ongoing wonder

i'm hot and tired today. i feel like i'm a total crab. i want to run screaming into the street. i have zero patience for anything. ugh. desparately, i need chocolate.

my brother came and played crazy with the boys so that i could regroup after the last few weeks of foofaraw. all of the mess was grating on me. and now the place shines and the floors are so clean they're slippery. there's something to be said for those who help mamas with little ones. something wonderful and sweet and chocolatey. something soft-serve and white and cold. that kind of sugary thanks for unsinkable joe.



here's a little dusty, yet feathery, pile of things to think about:

eugenia topiaries and the craving for more: we've two in the pots greeting you and yours as you walk up the front steps. they're tall and fabulous and may sport white flowers sometime this summer. how much money is too much money when it comes to the purchase of plant-life? i could easily go overboard here as the end result is enormously satisfying.

races and contests and winning the thing: congratulations to uchenna and joyce for winning the amazing race! i myself (and of course my one and only) were rooting for rob and amber to win the thing. had the pilot not stopped the plane for the enthusiastic uchenna and the newly shorn joyce, rob and amber would have won the thing to the chagrin of every other contestant. it was an exciting and screaming conclusion to the show. sadly, survivor ends this weekend, too! horrible! i'm hoping for ian to win the thing partly because he's my MVP in a silly pseudo survivor i'm playing with some friends and i'll get beaucoup points if he wins. but mostly because he's the best person left. alas, it will probably be caryn because often it's that kind of person who wins, the quiet and boring person on the side who is standing on the beach thinking, "der, where am i?"

wives and submission and domestic bliss: interesting bits and pieces of conversations on the subject have been floating around me lately. there's so much in the air that i'm annoyed by it. maybe it's just because i'm annoyed in general lately. sneezingly annoyed. congested and stifled. is it just us? in our house i am not the squaw who shuffles about in the teepee, subservient, the sole doer of housework, the sole changer of poop and wiper of snot. my role as help-meet includes the use of my brain and opinion. is it not more "helpful" to my husband that i think and read and vocalize my thoughts to him, whether we're in agreement or not? does "iron sharpening iron" apply within a marriage? perhaps we get along in this way because my husband is not intimidated by women with intellect and spunk and sparkle?

brandishing new swords: ernie came home with new Bibles each, something we've been talking about doing but had not done yet. nothing quite as nice as a fresh Bible with fresh pages to turn. of particular interest is that we will now be devoting from the english standard version for a time. something new.





stormy nights and soggy sleep: the boys sleep soundly at last. henry's hair is curlier than it has been for a long time. the heat and hurry, the humidity sends it circling around his head. jude is long and lazy on the couch. at long last this day is quiet. the rain is steady. the street is busy tonight, as usual, only it sounds busier as the tires of the cars splash across the wet pavement, plundering the uneven places of pool and puddle.