A week ago, Sarah and I dropped Amy off for a week of sleep-away camp with her bestie. They were going to be counselors-in-training for the first time. This was also Amy’s first sleep-away camp experience without wearing a scoliosis brace, without worrying about it getting wet or when to take it off before activities. Carl and I had an ambition that while Amy was away we would get rid of all of our too-much-stuff. Amy had her doubts about what we could achieve. Challenge accepted!
While we haven’t reorganized every drawer or shelf, we have reassessed many of them, decluttering along the way. It has been astonishing to look at some of our earlier choices with fresh eyes. Why did we let candles that we rarely use take up such valuable drawer real estate in the kitchen?! Sarah helped me take a carload to Goodwill, after sorting through her own closet with my help. Another carload is ready to go but some items need to get Amy’s permission to go first. We have many bags ready for the trash. We have multiple boxes in a queue for the Center for Creative Reuse and Construction Junction. We have many cardboard boxes ready to be recycled. Our basement floor is no longer an area that inspires me to scream and threaten to order a dumpster, which is timely because the heavy rain today is creating a nice streamlet and puddle on the main basement floor. Sarah helped mop earlier today, although as the rains continue, the puddle continues to grow.
Amidst our week of intensive cleaning, which definitely saw many long moments of the worse-before-it-gets-better, we also had many fun experiences of getting out of the house. I went to a Moms’ Spa Night at the Friendship Circle, which we have only recently joined. When Sarah was four, I contacted them about possibly finding a teen volunteer for the Sarah-Rise program, which worked beautifully because that is how we found Noah, but we didn’t end up doing anything else with the Friendship Circle because I always felt like we were too busy. In hindsight I regret that, but we can’t start any sooner than now. The best part of the spa night was seeing some moms that I already know from other parts of my life.
Carl and I saw a phenomenal production of the Tempest put on by Quantum Theater at the Carrie Blast Furnaces. If you live in Pittsburgh, I highly recommend it.
Then, in keeping with the theme of shipwrecks, we also saw the movie of The Odyssey. We especially liked seeing Carl and Amy’s Halloween costume reprisal when Odysseus is tied to the mast to get past the sirens.
One night we went to a Cat Power concert with Sarah, which seemed like a great ideas when I got the tickets. It was a great idea, and Sarah got a new t-shirt and had a good time. But, the unforeseen consequence of it being an all-ages event where they mark the hands of those not drinking or underage with huge black x-es was that then the next day I was scrubbing x-es out of pillowcases and off of Sarah’s favorite pants and shirt. Somehow that marker that seemed so permanent was not so permanent. I have opinions and feelings about this. The other unforeseen part of the concert was that as soon as it started I was overcome with sadness because it felt like the sort of concert I would have attended while in college when I had an alive dad, and now I don’t have an alive dad and it just all was too much. I stood through a couple of songs thinking I could get past my sadness and have a good time. Then I gave up on that notion and left to sit in the car and have a good hard cry. After that I looked through my phone to find past voicemails from my dad and discovered some from many years ago that I didn’t know I had, so that felt like Christmas and was the best thing ever.
The other exciting thing from the week was getting Sarah set up with her own bank account. Granddad helped of course! Sarah had three of his pictures out on the desk as she signed forms and answered questions.
Love to all of you.
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