Saying yes...

Summer Blogging in One Post!

Garden. Garden. Flower. Butterfly. Fucking rain! Dog. Dog. Dog. Lake. Grizzled. Garden. Lamblet. Lamblet. Lamblet. Driver's Ed. AHHHHHHH! Lamblet. Hot! Too chilly! Wet! Where's the rain?!?! FUN!!! Woo-HOO!! Grrrr! WTF?? Still can't access any of ZRM's many blogs... 3B's! What contest?! Garden. Garden. Painting. Painting. Grrrr. Life is good. WTF??? Dick joke. Dick joke. Thought-provoking post. Dick joke. Garden. Animules. Painting! Grrrr... painting!!@!1 FRUSTRATION! In the zone. Fireflies!! Ah, summer smell. Butterflies! Orbs!!! Orbflies!! Thundra. Von. LOL! Garden. Dogs. Frustration. Satisfaction. Good. Bad. Love everyone. Hate everyone. Weeds. WEEDS! BG!! Lake. Reading. Thinking. Anniversary. Snag. Birthday. Cicadas. School? Already?

Human Gears

During the past few weeks I have been viewing myself and my Eldest Lamblet like gears... As the Wikipedia definition of the animation to the left says: "Two meshing gears transmitting rotational motion. Note that the smaller gear is rotating faster. Although the larger gear is rotating less quickly, its torque is proportionally greater." My lamblet definitely rotates faster than I do these days, but my larger rotations still get more work done and push her further ahead.

The Eldest Lamblet is leaving this week for an 18 day trip to the UK. Getting her ready has been interesting... While she's been excited and has had some of her own prep work to do, the majority of the work so far has fallen to Grizzled or me... the grunt work, the prep work, the foundation laying... all of the stuff she might take for granted. All of those things that kids this age still expect to just happen, or don't realize need to happen at all.

Up until this point in her life, we've often been her pack mules. We're been her PDA. We're the ones who have regularly let her know that the five minutes left until departure is indeed a finite amount of time and that there are only so many things you can do during that five minutes so best to do the majority of the things before the final 5 minutes. She doesn't believe us, but she'll soon find out, when she doesn't have me counting down the number of minutes left and reminding her where she set down the items she most needed to take with her. Yes,  she'll soon be without her reminders (in her defense, she's an extremely responsible kid about many things).

I'm thrilled for her. I knew this trip was right up her alley the first time I heard about it. I knew she was mature enough to appreciate all that was being offered, but she's still a teenager, a young teenager. No matter how old the soul, the body is still being held captive by teenage cells. Getting her ready and encouraging her participation in the more mundane aspects has been like pushing a cooked noodle. I also believe it is what will allow me to put her on the plane... I will ignore the fact that I am sending my babe away from my side... not just to summer camp, but across an ocean. I will ignore this because her departure will mean our job is finished, all items on the huge to-do list have been crossed off. Grizzled and I will have set her up the best we could, the rest will be up to her and the well-oiled machine she is traveling with... another set of large gears... 

Another thought that will allow me to put her on that plane is that I can't wait to see who comes home. She's wonderful as is and never ceases to amaze me, but I can't wait to meet the person who will be getting off that plane.

Soon, we will gather together...

I thought I'd part with a clip from one of my favorite Thanksgiving movies. Heck, it's one of my favorite movies, period.

No matter how much you love your relatives and want to get together, holidays can also be like traversing a minefield... 

Meet you back on the other side.