water like a stone

November 28, 2007 | Filed Under ordinary 

the house is a mess from one end to the other. i normally have a hard time coping with enormous messes that cover the floor, messes that crunch and splatter, wads of paper in forgotten places, half-dressed kids sitting under couch cushions while eating crumbly bread with peanut butter (that i did not administer) on it, legos here, there, everywhere, laundry, clean, waiting for a free minute of peace to be folded, microscopic pieces from manipulative games removed from the cabinet, mixed together and discarded, dishes, tracked-in dirt, wet towels, smeared toothpaste, hardened play-doh, normally these things really stress me out. i’m not talking about dust, misplaced books, creative mess contained in one location. no, this kind of thing, fingerprints in places like the bedroom mirror (the handprints that are only seen from the bed when the lights are off in the bedroom but on in the kitchen), the baseboards in the kitchen, the disorder in the pantry, these things don’t bother me too much. it’s the day to day disasters that i can’t leave alone. maybe that’s good, maybe not.

today we ignored the mess (which wasn’t really here yesterday, it just accumulates faster than expected), baked more bread (whole wheat challah from the laurel’s kitchen bread book: so good, and so much of it! i didn’t know i was making two loaves until i was in the braiding stage), pulled out (first up the basement stairs, through a few rooms with mess scattered on the floors, then out, about) christmas decorations and went with it. there was lots of noise, too, music, and the squalling rest, as there has been in these days of cold and wet, days without park climbing and racing over rocks.

maybe christmas comes in winter to distract kids from the need to be running amok under tree and sky, help them forget with cookie baking, glitter spilling, package taping, garland stapling, light blinking, nativity telling, reindeer dash-awaying, music jingling, mistletoe kissing, winter crafting, and all other manner of reasonable mess making.

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