The moon is now waning gibbous. Waning GIBBOUS. I love that it waxes and wanes. It doesn’t decrease and increase, it doesn’t grow and shrink, it doesn’t swell and deflate; it waxes and wanes. I think Waxing Gibbous would be a SUPERB name for a rock band, don’t you?
I had to go look gibbous up. Because when I stopped and thought about it, even though I KNOW it has to do with the moon, I didn’t REALLY know what it meant. I thought of gibbons and gibbering. The man in the moon does look kind of like a monkey…but not a gibbon, exactly. Gibbous means “humpbacked” or literally, “marked by convexity or swelling.” Isn’t that great?? I love the English language.
I’ve been so productive today, it practically makes me glow with self-satisfied righteousness. A weekend with no plans except the rather vague “cleaning” has gotten me more motivated than I have been in AGES. And even with sleeping in super-late, I still felt like I could move at my own pace, stop and enjoy the frosted landscape outside the window, revel in the blue sky and sunshine, and still follow the thread from task to task.
It starts with picking up, one thing after another. It’s easier for the children if I give them small tasks instead of a general “pick up your rooms,” so first they clean up clothing, then books, then animals, and so on, until suddenly they realize that they are nearly done. We took apart the beds that had been doing extra duty over the past few months as guest space and stripped all the sheets and covers for the wash. I made them all up again with clean sheets and freshly laundered pillowcases, holding the pillows under my chin and shimmying the cases up around them. A final sweep with the vacuum and the 3 rooms that make up the kid’s department were done. Although, hmmm…I thought, looking at the pile of laundry, there seem to be rather a lot of clothes that are really too small, which led to my filling (so far) 3 large paper bags with Karin’s castoffs and never-been-worns. And then, as if that wasn’t enough, I took down all the curtains in the house to wash them as well.
In between I worked on webpages and fed the kids and myself lunch. Each task led so naturally from one to the next: making lunch > washing dishes > emptying the dishwasher. Tomorrow the laundry and the website work continues, and I will finish vacuuming the rest of the house as well as dusting it, and go through Martin’s clothes if I don’t finish that up tonight. I want to clean the bathroom, empty the garbage cans and clean the fish tank, too, but we’ll see. One of Karin’s wild little friends is going to be here for 5 hours during the day as well, so I may just collapse, muddy and exhausted, after his father picks him up. The thread from task to task continues, it unwinds before me through each day.
Something Else I Forgot to Ask My Husband to Bring Back: chocolate-covered raisins
Thanks! to joylewis who sent me a lovely collage as a page for my friendsbook 🙂
Really Great Writing Out There: Wolves and Lambs
Happy/Funny
Daily/Pondering
School
