Slapstick & Fettucine

Hope many of you had a pleasant holiday weekend celebrating Mother’s day. We spent the weekend doing most of the usual things, farmer’s market, plenty of fruits, and my middle child presiding over the pasta dough and pasta machine to crank out fettuccine for a table of 7, (5 sons and 2 moms) with intermittent help from all the young ones, pasta cranking comedy madness.

I still had to go to the restaurant supply store over the weekend, but my oldest went with me and picked up all the heavy things for me, and bought me a matcha at the coffee shop as a treat. While I was gone my youngest shampooed the couch and rug and my middle child cleaned the bathroom. When I got back I lazed in bed watching Buster Keaton short films with my youngest who shares my love of the black and white slapstick genre. Giant mallets and falling out the windows and getting folded up in Murphy beds and falling off of ladders is the stuff for an 11 year old! I had a long walk on the trail with all my kids, watching the baby squirrels run all over the place. My middle kid and I finished the day reading aloud together with a cup of tea. My oldest chatting to me about future trips to art galleries in the dark kitchen as the dishes get scrubbed and sourdough starter is fed.

My youngest said “this doesn’t really feel like a special day or holiday at all! It just feels like a regular day!” I definitely think our regular days are perfectly special enough. I get to do all the things I like with most of the time that I’ve got. Of course, inside of this lies a kernel of my philosophy of motherhood. We don’t have to do too much. Ordinary life is quite special, and it can go by quickly if we rush too much. It takes time to goof around, learn to lift with our legs and not our back, make pasta from scratch, read aloud, notice the plants and animals, have tea, read books, know fruit by the seasons, and live in each era as deeply as we can. We truly only get to be together like this just this once.