07.26.11

Dearëst Zoë,

I am thrilled to say that our chickens have finally fulfilled their god-given purpose and laid a single, tiny, pale blue egg.  It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.  I was so triumphant when we found it in the long grass next to the porch that anyone might have thought I was the one who personally laid it.  Not true of course, but the only thing I've been prouder of was the day you were born.  I have visions of eggs dancing in my head.  A little like sugar plum fairies, but with more protein.  SO excited!!

I purchased some curriculum from a Waldorf educational site.  I despair of ever being the type of family described in the literature.  The all natural toys are lovely and so is the concept of keeping a simple home with spare material possessions, but the no TV edict would probably have your Daddy moving back into his parents' home in very short order.  I agree theoretically with much of what is set out; emphasis on family bond, nature, art, music, teaching through the concept of play, no buy-in to commercial materialism, etc, but in practice, it's a tall order to make those changes.

There's so many areas I need to improve our household in.  These are the kinds of life skills I should have been learning BEFORE you came along, but your Mommy has a hard head and it can take quite a while for wisdom to drill a hole through my skull and find a way in.  Because of the Waldorf emphasis on rhythm, I hope it will help me as I try to build more structure into our daily lives.  Rhythm is after all a form of structure.  My hope now is that before you develop the ability to hold onto memories long term, I will have mastered the art of running a home.

Your Daddy and I hope to move up north when I'm done with my education.  Our dream is a little historic town with a historic college where I can teach English and Creative Writing and write children's books in my spare time.  We would homeschool you and hopefully a little brother or sister as well and live in a historic home with room for chickens and goats and a dog.  That's the dream anyways and it gives us a direction to stretch for.

All my love,

Mama