November 24: Movies, Interviews, and Orange

Last weekend we had a lovely visit with Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop. We had a fun time playing Kittens in the Blender, which is really a highly competitive match between Amy and Carl no matter how many other people are playing. We also watched the movie of Harold And the Purple Crayon, laughing uproariously. We never know when we pick a movie if Sarah will love it and attend mostly quietly, or if she will talk loudly the whole time and or not want to watch except while she is eating. She attended to Harold and was mostly quiet. This weekend we started watching Out Of My Mind, a movie based on a book of the same title. Amy and I loved the book, but the movie changes many details and we are needing to yell at the tv a bit about those changes. Sarah attended only while eating and mainly wanted to talk about other things.

Sarah is very eager to see Granddad for Thanksgiving and be color buddies with him. Grammy ordered matching shirts for everyone in pairs of colors. Sarah and Granddad will both be wearing orange shirts. In preparation, Sarah has been wearing the orange shirts she already owns and has a pile of all her orange clothes ready and waiting. If she’s not talking about being color buddies and watching the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving with Granddad, then she is talking about all of the things that help a person not get a cold. Sometimes I think I will lose my mind if I hear one more line about “my air purifier is helping me not get a cold” or “That was just a sneeze, not a cold.” I too want us all to be healthy, but I don’t actually want to talk about it all the time. Carl reminds me that the best thing to do is steer the conversation topics myself. Trying mightily to think about anything pertaining to the color orange, I taught Sarah the knock knock joke about bananas and oranges. You’re welcome to all who might be on the receiving end!

One morning I asked Sarah what she was planning to tell her bus driver about. She replied excitedly, “Stop the van! I have something important to tell you!” She didn’t say what the important thing was, nor did she actually tell her driver to stop the van, but it was a hilarious moment at the breakfast table. Later, we heard her saying, “roar, roar, roar. Dinosaur versus being color buddies with Granddad.” This is according to the basic form of the book Dinosaur vs. the Potty by Bob Shea. She also delights in saying, “Thanksgiving hair, don’t care!” Amy has a shirt that says, “Ocean hair, don’t care” and Sarah has realized it can be adapted to fit any situation.

I’ve been connecting with the hosts of some podcasts that I think might be a good fit for me regarding my book. Remarkably, three of the hosts are named Amy! I told my Amy that maybe she should consider hosting a podcast. My interview with The Intentional IEP is now available on YouTube, and my written interview with Littsburgh is also available online.

Tuesday I had my very last day teaching at the massage school and today my old domain name for my business expired. I know I’ve been winding that part of my life down for months, but there is something different about actually fully for real being done. I feel a bit unmoored, free but also puzzled that such a huge chapter of my life is done. Somehow with all parts of my life I sort of expect to get to go back and revisit them in real time rather than just in memory, though of course this has yet to happen.

Remember the giant sweet potato that was nearly as big as my head? I used it to make two batches of sweet potato muffins from a recipe I found online. The recipe called for pecans, but Sarah is allergic to those so I substituted chocolate chips instead. I also made a sweet potato pie by throwing some things together in my own made up recipe. It’s delicious and I want to eat all of it.

Jenny holding a partially eaten sweet potato pie

Lots of love to all of you. May you be well and love a color as much as Sarah currently loves orange.

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