 days of giving and I'm really enjoying myself! It has really been fun to think of little things each day - whether it be a greeting card on a stranger's car in the parking lot to hiding chocolate in one of the girl's teacher's desk with a little note of appreciation- it has really been fun. It's also been interesting to watch when things don't turn out quite as I planned. The big sister got her braces off last week and I took off enough time to leave room to go out to breakfast to celebrate before heading back to school. The little sister was thrilled but the big sister's reply was, "No, then I'll miss too much school. I'd rather go back." which sent the little sister into fits, "No, I'd rather go to breakfast." What to do? I lowered myself to the, "You can get a hot chocolate- even on a school day." taunt, that was met with sheer determination to get to school asap. Part of me was thinking, 'But this is my planned giving for this day!' and then thought about it and realized that if the recipient did not consider it a gift, but rather torture, was it truly giving? So, we dropped the big sister back off at school and the little sister and I went out to breakfast to celebrated the removal of the braces without the subject of the celebration. It was certainly not as planned, but it felt like the most generous solution to both parties. That older child is always challenging me on what I think is 'best.' And let's face it, the younger one and myself do not share the same love of institutions that the older has, so there was no need for us to miss out on our Nutella crepes and hot chocolate!
