Ridiculous and Many Splendored

So much for my food blogging, eh?

It came down to a choice between being fully present in the moment, or taking time out to document the moment as it passed. I opted for just being there.

I am full of things to say. Things about love and humanity. Things about the deep good it does those of us who view ourselves as strong and able, to take the time to care for those who may not be. I want to talk about humility and service, celebration, bodies, food and the cooking of it, sore necks, bathroom accidents, anxiety, excitement, making friends with cats (and bunnies), openness, quiet pleasures, old books, new books, hours in the bookstore with too many choices on our hands, the Doctor, all things strange like standing by the highway with a half naked girl in the snow and the arbitrary unfairness of report cards and the forging of connections on paths as tangled and pitted and crossed with roots as those in the oldest, densest forest you have been to...paths difficult but not impassable, mysterious and full of their own odd magnificence.

Vulnerability. I am awash with the beauty of it and It Itself. I could crawl into bed and cry for a week.

What a world. What a world. And how to help and what to teach in such a world as this?

But I am not all maudlin. I could cry for a week, but I could laugh for at least an hour or two. Did I mention standing on the side of the highway with a half naked girl in the snow? I can't give details out of respect and privacy, but suffice it to say that the sheer slapstick absurdity of that moment may have been unmatched since the Three Stooges graced the big screen, and there was a blissfully complete and utter lack of embarrassment on the part of the girl in question. Ah Life, I tell ya, you are a ridiculous and many splendored thing.

So full of things to say that I can't really even say them. Thank goodness for my art journal, but first cleaning, appointments and getting organized for the week, so I will leave you with one of the sister journal pages that was completed last weekend. The theme, fittingly enough, was connections.

On the Clock

I have exactly 38 minutes to write this post and catch up on as much of blogland as I can.
("Make haste! Make haste!" as Mr. Collins would say when his noble patroness was not to be kept waiting.)


The Party

The Party was wonderful. The calvary arrived on Friday night in the form of 3 of my sisters, 2 to help mightily with the party prep and one, the DQ, to be full of love and enthusiasm and keep everyone's spirits high, and the party went off without a hitch. 3 and a half hours of video games, junk food and uproarious fun. There is simply no word in the English language to describe the wildly pitched cacophony that 14 pre pubescent boys can make when they get together. Ears still ringing. But fun. BIG fun. Worth every minute of work. Below is the cake, with a quarter for scale.

We sent home very tired, but satisfied boys, and heard a resounding chorus of "best party ever!". Woo hoo! Whatever I can do to grease those social wheels for my boys is so worth it.

The More DQ

She is staying for a little more than a week. I am thrilled! At Christmas she was ill, and unable to really participate or connect much, and it feels like a long while since we've had quality sister time. Right now she is on the other computer playing games where she decorates cakes and cooks stuff. Food is really her biggest passion right now, so we elected this as Kitchen Goddess week. She has chosen a different dish for us to make every day, so expect some food blogging this week (hasty food blogging, because between her needs and the boys I will be kept on my toes!).

The DQ measuring fish sauce for last night's Vietnamese Chicken & Green Beans.

OK I am off. Time's up.

Heroics

The picture was taken whizzing along the highway at 110km as we made our way to the DQ's surprise b-day party. 10 hours of driving there and back in 24 hours, but worth every minute. Everyone should get a moment in life to be the hero. On Saturday I had my moment. I was the DQ's hero. She didn't just hug me when she saw me, she bellowed my name with ear drum-shattering gusto, launched herself into my arms and tackled me to the ground! She was flabbergasted and overjoyed. (how often do you get to use both of those in a sentence? Nice.) And how good did it feel to be me in that moment?

Pretty damn good. Pretty damn good, indeed. :)

The DQ has a friend now, for the first time in her life. He is like 6'4" and thin as a rail, and she is about 4'9" and a little on the plump side. They look like a string bean and a pea side by side, but they have the most wonderful, simpatico energy. They both love dogs and food, and approach life with pure, undiluted enthusiasm. He was every bit as excited as she was, as she opened each of her gifts.

