Yesterday, I stacked two cords of firewood in the garage. The little neighbor kids helped me. That is, Ponytail made a fort out of the eight tires in our garage (snow tires, which we’ll be putting on soon) while Biker Boy kept going up to the woodpile and screaming, “I think I see a snake!” To celebrate the cool fall weather, I made a big pot of vegetable soup, using up the week’s vegetables from the CSA up the road.
This afternoon, I made a couple of apple pies. Ponytail and Biker Boy arrived after school just in time to help me. I knew they’d never have enough patience to wait until the pies were done and cool, so I gave them the leftover pie crusts I had trimmed off the edges of the pies and showed them how to sprinkle on cinnamon sugar. The pie crusts bits baked nicely in just ten minutes, and they ate them eagerly with the cut-up apples we’d put in the microwave. “This brown stuff smells good,” Biker Boy kept saying. “I like how your house smells.”
This evening, bribed by homemade apple pie and hot soup, my older kids came home, bringing dirty laundry and textbooks with them. After we ate, With-a-Why and my husband sat down on the floor to play a game of chess. Boy in Black stayed at the table with Classical Mechanics, while my daughter curled up in the red chair with Applied Behavior Analysis. Shaggy Hair Boy was at the piano, of course, playing music over the sounds of the dishwasher humming from the kitchen area. I took a spot on the couch, where I could work on my laptop and drink a cup of hot tea, listening while Shaggy Hair Boy played the jazz standard Misty.
10 comments:
Ah. that sounds like a nice way to spend the evening.
I'm trying to learn how to make a pie so that I can bribe my kids with it later : )
My mom used to make those cinnamon things with leftover pie crust, too. I liked those even better than the pie! Fond memories.
sweet scenes! although as usual, biker boy's comment about the brown stuff smelling good makes me sad -- how rare is cinnamon sugar?
Jennifer: Yes, it's an important skill to cultivate.
kathy a: What's even stranger is that both kids are always asking me for cold water. I keep water in the refrigerator and pour it into glasses for them, and they think it's a big treat. They drink soda at home ....
you're breakin' my heart, jo(e). but i think they will remember these things, down the road.
ah... you have the perfect life! With more kids is funner too... I wish I had more than my two, but I got started too late ;-).
Oh, the neighbor kids (I was reading the comments). It's heartbreaking & I know it's probably worse than we can imagine by the tidbits you share. I'm glad you give them water. Is their tapwater safe? I love tap water in the winter because it's so nice and cold -- you could tell them they could drink classes of cold water at home too in the winter (I drink much more water in winter at home because all is so dry).
Now... another thing, I hope someday my boys will know enough piano to play for us. It's HARD WORK to get them to practice, but I hope it will pay off.
Yes, the tap water here is safe. The cold water that I keep in the refrigerator is tap water. That's the ironic part of them thinking that it's a treat -- it's the same tap water they could get at their house.
I hope your kids fall in love with music the way mine have!
i've come back to this post several times, and i feel this push to suggest, "maybe you and the kids could make cinnamon sugar, and they can take some to their mom as a gift," or wanting to send over a little jug so they can refrigerate water themselves.
you must feel that way so often. and yet, their mom could easily take one small gesture too many as threatening, perhaps as criticism or undermining her role as parent. i think you have spoken before about the tension of wanting the kids to be protected and have better experiences than their mom can provide, but not wanting to push a button that would remove your house as a safe harbor. they need that safe refuge so very much.
This is why I love reading your blog.
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