Boo Hoo Moo.

I'm heading to camp again this weekend, so please don't expect regular postings until Sunday!

Today, I wish I could say that my gutsiness involved forays into new knitting techniques, learning new songs, figuring out bigger and better recipes, or even painting my nails.

But today was really about priorities.

It was about hanging out with a group of four or five pre-K kids, sitting around a table eating goldfish crackers and laughing hysterically along to their favorite book-on-CD. It was about linking hands in a chain so none of them would have to be first or last in line while we walked back from the gym.

When the summer ends and these kids go traipsing off to Kindergarten, I'm going to be sorry to see them go. And I don't mind admitting it. I may even cry, big fat unsightly tears. Because these kids have grown SO MUCH, and they're going to continue to grow SO MUCH, and they're going to feel the things I've felt and love people and dislike people and do things they don't want to do and get traffic tickets and burn their cookies by accident and forget to put detergent in the washing machine and rescue/freak out about/stomp on spiders. They're going to try new things and figure out which things they like and which they don't like. They're going to have their hearts broken--really truly--and then mended again. They're going to make friends. They're going to lose friends. They're going to vote, or not vote, or forget to vote, or be the ones voted on. They're going to wonder about the Big Questions. They may even take Logic classes someday and go through the same ridiculous line of inquiry. Namely, "Why? Why the HECK do I even have to think about this?" They're going to get mad. Really, really mad. And then they'll calm down. They're going to buy houses, and clothes, and decide what to eat or not to eat, and calculate things like finances and mortgages and bills. They're going to communicate, and not always well. They're going to live, and not always well. And they'll learn. And they'll grow. And they'll have kids, and the cycle will start all over again.

But for now, those things feel very far away. Right now, it's about leaky dixie cups, colored pencils, and Superman puzzles. It's about Thing 1 and Thing 2 and the way they copy EVERYTHING the other one does, and it's about the very last child to be picked up who had a smudge of marker on the side of his head that made him look like a zombie. It's about puppies and headbands and the hilarity of the word "toilet". It's about smiles, especially the ones where teeth are missing. It's about hugs, especially ones that smell like sunscreen. And it's about words. Especially, "I love you."

You know. Just the small stuff.

-The GLS