So I’ve started this post three times.   Once I was going to write a sort of stream of consciousness rundown of our day – you know, like “woke up to snow (aaargh!) made breakfast, went to get coffee, made some phone calls…”    The purpose of this was to show how varied our days are, but it came off reeeaally boring, and my goal is not to put readers into a comatose state but to hopefully entertain and sometimes inform, so that idea was 86’d.  (That’s restaurant jargon for “cross it off the menu we’re out” for those of you who have never waited tables).

Then I thought of writing something thoughtful about the continuing events in Libya, Bahrain, etc.   This was going to be tied in to some talk about how what we tell kids at a very young age, over and over, becomes part of their belief system and how if these are things like “All Arabs are terrorists” or “Only Baptists go to heaven” it can have a detrimental effect on society as they grow.   But I listened to myself and all I heard was “Blah, blah, blah.”   It sounded just a wee bit self-righteous.   Yuck.

Then I thought about taking another route entirely and talking about an artist and writer I love named Brian Andreas, who writes these wonderful books of poetry and art called Story People.  (and in case you want to check it out, his website is www.storypeople.com), but it really wasn’t going anywhere, so I ditched it.

I could write about how we are all recently addicted (or re-addicted, in my case) to the TV show “Friends”.  I just got all 10 seasons on DVD and we have been laughing our heads off.  Great antidote to no playdates, by the way.  (Did I mention that we thought we were having a playdate today and it didn’t pan out? And that this is cause for more turmoil than you might reasonably expect in my house?)   I’d forgotten how funny and brilliant that show was.   Or that we are watching the second season of “Merlin”, also on DVD, and how I am actually on the edge of my seat sometimes, the suspense is so well done.

Then I thought of talking about how my kids, for whom bedtime is a pretty vague and undefined concept, have started sending themselves off to bed, sometimes, in Ben’s case, as early as 8:30pm.   This unschooling thing is amazing!

Nothing felt like it merited an entire post.   It was all kind of random and jumbled.   Then I thought about it, and that is how some of our best days are.  Random and jumbled and not entirely focused.   We read about the protests sweeping through the Arab world and looked at the map, then laughed at some funny shows on a DVD.   Neither of those things took a lot of time, but it seems that is often how we learn best.   A quick glance here, an article there.   It might not seem like much, but a passing comment will be re-visited later on – the same day or the following week.  You never know what will take hold, or when.   And you  have to just go with it.

Kind of like I did tonight, writing this.