From Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale

People disappear when they die. Their voices, their laughter, the warmth of their breath. Their flesh. Eventually their bones. All living mempry of them ceases. This is both dreadful and natural. Yet for some there is an exception to this annihilation. For in the books they write they continut to exist. We can rediscover them. Their humour, their tone of voice, their moods. Through the written word they can anger you or make you happy. They can comfort you. They can perplex you. They can alter you. All this, even though they are dead. Like flies in amber, like corpses frozen in ice, that which according to the laws of nature should pass away is, by the miracle of ink on paper, preserved. It is a kind of magic.

--Diane Setterfield



Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Today - as written in a letter to my siblings around the world

Today... hmm. there was something spectacular I was going to share... what was it?
Well yesterday Jaedyn and I spent about three hours at the park. I let her go at her own pace and it went very well. She has developed a habit of walking on ledges, like the curb by the parking lot. Yesterday she was holding my hand and walking around the plastic curb around the swings. I spotted a ladybug and we stopped to look at it. I picked it up and it walked on my hand and then we transferred it to Jaedyn's hand. She tried to pick it up and it went "crunch". "Don't hurt it" I said and she immediately let go, dropping it. The ladybug was fine* and we picked it back up. Then she crunched it again and I confiscated it and put it on the flower that was in her hair. She sat there while I took pictures and then she sat there looking out at the kids playing. Then she sat there and looked tired. Finally** she said "hop down, bug, hop down" and I understood that she was sitting still and quiet because she had a ladybug on her head. I was so proud***. Then I 'hopped down' the lady bug and we put her back in the grass. We walked around the curb about eight more times and then she dashed off to the slide. As we were getting ready to go home, she skinned her knee and now she has matching toddler-official skinned knees****.
Today, though... hmm. Scott got a new phone and I got his old phone. Next paycheck I'll get a new phone too. It will be great. I went to book group for the Nineteen Minutes book and we had a fun discussion. We ended up talking about parenting. I'm trying to figure out how I parent and I get frustrated by the different ideas out there. I can see the merit in many of them, but I can't figure out how to implement them; or they conflict~. I also am in charge of the e-mail list for the book group now. Wee! I have the power, I can do whatever I want! Muahahaha. I think I will try setting up a group with Google. My other book group has one and it's great, but it's Yahoo.
Oh, I remember. Today I had Cat` over to spent a little time with Jaedyn. Scott suggested we could have her come over and be a 'Mother's Helper' and hang out while I'm getting dinner or whatever. The more I think about it the more I like. When I was taking her home she mentioned she'd like to know a bit about the Church, she has a member friend but doesn't know anything about us.
I'm going to bed now. I love you!

~~

* I think she just clicked it's hard outer shell together.

** It was like seven minutes of sitting.

*** I don't like using the word "Proud" but I can't think of a better word for how I feel. She is aware of what is going on and kind way to react to the little bug. She asked nicely to have the bug hop down so she could go play. She obviously got bored and wanted to do something different, but she had enough self awareness to not just run off.

**** She skinned the first one while we were watching Dea and Dylan. We were at the park and she fell.^

^ I would have put her in pants to cover and protect her knees yesterday, but her first skinned knee hurt and she didn't want fabric on it.


` She is a co-workers daughter who is interested in babysitting and stuff but very shy.