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Spring Saturday

Saturdays have set-in-stone morning rituals: a talk with Babcia and Dziadek in Poland; coffee (for we’ve given it up during the week); ballet lessons. Once it’s all done, we have time to play.

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And time to work.

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We have several bird pairs nesting in our Leyland Cypresses that block off our deck from the sides. One builder seems more industrious than the other, though. I watch this fellow make at least half a dozen trips in the space of five minutes.

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But I have my own work to do: a backyard that’s been neglected since the end of last summer, with enough twigs and branches to make five piles throughout the yard. Plus there’s more tomatoes to plant, stakes to arrange, hedges to trim, grass to mow.

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Most of it gets done, but by dusk, I’m ready to put the tools back, lean the wheelbarrow against the house, and call it a day.

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Cartoon Time

We don’t want to be draconian with our rules, but television certainly must have certain limitations.

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Thirty minutes a day.

Rainy Thursday

You’ll never hear us South Carolinians complain about the rain. Ever.

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Southern Requirements

When you live in the South, you have to learn how to bake cornbread. And since the Girl has developed a taste for it, K decided it’s time to add it to her repertoire.

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The response from L? Squeals of delight. I suppose it’s to be expected: I grew up in the South; K grew up in southern Poland; we live in the South. There’s simply no escaping it.

Changes

It was sometime during second or third grade, I believe, that I first realized I wasn’t seeing the same things my classmates were seeing. I’d somehow discovered that if I pulled on the corners of my eyes, I could see better. The teachers noticed, said something to my parents, and shortly after that, I had my first pair of glasses.

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The Girl, it turns out, has the opposite problem: she’s far-sighted.

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The optometrist tells us it’s something she could outgrow in a few years.

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There are some things, however, she’s likely to retrain for several years to come.

Wants and Needs

Wants and needs are easily confused. Birds, for example, need water like all creatures. They don’t need berries, but their sweet flavor and high water content makes berries particularly attractive. Our recently-installed netting, however, frustrates our flying friends from fulfilling both wants and needs (though it does little for alliterative flourishes).

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Flowers need attention, as do little girls (and, I would imagine, little boys, though we won’t be collecting anecdotal evidence for a few more weeks yet). And the best attention is often so seemingly slight: a pat, a hug, a kind word.

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Spring Work

Spring is a time of expectation and rebirth. Or simply birth. With four weeks remaining until the Boy’s due date, it’s time to complete the final preparations: clothes need washing, cribs need assembling,

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and final days as an only child need enjoying. We’re all bursting at the prospect of a new member of the family, but I suspect that it won’t take long for the Girl to start remembering how peaceful a Saturday afternoon could be when she was flying solo.

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But there will be things only she can help with for several more years: her place as the special helper is secure for the foreseeable future.

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So is mine.

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Sunset

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Sunset on a Friday of one of the toughest weeks in memory.

Parsley

Growing one’s own herbs — if only we had the time to use them…

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