Beyond

I hope I never lose my sense of wonder. If that makes me naive, then so be it.

Monday 29 October 2007

early

It's not such an early morning, but the sun is not yet up, D gone to work and the girls still asleep - but it feels early in the quiet. There is frost on the fields but our little house is cozy, a welcome change from yesterday, when our furnace wouldn't start until the technician came out and fixed a few things.

Last night was spent in a way I love, a simple pleasure: to stave off the chill we had a nice fire going, and I turned a chair around to face it, put my feet up on the hearth, and sat reading for a while. Quiet, simple, nice. This was interspersed with laughs with D, discussions with R about the benefits and challenges of solar power (clean, renewable resource versus prohibitive setup costs and Canada's relative lack of strong sunlight), cuddles with A and M.

This week will be fun as my parents are in town from Wednesday on, and Goaliemom joins us today. R and A will have lots to do for their projects to be finished on time. Poor R panicked on Friday when she realized that the colony she had chosen and researched was not on the list of topics. Turns out they'll be covering it in class so she had only one week. Saturday was spent starting again with a new colony (Virginia) and continuing her learning about solar cells (many thanks to D, physics guy extraordinaire, for once again showing his talent at taking something complex and explaining it in a way that is understandable). A is continuing along with her projects and has complied a nice concise history of the pop-up toaster.

M spent Friday with me in a delight of shopping. Her favorite was our trip to the store to buy all sorts of things to fill shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. Up and down the aisles we went as she chose toys, crayons, and nice treats for, as she called it, "the little girl who doesn't have many toys". We are so blessed, and we so often take it for granted.


R floored me on Friday. We were listening to a Christmas CD in the car as I prep for the Santa Claus parade, and on this CD (Winter Wonderland, by Point of Grace) the last song is a pretty one called "All is Well". It is a nice, slow song, sort of a lullaby, by Michael W. Smith (note: I prefer his version to the one on this CD). It has memories for me as one JB and I sang together, 'way back in 1997. It's one of those songs that remind me of him. The girls were in the back of the car chatting, so I could drive quietly and feel wistfully sad, but so far dry-eyed and alone in my thoughts. Until I felt two little hands on my shoulders. R, sitting behind me, knew the song. The tears started and I looked back: "How did you know?" "Well, I know on the other CD with this song you skip it a lot, and I remember hearing once that you sang it with Josh, and I think it reminds you of him" Words of comfort from an 11-year old.

My thoughts early in the morning are like the chickens; they wander here and there, topic to topic, straying away from home base a bit but eventually coming back. Time to get the girls up for our Monday out - French class with N, then home group and school work.

2 comments:

sue said...

She has a special gift. She has a tender compasssion far beyond her years.

futsaldreamer said...

Exactly. You have one smart, little girl with a really big heart. R is pretty awesome.