Sunshine ahead

So, I think we've figured out a solution to the little writing-time crisis that has been going on around here.  We've tweaked the schedule a little here, a little there, and I think it's all going to work out.  My friend Evan told me a long time ago, that life with little kids is all about pinching a bit of time from this part of the day and sticking it on over on that part of the day. He said that while his kids were young they were just constantly tweaking their schedule, trying to make it work better, working in circles. I'm glad he told me that, because he's a pretty wise person, and I feel justified in our endless efforts to make ours work better.

I'm no soccer mom, but my schedule feels a little nuts to me at times. In hours, I have what is the equivalent of a part time office job, but no childcare. (In grey hairs (in the making) and effort and sweat and tears, the equivalent of much more than a part time job--but never mind.)  So, I run around fitting my work in between naptimes and non-naptimes, and sometimes I just feel like I am not doing anything well.  You might say I'm doing too much. I know my friend Dori did, when I called her exhausted and in tears one day, but it's just that it's hard not to, at this juncture in life, which is why there is a need for frequent readjustment of the only 24 hours that we are given in a day.

But what else should I talk about? Maybe my nearly perfect Saturday? I puttered and twittered around my house, cleaning and folding laundry and cooking and taking breaks in between to read and to knit. In the afternoon, while the kids were napping I escaped to the river with my knitting and my cup of tea and sat with the pretty green lady who has the most soothing voice. My friend Renee said to me later, not knowing that I had been there on that day too, "Don't you think the river is healing?" And it is, oh boy. There's just something about the smooth rush of it, watching the same shapes streaming over rocks and stones over and over again, and that beautiful sound. It's second only to the ocean, and maybe even more accessible, you know? You can see to the other side.

But sitting down there, finishing my second dishcloth, drinking my PG Tips marked a moment for me. It is the beginning of the season which contains a happy trip to the river almost every day, to sit and think, for now, to swim, later. It is the beginning of a season where the evenings will stretch to be longer and longer, when we can sit on our porches until late in the evening, when we can stop walking around all hunched over with cold. Oh Spring! And Summer is on the way!