Saturday

Today an advertisement for mass-produced, Amish paperback Christian fiction hit my email inbox. There are gorgeous, manicured models on all the covers. They are wearing lipgloss, high-neck dresses, and white Amish kapps. Their perfect innocence is betrayed only by a faint, wistful look in the eyes and three strands of blonde hair wafting in the wind. (Subtle nod to Robert Herrick's "Delight in Disorder".)

A friend told me you can buy these books en masse at Wal-Mart. I've been giggling all day that I can buy bulk Amish romance novels about a self-sustainable, anti-materialistic, simple life at the mega, mass-produced super store. Friends I respect tell me these books are great, so I’m going to give them a fair shot. Knowing how my life works, I’ll probably end up loving them after teasing everybody so hard.

But what’s next, the Wendell Berry Macbook? The “Don’t Kiss Me, I’m a Nun” graphic tee? Plastic-wrapped, Gethsemane-brand, sliced cheese food product? Bumper stickers that say, “My other buggy is a buggy”?

HOWEVER, my SIL says her neighbors are getting their cabinets redone by a self-proclaimed Amish construction company that uses power tools unabashedly in the front yard. So, alas. The old has gone. The new has come. My point is altogether moot.

‘Last night I was rested enough to start a new Bucket List, since I recently got to scratch “adopt a child” and “visit Asia” from my old one. (Woohoo!!!!!) I’m still tweaking, but here’s where I am so far. (Right now, too many of these involve getting on airplanes and large amounts of money. Both problematic. Also, quite a few are impractical and hedonistic. I'm going to stare those in the face and try to shame them off the list, tail tucked between their legs. Finally, of course I'd like to add "adopt another child, or two, or three" to this list. But since we just got home... maybe that should wait a bit. So, lots of inner conflict here. Someone please remind me Bucket Lists don't get graded.)

1.) Live in a refurbished, authentic red caboose
2.) Take tap dance lessons
3.) Learn to write/read Chinese
4.) Take a class in watercolors
5.) Learn to speak French
6.) Read 1000 more really good books
7.) Successfully grow larkspur, foxglove, hollyhocks, white peonies, lavender, orchids, and roses
8.) Relearn cello well enough to play the Bach cello suites
9.) Card and spin Alpaca wool on a spinning wheel
10.) Get really good at yoga (just the physical part, not the worship-the-sun part)
11.) Live on the ocean for a year or two ... or ten
12.) Take a pottery class that involves a spinning potter's wheel
13.) Attend the Rhythm and Roots Festival
14.) Write something worth reading
15.) Do one of those walking tours in Ireland or the Lake Country
16.) Volunteer in an orphanage for a month or two or twelve
17.) Learn how to make cold Thai spring rolls and vegetable Tom Yum
18.) Go live at L’Abri for a month or two or six
19.) Live in an ancient monastery for a month or two or six (unless Rachel makes me try an Amish community instead as penance)
20.) Wander around Europe for a few months
21.) Hike part of the AT
22.) Go help the Siffring's with medical work in Uganda
23.) That worship arts deal in the Northwest... oh what's the name? I need to look that up.

Our morning here was sweet. My friend, Mitzi, had an amazing quote on her FB profile a few weeks ago about the beauty of a normal day. I wish I could find it, but I didn’t see it when I went back to look. Anyway, today the kids and I finally had our first “normal” morning since Moses has arrived, and it was like a long drink of cold water.

Moses woke up earliest of all the kids today, and I had a new experience, looking bleary-eyed into the smiling face of a Chinese toddler who has independently engineered a bra into a football helmet/chinstrap. No, I didn’t take a picture, nor will I take one if that ever happens again.

He's a dream kid. I really can't get over how well we are all matched. Our living room looks like a Toys-R-Us + an art store exploded, but I don't care. We are playing, laughing, exploring, remembering what it's like to be three years old all over again. Wonderful. Bliss! What joy this little guy has already brought into our lives! We needed him in our lives so much more than we even realized!

Tonight we used a gift card to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Moses was amazed that we could just throw the empty peanut shells on the floor. He wanted to stomp on every single one of them, once he realized they made crunchy sounds under your feet.

We also found out that Moses LOVES country music. I could hardly keep him still when the speakers were blaring out, "Lookin' for love in all the wrong places." Country and bluegrass are different animals, but I'm still thinking we need to take him to the Carter Family Fold one night soon.

More thoughts on a separate topic coming. This post is too long as-is, and I've already yanked and rewritten it a few times. 'Sorry about that. Bad habit. I can't leave stuff alone after posting. It always looks different on the blog screen than it does in preview for some reason. Do subscribers get re-notified about a post every time I rewrite it? That's got to be annoying, if you do. Apologies, if that's how it works.