Almost as good as lasterday

Had one of those priceless conversations with my 11 year old at bedtime tonight.  I wouldn't trade these conversations for the world, and hope to always remember them... which is partly why I blog.  Tonight, she introduced a new phrase "another o'clock."  We were discussing the impact of me returning to work, and I explained how I'd likely have to start work by 8:00.  This, she thought was fine, since she'll be in school at 7:45.  Then, she simply suggested that I return home from work at "another o'clock" to be here when her school day ends. This, from the genius who at the age of 4 coined the phrase lasterday.  Lasterday was how she referred to anything that occurred in the recent past. It made much more sense to her then the word yesterday, and we all agreed, naturally!

Grief creep

Just when you think you may have finished the grieving cycle, little things happen that allow grief to creep in.  I was at the pool yesterday watching my daughter and nephew (9 and 8) play baseball... they were striking a very worn water-bomb-ball, using their arm as a bat and jumping in to swim the bases (whose location was visible only to the two of them).  This lasted for over an hour, and there were no bad calls, no outs, frequent re-dos and lots of pure fun.  I wished my sister, Eileen, was sitting there with me to watch her son and niece.  I remember when, 12 years ago, we had agreed that we'd stay close, so our kids would grow up playing with their cousins. We planned for it, bought houses in the same city, had 5 kids between us... What we didn't plan on, was cancer. She got it first, ovarian.. then I was diagnosed with breast.  8 months later, only one of us remained.  That was nearly 5 years ago.  So there it is, grief creeping in on a warm sunny, otherwise perfect pool day.  With this creeper, though, there were no tears.  I just said a prayer asking God to make sure Eileen had a great seat to see this baseball game.  Since she wasn't sitting next to me, here, I know she must be with our dad taking in the view from Heaven.