When I came home from my show last weekend, as the sun was setting, my first sight was the green, green fields….and our little house placed amongst them. I rolled down the window of my car and let in the breeze, which smelt of honeysuckle. Then down the bumpy, dusty drive…to a stop in front of the brick walk. Next I saw the front door open and our very loving and silly Vizsla dog came bounding down the stairs and towards my car, and I had to protect myself from his enthusiastic welcome! Better still was the sight of my sons, also coming down the stairs and to the car to welcome me….but with gentle hugs and kisses. I went inside and found a tidy house and the smell of supper cooking-lovely husband! Toast and a salad with fresh, beautiful organic lettuce and greens from our dear friends’ market garden. The kitchen was festive with flowers and home-made Mother’s Day cards awaiting me at the table…and the sweet peeps of the month-old chicks in their temporary home in one corner. We ended up by the crackling fire in the living room, eating and talking about what had happened during our days apart.
These are the sorts of hours that I count as the best of all…..and I hope that they make up for all that we don’t do as a family. You know the amazing trips/competitions/service projects/projects of all kinds/grand important things that we all aspire to and some actually accomplish? I don’t often live up to all my dreams of these good possibilities, but I do know that we are managing the little important things fairly well and I am grateful for that.
Today was one of those days full of small, good happenings. I took a walk by myself this morning, before breakfast, and drank in the waving green and gold fields and the scent of the honeysuckle and the blackberry blossoms.We had a long history -reading on the front steps, steeping ourselves in the sunshine and the writers and artists of the 1840s-1860s ( near the end of A History of US by Joy Hakim-book 5 “Liberty for All?”). The boys did their independent studies and I made various things for some web orders. Then lunch on the porch and laundry….and more making of things. I baked a nutmeggy yellow cake late in the afternoon and we had it with organic strawberries and cream-for supper! We ate it outside in the grass, with the last of the sun, while we watched our young chicks enjoy a few final outdoor moments before we brought them inside. After we all checked our email and cleaned up a very little bit, we watched “Little Women” with a fire in the hearth. I have been wanting to share this with my sons for so long….but was always waiting for the right moment. I knew it would be tonight, when we read about Thoreau and Emerson and Louisa May Alcott on the porch this morning. And it was gratifying to watch them smile in all the right places.
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