Vignettes

ordinary miracles

Vignette - noun: vignette; plural noun: vignettes

1. a brief evocative description, account, or episode.

verb: vignette; 3rd person present: vignettes; past tense: vignetted; past participle: vignetted; gerund or present participle: vignetting

1. portray (someone) in the style of a vignette.

   • produce (a photograph) in the style of a vignette by softening or shading away the edges of the subject.¹

Morning

"Where my baby?"
is the toddler's query.
"Where my caffeine?" 
is the mom's.
The coffee brings joy,
so do little boys,
but the way they adore
her brings more.

questions

How can you still be hungry?
Why is everything wet?
When are you going to practice your piano?
Have you finished that problem yet?
Are you sure Daddy said
you could use those tools?
Why is kinetic sand blue?
I'm not really sure this should count as school,
but I guess it's the best I can do.

view from the kitchen floor 

I'm waiting for the blood to slow
- is this a metaphor?
I wad a Kleenex, stop the flow
and lay down on the floor.
Go outside and don't come in,
I'll come out when I'm ready.
Slow breath in and out again -
will I always feel unsteady?
Stand up stiff, return to work
and keep on with your tasks,
banish all the fears that lurk,
just do what you've been asked.

²

true love

I cried on the side of the Interstate,
he checked the instrument panel 
over FaceTime.
My mother in law brought the gas can,
I nursed the baby when I walked in the door.
He brought home flowers,
and the two year old carried them inside.

³

quiet time

The list of should is always long,
but I settle, exhausted
into her softness.
The laundry piles 
multiply in the silence,
LEGOs scatter and
a story drones on,
noise enough to quell sibling squabbles.
The fan whirs loudly, and I sigh deeply.
Her head fits under my chin.

evening walk 

I forgot I promised, but of course they didn't.
Strapped on, buckled in,
here we go.
The air is cooling, questions flowing,
wheels turn in their heads as they move.
No, I don't know how Ghengis Khan died.
A nose bleed? Really?
That's wild.
Yes, we can take the long way home,
just look both ways before you -
I know you're hungry, I am too. 
Keep on walking, almost there.

⁴

I hope you enjoyed this change of pace!

If you were to capture a vignette of a recent moment in your life, what might it look or sound like?

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Reading: I’ve been having a hard time reading and I think it’s because I’m so tired. I finally decided to stop beating myself over the head with serious books and try some fiction. I blazed through two Elin Hildebrand books - I read most of them on my phone, walking around my kitchen with the baby in the carrier, bouncing on an exercise ball or propped up in weird positions. Baby girl got her first cold and had some sort of sleep mutiny the last couple weeks. I also managed to finish The Grace of Enough which was a lovely, encouraging read. Currently I’m halfway through Anne of the Island, which I’ve read a million times, but probably not in over 10 years. It’s the perfect bit of fall nostalgia.

Listening: I’m on a Read Aloud Revival kick. What can I say? Sarah Mackenzie gets the challenges of homeschooling a large, young family. “#232: How to Know if You’re Doing Enough” and “#230 Helping Your Differently Wired Kid Fall in Love with Reading” are both well worth your time.

Learning: Speaking of reading… it’s been a whole different animal teaching my second born to read. I’ve been experimenting with pausing any new content, drilling phonogram cards (we use All About Reading) and re-starting him at the beginning of the easiest reader to build his confidence. No one has cried this week, so I think it might be working.

Thinking: The results of last week’s poll were so interesting! The majority of those who responded felt they had strong community (hooray!) but 2/3 of those who responded said they still felt others had more community than they did. I’m curious to hear more of your thoughts if you have them. The comment section on that post is also a treasure trove of solidarity and wisdom.

Honestly: I keep wanting to give you all an update on life without Instagram, but the truth is that I’m embarrassed by how tech addicted I still am. I have a love/hate relationship with Substack. A dopamine hit is still a dopamine hit. For accountability’s sake I am putting my boundaries out to you all in writing, since I know it’s an excellent way to make myself follow through. I will not be on Substack before 1 pm M-S, and I will take Sunday off entirely. Goal: protect morning pages and homeschool hours, and give myself a day of tech rest once a week.

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1. Definition from Oxford Languages.com

2. This poem is about a nose bleed. However, I, unlike Attila (see note 4), did not die.

3. I really did run out of gas on the side of I-25 this week. Again, is this a metaphor? Probably. I was on the way home from getting my second oral surgery type procedure in two months. It was the low point of the week but I’m thankful all ended well.

4. My 9 year old is almost always correct, but I fact checked this and it was Attila the Hun who died of a suspected esophageal hemorrhage, not Genghis Khan.