workday

a sunday where the laundry didn't get folded, but i got to spend a good hour uninterrupted on the couch, reading under a blanket, with a cup of tea, and a fire in the fireplace, because, at least in the morning in this poorly insulated house, it's fall.  this, while greg took the guys to drop off the recycling the city won't take.

later, during henry's nap, greg, william, and i are eating lunch at the table and william, with a strawberry jam mustache, begins talking about a star wars battle scene he wants to build with his tools in the work shed we have out back.  if you're a little confused as to how this might be done, you're not alone, but i didn't worry too much.  star wars battle scenes, building things, tools... greg's no ty pennington, but this is clearly his domain more than mine.  until william starts to talk in a hushed voice... "it's for dada's birthday" (which is at the end of this month).  "oh," i say quietly. "is it going to be a fun dada-william project, as a way to spend time together for dada's birthday?" i hint.  "no," he whispers, while greg sits across from us finishing his sandwich. "it's going to be a surprise for dada.  you're going to help me with it." i flash a hopeless, worried look at greg.  william's already asking for the key to the shed.

we go in.  he opens his toolbox. we lay out the plan we drew before heading out.

here... that's his battle guy on the right there, in red, mine in the center, holding their light 'savers,' standing on a planet...

yesterday he'd set out to make a ship in a bottle and brought greg with him to make it.  he had the bottle, just needed to build the ship, which they did... although it, unfortunately, didn't fit into the bottle...

we think about today's idea for a minute.  i suggest i could cut some branches.  he agrees.  i bring the branches back and imagine somehow tying branches together with branches.  "if only we had some string," i say as i bend a particularly pliable branch into a circle.  we think of the one piece of string-like material we have in the house and he runs to get it.  meanwhile i try my tying branches-with-branches idea out, which fails, and i feel sort of bad that we are essentially a crafts' material-free house.  no glue, no tape, not even bits of string... so they'll just have to be that much more creative, right?

he comes back with the string.  i spend a good three minutes whittling away at it with gardening shears to make it just the right length.  we tie the branch together and william, at my suggestion, hammers it, the reason being, i want him to use his tools for something.  he asks why. i think for a second.  "to get all the air out between the string," i say with a good amount of confidence.

then we attach it to the pipe wrench just to make sure it really holds...

and then the planet quickly turns into a sort of netless bug catcher and gets played with and is now sitting on one of the bookcase shelves amongst the other toys.

otherwise, we work on the yard today.  pulling out some viny weed thing that was making its way through part of our yard.  cutting back actual viny plants that were making their way onto the patio. mowing the lawn. cleaning up abandoned vases and gigantic candles left by the last owner.  building a new compost bin, moving wood to a covered area...

then greg makes pizza.  later cinnamon rolls.  the guys go to bed.  and now i'm determined to finish my danish novella tonight as i have two more to read before the exam.  for those worried about henrik and marie, i'm sorry to say things aren't going so well.  they broke up after marie shared the news that she was pregnant, because henrik was unwilling to man up to his responsibility.  months have passed now.  he thinks about marie everyday but he's too scared to call her.  i don't really see him changing his tune in these last twenty pages, but only because i've heard the plots of some of the other novellas and they never seem to end well.  i'll let you know though.

if you're in the u.s., happy holidays tomorrow!