trying not to sweat all the fall stuff

May my reaction to each situation be based on the most generous interpretation...

Tucker has a choir concert tonight. It starts at 8pm, basically bedtime. I think that adjustment is related to an athletic event. This is why we live here, I remind myself, so that every student can be involved. And there is something about listening to kids sing, the way it flushes out every bit of anything that is not love.

Tolliver's last baseball game of the season ended 6 to 7 -- with him safely stealing third base, poised to tie the game plus a bizzare call for out due to batter interference or something? But his team lost graciously and he went to the movies with RoRo and hasn't looked back. He wore "double drip" for good luck, and because he did make all three outs in one inning, the necklaces will return with spring ball.

On Sunday Hank noticed that dinner looked like a rainbow, except maybe we should have added blueberries - yellow rice, orange and green stir fry vegetables, pink salmon... After a second helping, and plenty of space to pause for a big, happy sigh, there was not a single color left on the table. Between bites, Hank had asked Tucker to explain what "advocate" means. Tucker did a lovely job defining the word and sharing an example via politics. There was one other word Hank asked for clarification around but I won't type it here. Andy did a nice job handling it. Thank goodness the boys know that everything is mentionable at our house!

Hank finished knitting a water bottle holder (his own design) at art club after school last Friday, but when he got home and tried to remove it from the loom it literally unraveled. He handled that giant disappointment with remarkable calmness. After help untangling the yarn, Hank has already knitted a new one and carried it to school this morning. He got to work on his Halloween costume over the weekend too. I did overhear Hank trying to explain JoAnn Fabric store to his brother: It's like the hardware store but for grandmas.

I mean, that's a generous interpretation, isn't it?