March 9, 2007

My Sweet Mama

Grandma spent a week here with us in our happy hippy bus! We all fared great, even finding a place for her suitcase that was convenient and out of the way. We all had a great time while she was here, the boys especially enjoyed lots of cuddle time and playing with her. There are many things I thought about writing, always in the moment they were happening, but it's never easy to find the space to get to the laptop and put thoughts into words. So, I'll do my best to offer a bit of a re-cap of her week here with us.

We took a couple walks in the dark, under a beautiful full moon and starry sky. (Although this is usually lost on the boys who are happy running around like crazy people, even in the dark! But I always love to look up, when I'm not busy saying 'watch out for Sage'!) We spent some time digging in the old wood pile here looking for lizards. We saw many, but were only able to catch one, and GRANDMA was the one to catch it! :) She's so cool! We brought it home and it lived with us for a couple of days, then decided to make its way out of the lego box and back to the wild.

We had a full moon drum circle on Saturday night, inviting Sue, Steve and kids over. We ate, the kids ran (surprise, surprise!) we sat and chatted around the inviting fire, admired the full moon over the lake and did some drumming. The kids joined in off and on, but it was mostly the big people that were into it. It's always magical, how random rhythms created by many different people can create such beautiful noise. I love it, anyway!

We did a short hike the day before Grandma left. Our intention was to hike to the water fall, but we only made it as far as the first water crossing that was abundant with tadpoles and frogs. We'd brought our nets, and the boys were happy hanging there and exploring for hopping, squiggling things. The drive to Tenaja Falls was pretty. It's always great to see some wild places, especially around California where it seems to be swarming with people. Glad to see those places still exist. We played 20 questions on the drive back in from the hike, and did a lot of laughing together. We stopped at Sue and Steve's so mom could check out their pad and the nifty creek in their backyard, then headed back to the bus.

Grandma sprung for a couple movies, so we got the boys all set up with Open Season in a cozy little tent under the kitchen bar and we watched Babel, snuggled side by side on the fold out bed, dipping into the big popcorn bowl, and munching on chocolate covered almonds and cranberries that she'd picked up at Trader Joe's. Oh, YUM!!! As the movie was beginning, I was sensing the sadness from my mom that she'd be leaving the next day, just as she put her arm around me a gave me a kiss and a hug. I tried to remain cheerful, saying we didn't have to be sad when we said goodbye. And then I said "I can't blame you, though, who *would* want to leave this **partay** (giggle, giggle)!" That made her smile.
(as you may have noticed, John was missing from the above scene, he was in bed as he started the day shift when my mom arrived and has been working very long days since)

Of course, there were lots of other memories made while my mom was here, if only I could transmit them as they happen directly from my mind in to blogger. ...sigh... I guess they don't have any thought reading technology yet.

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