Finally feeling settled in our new life with our new house, our new (very old) car, our new (very, very old) piano, our newish jobs in our newish-ish town, Troy went and dug us a backyard pond and planted a butterfly garden. Now when life’s hassles get us down (broken air conditioner in July, as if we are forever cursed to encounter some issue with our Fayetteville houses’ air temperature), we have the most splendid places to sit and rest and hammock the evening away.  (Life’s tragedies are another story.)

In the midst of pond hole digging and milkweed planting, our niece Lily spent the week with us over the 4th of July, thus becoming our very first house guest on Anne Street. Her mom Jeni was a close second, arriving on July 4th to be part of our neighborhood’s war zone festivities (and she brought the most patriotic hat barrettes).  Huck and Lily spent the three day weekend at their lemonade stand, where half the proceeds were given to Magdalene Serenity House coming soon to Fayetteville.  Huck is a compassionate, yet clever, capitalist, and I think there was a part of his brain that thought he might get more money if he gave some to charity.  In any case, the miraculous organization has 19 more dollars in their working budget along with a formal love note placed in the offering plate at St. Paul’s.

www.lovehealsnwa.org

While setting up the lemonade stand, I answered a seemingly random ad on Craigslist for a Honda Accord in our price range and then sat back and watched the magic happen. The owner was moving to NYC in a few days and so I was pretty sure it was meant to be.  We texted back and forth and realized we had all the same Fayetteville theatre friends. When she heard we had a lemonade stand, she brought the car to us so we could examine and drive it while she bought herself a cup from the two sweaty little entrepreneurial philanthropists. Within a few days, the car was ours and we wished the previous owner well as she made the journey eastward to our other favorite town.  Did I mention her mom’s name is my nickname and her last name is my mom’s maiden name?  Such a cute little world sometimes.

Speaking of cute, Huck’s favorite song from piano lessons these days is “Heart and Soul,” similar to the duet we girls grew up playing on any piano we could find.  This version of the song is a little more complex with a hint of the familiar heart-wrenching tune, and he very excitedly figured out a tricky section last night. As I was tucking him into bed he exclaimed, “Finally I’m not constricted to just playing pentascales!” So much of what Huck says is beyond my level of understanding, but I was able to take away the gist of his happiness, which is pretty much all we parents can hope to do. It’s taken a while, but he’s finally learning the true heart and soul of the song.  And now, of course, he’s trying to teach me part of it so that his solo can sometimes be a duet.

My pleasure.