We’re tired from family bike riding and a long work day. Char wanted to learn how to paint pumpkins so that’s what we did.

I didn’t want to paint. It has been a tough work week. I managed a little hum-bird. Notice the boys lounging wishing I would just turn out the light.

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I am using all of my Monday for work. I am actually missing my bed and boys. I do have Woob here with me and we are putting in a critical night at the office. I stopped for 30 minutes to fulfill my responsibilities to art with minimum effort.

My sister bought these vintage watercolor crayons at an auction a long time ago. They are likely giving me lead poisoning but…

Charlie and I have had an exhausting week. We have suceeded personally when I wasn’t sure I could even get up and do half of what I needed to do. He has a tendancy to immediately tell me he can’t do things. I worry that is me. My insecurities. Maybe it is just normal to be so small and green. Maybe he believes he will never be tall enough to complete the tasks. Today he was confident. He learned a song by listening to it for hours. Then he sang it all. Worked at the timing like I did in my 30s trying to play and sing songs. Here he is 4. He used the hand held sweeper he has been afraid of since his eyes could follow it and understood how to remove each tiny crumb. Swept up an ant because he is a wild boy. Best of all he was actually interested in painting a flower to preserve it’s memory. Flowers his dad bought us before he left to play music to cheer us while he was gone.

As sad or stressed or sick as I could be, there is nothing better than him asking me to teach him.

I am at the end of a case of shingles. My body has hated me for years. It’s the stress. Do I keep allowing, creating this stress. Is it normal stress? Is it the way I am enternalizing it? Am I at “that” age. Shingles. These things are no joke. A tiny patch of them eats away at your nerves. For me to go to the doctor on my own for something outside of preventative care means I was sure I was dying. Absolutely maddening.

David drove all day to get home. We scrambled for two hours to clean ourselves up. Bathe. Brush our hair. Sweep. Clean. Clean. Clean. Toys in boxes. Paint brushes in glass jars. And we made him some sub-par dinner he told me was delicious. He took Char a little bike ride to remind me we live in a beautiful place. And before 8:00 pm Charlie fell asleep on the chaise in the sunroom. His day was so full of learning he couldn’t even stay awake at his happiest.

I mangled together a weird cat in the dark and watched Seinfeld and sipped Whiskey David received from his band mate for his birthday. Coveted whiskey we shared with club soda and oranges. Then soon David was asleep too.

3rd session on this one and I will probably work on it again tomorrow.

Highly productive work day but not much art. Char and I had a pizza party at the shop and I worked in between LEGOS, snacks and retrieving a rocket he kept launching into highly stacked bins of guitar parts. Paint-doodled a 5-minute blue flower right before midnight.

Char and Woob are curled up on 7 blankets and 8 pillows in the middle of the office floor. A hideout Char constructed. Going to curl around them and sleep for a few hours before packing out Saturday’s guitar part orders.

Not making any masterpieces tonight. Just smearing around watercolor on some mysterious paper someone left at my house. Maybe it was from craft junk I bought at a thrift store? Not sure. Yupo paper. Doesn’t let the watercolor dry right away. I am not sure how to feel about it. Just started really digging in when Char was complaining it was time for bed. Tonight I was keeping him up for a change.

Is it horrible I was glad Char’s first soccer practice didn’t happen because of rain? We had the best night. Went to Target for a few groceries, black pants and a new lunchbox. He was so excited to pick out a LEGO one. His old train lunchbox had a broken zipper. Just snuggled and put together Legos. Ate pretzels and drank tea. Party night.

I should have revisited my actual work but Char needed me. Spent the morning taking Mom to the doctor so I am behind at work. I feel really good I took that time though. I think we’re both working through a health rough patch and we’re slowly getting better. It was great to see her happier and well today. Made me feel happier and well.

Left the Nashville sunshine mid-afternoon and drove into a dark Ohio. Carried Char to bed and watered all my thirsty houseplants. All I had left I used to pour a drink, email some guitar parts dudes and paint a tiny square of a mermaid in love with a star.