Things fall apart

 

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming!

William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming”

Photo by Nitish Meena on Unsplash

Tuesday Ten - deep dark secrets

It’s Election Day 2024, so consider this your warm-up for the horrors that the ballot counting will no doubt unleash in a few hours. If you can brave my dreadful secrets, you will be able to withstand Decision 2024. 

Be strong, my friend. Be strong.

And what is the internet for if not for oversharing?

I did vote, but depending on your perspective, whom I have ever voted for may deserve to be a deep dark secret.

1. I don’t recycle. Our town stopped picking it up curbside and I don’t collect it to drive it somewhere.

Photo by Julio Lopez on Unsplash

2. I really like peeing in the shower.

Photo by Abigail Lynn on Unsplash

3. I don’t sort my laundry—by color, weight, garment, anything.

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

4. I wear shoes inside my house because if I don’t, I get crumbs stuck to my feet. I brush off my feet before I get in bed.

Photo by Tracey Hocking on Unsplash

5. I don’t always brush my teeth twice a day.

Photo by Superkitina on Unsplash

6. My kids don’t make their beds, and it’s been years and years since I required it.

Photo by Nicole Bomar on Unsplash

7. Washing their hands afterwards wasn’t part of my kids’ potty training. If the waste ended up in a better spot than the floor, their clothing, or the furniture, I called that a win. I like to think they do wash their hands now, although if they don’t…lalalalalalalalala I don’t want to know.

Photo by Matthew Tkocz on Unsplash

8. Sometimes I take naps on weekday afternoons.

Photo by Lauren Kay on Unsplash

9.  I lick the batter. More specifically and horrifyingly, I dip my pancakes in pancake batter.

Photo by Pam Menegakis on Unsplash

10. Jason and I totally eat snacks in bed.

Photo by Storiès on Unsplash

Vortices

Me, explaining to Jason that I felt depressed because he had been feeling depressed: We’re just a swirling vortex of happiness.

Ada, muttering across the room: That’s one way of describing it.

Crazy cool rainbow when I was riding with Maddie

We did finally get out of the vortex of sickness that lasted for a ridiculously long time—not even counting Jeddy’s symptoms tacked on to the end. We even finally got caught up with school. 

Thanks to Buck

So I keep busy with lessons with the kids, outside reading on my own to keep ahead of their book reports, housekeeping (such as it is), shuttling kids to soccer and Bible study and the orthodontist, tracking Ada’s complex personal schedule, and continuing to coordinate Sunday school for the elementary age children at church—some of whom are objectively delightful and others of whom have “unbridled personality,” as Ada so aptly describes them. 

Caleb, whose personality is charmingly bridled, after coming home from Halloweenfest

Playing Photosynthesis for FFN