"Look, look the Disney Princess calendar comes with a DVD Rom! A DVD ROM!"

And then they would both lean over the gift, oohing, aahing and exclaiming "that's wonderful! how wonderful!", and grinning big gleaming grins that enveloped the whole room. For the DQ to have a friend and a peer (he has his own special needs too), is an answer to wishes and prayers. Won-der-full!

Since we've been home it has been a flurry of activity. Elizabeth arrived Monday morning, but it seems we've barely had a chance to visit...so many loose ends to tie up for the big day, BUT yesterday we made unbusy time for a nice dinner out, and an afternoon making gingerbread. It was supposed to be gingerbread house making time, but the boys had other ideas...


I'm always happy to break with tradition for something even better! The boys want me to publicly acknowledge that they did not make Princess Leia in the metal bikini, that was all me. ;) Tonight we had more unbusy time to go to a local Christmas light display.

And we are so close...2 more sleeps. I hope you are all well, and full of wholehearted enthusiasm for anything and everything good in your life. Watching the DQ and her buddy on Saturday, I kept thinking that if we could just bottle that unbridled joy, and unquestioning, uncomplicated pleasure in the satisfaction/excitement/comfort of this one particular moment that we are in right now as we live it, the world would be a far, far better place.

Merry Christmas!

Me and The Dancing Queen

My youngest sister is just 16. She loves Zac Effron, movie musicals, Inuyasha, ABBA, Christmas and all things Asian. She likes to spend her free time talking on the phone with her sisters, playing games or watching videos on the computer, and reading (books about movies, China, dogs and Asian cookbooks are her favourites). She is sensitive, funny, caring and very talkative. She also has William's Syndrome.

There are a lot of things that are difficult for her to understand or do, but there is also a lot that she is very good at...like singing, smiling (she beams!), brightening someone's day with a kind word or expression of affection, having an infectious, whole hearted enthusiasm for the things she likes, and earnestly "telling it like it is" with refreshing, often hilarious candour. It sounds trite, and it is often said of special needs children, but she has truly been a gift for our family.

Last week she came to stay with us while my parents were away on a business conference. I was a little worried about how she'd get on with her nephews...all three of them are at a similar stage as far as social maturity goes, and share some similar issues with rigidity etc., but other than a few "bumps" everyone did really well. Since it was also my guys' Spring break, we decided that everybody got to choose a special themed day, and food and activities to go with it. So we had "Pizza and Movie Day" (finally got to see Coraline! and it is visually STUNNING!), "Asian Day" (which also included an outing to the book store to look at all the manga that she's not allowed to read!), "Video Game Day", "Art & Reading Day" and "Do Whatever You Want Day". (Can you guess who picked each day?)

On "Art & Reading Day", the Dancing Queen and I worked on a special painting to hang in her bedroom. She wanted a beautiful girl, preferably a Geisha (but you know, not the kind that would do "blah, blah, blah" with men, but the kind that would just walk in her garden...obviously!). So all the whimsical folk art stuff that I've been learning over at Willowing's came in handy, and together we made this:

(mixed media, 16x12 on stretched canvas)

I was thrilled at how proud she was of it. Really thrilled. She's never participated much in art activities. Fine motor deficits make it hard for her to manipulate pencils, brushes, scissors etc. and sensory issues mean that the idea of getting stuff like paint on her hands or clothing can be upsetting for her. She was very quiet while we were working, and I often had to call her back to the table when it was time to do the next part, so I wasn't sure how much she was enjoying the process (sometimes it's hard to tell with the DQ), but the minute Mom and Dad came home she was proudly showing them her finished piece, and even asked me if I would help her work on more art to give as Christmas presents this year. Yay!

She lives about 5 hours away, so I am not sure how we could accomplish the joint Christmas girls art project...but I will figure out a way. There are some collaborations that are just too enriching, too challenging and too good to pass up.

"You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life
See that girl, watch that scene, diggin' the dancing queen"