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Blue Footprints

Submitted entry: No, I don’t really know why I’m up at 7:00 in the morning after being up until nearly midnight. I woke up pretty much wide awake though and so here I am, the only one awake waiting for my coffee to brew, listening to some music and writing this entry. Of course the drawback of writing before I have my coffee is that everything I’ve thought of over the past several days to write has left my brain in favor of a quiet caffeineless drone.

I’ve been having a fun time lately setting up activities for Paul and his friends when they come over. Something seems to have lifted and I am no longer reluctant to get a bunch of stuff out and get ourselves all messy. It helps to be able to do it at the table (which we got just before we left for Michigan), or better yet, outside. At one point last week, a painting project outside seemed to be going downhill. Paul didn’t seem to want to keep himself from being painted and so I made a decision then to just let what would happen happen and changed it into a painting footprints project. So the kids all walked on the painting and then on our patio. Not only was it tremendous fun (I did it too), we now have some slowly fading magenta, white and blue footprints that make me think of happy children every time I look at them. Cleanup was a breeze. We had a clean old litterbox which we filled with water and was used as a footbath. Paul, however, needed more than that so I got him into the wading pool and washed him all off and emptied the pool.

So a couple of days ago (Friday, was it?) I woke up both motivated to go to Springfield and at the same time reluctant on a sort of primal level to go. I didn’t listen to my reluctance and so Paul and I headed out and had a blast at the library stocking up on kids books, a few new CDs and three books full of learning activities to do with kids. Then we stopped at a Vietnamese grocery and got a few things - I was captivated by the teas and came back with several kinds as well as a new single-cup stainless steel coffee maker. Oh wait, I have to put some more water in it speaking of that…

Okay, it’s taken care of. Anyway, we headed home and about 12 miles from home I smelled antifreeze and the car started sounding funny. In a few minutes the temperature light came on and we were stranded on the side of the road with an overheated car. It wasn’t long before a woman came to help and in about 45 minutes I’d managed to get in touch with Sage and my mechanic who sent a tow truck. Paul, of course, was thrilled to ride in the big flatbed truck they sent. Amazingly enough, it only turned out to be a blown heater hose and so the tow cost more than the labor itself. It’s still acting a little weird, though - it tried to overheat driving back from the fair a couple of days ago.

We went to the fair on Saturday night. Paul’s first and our first fair here. Wait, I think it was the first one Sage and I ever went to together - we’ve been to amusement parks but never a fair. Anyway, Paul had a ball. We only rode on a couple rides, but he loved them. We were meant to meet some people and a friend of his near the demolition derby but we couldn’t find them. Paul, interestingly enough, didn’t want to watch the demolition derby or even the bucket loaders pushing the mud around there. Must have been something about the atmosphere or something there. He was, however, captivated by the fiddling and dancing at the stage a few hundred feet away so we sat there and watched that. I enjoyed looking at the vegetables, preserves and crafts but Paul wasn’t into it that much so we only spent a few minutes there.

Anyway - I have to figure out what my “lesson plan” will be for today. I’m thinking that we’ll probably make play dough but I’m not sure what beyond that will do and so I’ll take advantage of Paul’s being asleep to figure the rest of that out and start on this cup of coffee.

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