Lost and Found

In the whirlwind of Irene and the week before school I have lost track of myself. It's somewhere in this mess. I'll find it. Everything shows up at some point around here. And besides, I'm good at finding things.

We lost power for 31 hours. That's it. We didn't lose a roof, a road, or even a house. Not even a basement full of crap. We may have lost a few trees, but Paul Bunyan says that just saves him gas for his chain saw.


Bee lost in the house training game on the day of the storm.

But in the last couple of days Timmy lost his front toof. Paul Bunyan and I lost about $200 bucks at the fair last night (oh, wait, no. We didn't lose that. We spent that). Auggie lost the stuffed dog he won at the dart game. I lost my shit at the Demolition Derby, or more likely on the Storm ride. Claire lost her battle with lice. The lice are winning. I'm going to win in the end...but for now they're winning.

We tried to extend summer so long that I was taking off the boys' nail polish THIS morning. Yea yea, they got their nails painted at Claire's spa. You wanna make somethin' of it? You would have wanted to too. She can get pretty nasty if you turn down her free services. Of course, in hind sight, I'm now wishing the boys had turned down that shampoo and style.

We tried to extend summer so long that waking up and going to school this morning was something we hadn't really even talked about. I hadn't even gotten back packs out of the closet until this morning. Of course, procrastinating is my trademark. Someday I'll learn, but even waiting until yesterday (the last day) to pick blueberries didn't even teach me. They were definitely not as sweet.


So not thinking about this:


was probably a good thing because when Timmy went to the left and Auggie went to the right, I almost lost it. It's the first time in seven years that they will be separated. Seven years!! Will they come back together at recess today? Will they say 'hi' at lunch? Will they want to spend all their time after school together? Will they still want to cuddle on the top bunk every now and again? Will they miss each other? Will they tell each other that they missed each other? I'm losing it right now (in a different way than I lost it at the Demolition Derby).

And so as I sit here in this quiet house with them gone and Paul gone and the Bee snoring and me wondering where to start searching again for my lost self and how to go about dealing with this loss of summer....


I'm reminded that sometimes finding things after they've been lost is a joyous joyous thing.