1. I think we have a little bed issue that I'm trying to solve. That sounds fun! Cal has never, ever slept really, really well in his bedroom. Isn't that terrible? We've put it down to him being like his Mama, just a bad/light sleeper, but recently he's taken to sleeping in our guest room, and guess what! He's tucked in, cozy and happy and he's been sleeping without restlessness or waking up. It's a pretty cozy room, if I do say so myself.
We think it's part bed, part room, but mostly bed. So. Here we are. We have numerous beds that we're dealing with here. Our bed (a queen), the guest bed (a double) and three twins (two in Cal's room and one in the attic). That's a lot of beds. My back's been hurting lately (although better over the past few nights). Do we get a new bed? It's been a long time. We don't want anything bigger than our queen, so do we then move the queen into the guest room and the double into Cal's room (and the twins into the attic)? One possibility. Except, I don't really want to spend the money it's going to take to get us into a new bed. I'm trying not to spend.
I don't think two twins will fit in our guest room, but I'd really like to figure out a solution that meant no new beds. I mentally rearrange beds all the time these days. But I haven't been able to figure it out yet.
2. I think I finally have my Pinterest page all cleaned up! I still have some things to pin, but overall I'm pretty happy with the organizing of it. I mean, duh. Of course I have things to pin. But, here's what's cracking me up. I've been getting tons of repins over the past days since I did cleared house, and the top candidate? Screen Porches. What the monkey? Seriously, I got four emails just on screened porch pins. After that: metal roofs. Go figure.
3. I think I want to say a little say something about September 11. It was my Wednesday Walk day, and I had a migraine this week so we had another Wednesday Sit day. My friend Marianne and I talked about the fine line between a morbid enjoyment of our enmeshment in grief and honoring what happened. What a tricky tightrope we walk as a nation. Marianne put it best, I think. "The only appropriate response is gratitude."
At some point on the radio that day, I heard a speech (Maybe a senator? I need to do some research.) at the Shanksville, PA memorial. This is what Cal and I talked about on the way home from school, and I paraphrased the speaker's remarks. The people on that plane called a meeting, formed a government, took a vote and assembled an army. Such heroic acts. I reminded Cal of all the heroic acts, not just on that plane, but the people who slowed their walk down those tortuous flights of stairs in the two towers to help those less able. The people who offered rides to those (including to Neel's cousin) who needed to get home after the subways were shut down. The first responders who ran into the buildings. Oh, the first responders. So what I said to Callum, was that day, that awful day, so many of us chose love.
4. I think I have one more teeny tiny little thing to say about September 11. This Wednesday was back to school night for the middle school, and Callum's headmaster said, rightly so, that he couldn't begin the evening without some mention of the day. He told the story of that day 12 years ago at Cal's school. Norfolk is home to this country's Atlantic Fleet, and the admiral of the fleet was on the executive board of the school at the time. A board meeting broke up around 8:45 AM, and the admiral later told our headmaster that he was walking out to his car when his cell phone rang with the news. It was in those moments, driving away from the school that he began to give his first orders to scramble planes and ships.
Our headmaster then said that later that week the lower school gathered for a small concert. The kids were learning sign language and they signed and sang "America the Beautiful." It was then, he said, as they made the motions for "amber waves of grain" (picture little fingers waving above seven year old heads) that he knew "we were going to be okay."
5. I think that was a really, really long Five Things, huh? I think I'll stop now, except to say thank you, thank you, a thousand times thank you for your lovely comments on my posts this week. Meant the world. I carry your words around with me.
