Spring

Today is the first day of spring.

I have survived the winter.

Fiona is back from Mexico

Did you know that she was there? Well, she was, for a week! And what she was doing there? She was assisting at an orphanage, playing with the kids, serving meals, and helping with construction projects. This was a mission trip through my sister's church; here's some information about it. Both of my sisters (Betsy and Cindy) and several of their sons went, too. This was actually Betsy's seventh trip down there.

Betsy suggested that Fiona might like to go, and as promised, Fiona found it to be a truly eye-opening, perhaps life-changing experience.

She is experiencing a little problem with re-entry, mostly because her sleep schedule is thrown entirely out of whack. But she had a marvelous time.

It's Angst Central at Chez Nous

I rode the bike all the way both ways today. It became clear when I reached Heartbreak Hill, a block from my house, that I had really reached my physical limit. I had to get off the bike and walk it up the hill.

When I got into the house, I came in the back door and saw, as usual, a cluttered kitchen with dirty dishes overflowing every counter. I have done five loads of dishes in the past three days; Rob has done one. Guess whose job it is in our house to do the dishes? Yep. It's Rob's.

I was bone-weary with exhaustion, and somehow, this seemed like the last straw. I burst into tears. Rob found me there, peeling off my coat and shaking with fatigue, and sent me off to the bathtub while he did the dishes.

I desperately wanted to eat out, but dammit, no money. So I crawled downstairs and made scalloped potatoes, and fried up a ham steak. I threw together a slaw of shredded cabbage and carrots and chunks of grapefruit, tossed with rice vinegar and sugar.

Fiona refused the slaw and potatoes. Delia refused everything. Rob warmed up some tomato soup for her. She refused that because she didn't like the color (too pinkish instead of red). Then she burst into tears because the last of the milk had been used to make the tomato soup, and so there was no milk for cereal. I looked around the table. Both Fiona and Rob had their eyes closed, as if from exhaustion or headache.

We went around the table and asked the usual question: What was the good thing about your day? Everyone had difficulty coming up with anything.

Delia finally resorted to the pumpkin waffles I had made over the weekend and stored in the freezer.

Now I have to go clean the damn dojo.