Quotable Cute-tations

Just some Tessa quotes from the summer that I've been meaning to write down....

"Jelly sandwiches fill my belly with joy!"

"That cloud looks like a tea pot. Wait! Now it's a monkey!... with a horn!... and he's hitch hiking!"

"Why doesn't everyone have the same mama?"

First Days, First Floods

Today I escorted my big girl, blondie-locks to her first day of school at our local elementary. She seemed so carefree until it was time for me to leave and she broke down. There were tears and shaky hugs and it wasn't just one sided. My mama bear instincts were kicking and screaming saying "wait! no! not yet! it's too soon! it's a slippery slope! she'll grow up now! don't let her!" But of course I had to. And three hours later I was the very first parent there and she came smiling into my arms. The rest of the day was filled with stories and popsicles and walks in the woods. Life as we knew it will be interupted five days a week with a half silence but we'll work it out. Minnow doesn't know what to make of this space. For a while after she left he just ran circles yelling until he was too tired and crashed out for his morning nap.
Of course this whole world here is not so normal anyhow. Just two weeks after the worst natural disaster to hit Vermont in nearly a century our poor little state is still reeling. Hurricane Irene had a grudge with the Green Mountain state apparently and left her ravaged, flooded, roads and bridges crumbled, houses swept away in moments, lives taken, historic building gone forever. It's been a tough couple of weeks to try and figure out what to do for our most badly hurt neighbors. Our little town of Wardsboro and our neighbor Jamaica lost over a dozen homes together. Our once quiet back road to Jamaica has become the only real access to our town with National Gaurd humvees and disaster relief vehicles racing past every hour. Our neighbors at least have access and electricity but the roads are barely better than river beds. On the other hand spirits are bright. The whole state has put in so much effort to help. Neighbors taking in neighbors, strangers a month ago are friends now. Everyone is doing what they can. There are towns where people are hiking in and out for miles to get to work and school, to go grocery shopping. Church groups and businesses are setting up tents of free food, there are "free" stores for anyone in need, postings for free lodgings at farms and vacation homes. Our local food shelf had to turn donations away!
So although I was concerned that Tessa's first day might be a bit more frightening for the screaming army trucks and the sight of the house across from her school still half falling into the river I'm hopeful that like the rest of us she's resilient and this radiant kindness that is enveloping our state and our lives warms and protects her from even the strangest, most unpredictable happenings. I'm confident this will resonate in her and Minnow in years to come and help them develop into the kind of hardy, caring and compassionate people this state seems to produce so well.