Passing down the tongs...

So, after experiencing what seemed like an inordinate amount of illnesses and critical medical conditions and deaths this past holiday season and all the way into the new year, even, either too close for comfort, virtually through FB, or on TV, it's been sitting like a ball of acid in my belly, churning and grinding, hissing and spitting...

What if tomorrow never comes?

And although I'm not really emotionally ready to deal with the actual possibility of that all too inevitable reality, I decided that at the very least...

I could teach them how to cook. 

Full meals. Great meals. Family meals. Because food is home. And sharing. And moments. And holidays. And love, and arguments, and weddings, and funerals. And that's what I want them to remember. All the levels and flavors and depths of love.

So tonight, Saita decided she would make Mama's Chicken Tacos. From scratch. On her own. And she did!!  Three hours later, we're sitting down to the absolute best chicken taco meal I have ever had in my whole. entire. life. 

And all I can taste...is her love.

When being alarmed is not so bad...

bwehhm...Bwehhm...BWEHHM...

I sat bolt upright in bed. What the hell was that?

BWEHHM  BWEHHM!! BWEHHM!!!!

It was getting louder.

It was coming from Chago's room.

It was an...I think that's an...oh, dear God, I think he actually set his alarm!

And sure enough, in one fluid movement, he pops right off his top bunk, slams the snooze, flicks on his light without a second's hesitation that we normally have to 1-2-3, snatches his book off his desk, and hops right back into bed.

"Uhhhhh...Bubba? What's going on, babe?"

"Morning, Mama!!" says Chipper Charlie.

"What are you doing, son? It's 5:45 in the morning!"

"Huh?" he says without even lifting his eyes off the page.

"Son!" I say. "What. Are. You. Doing?"

"Oh," he finally acknowledges, "well, I didn't get to finish my book last night and it's really, really good, and I only have *this* much to go, and..."

I put my palm up. Smile from every little place inside me and out.  And go back to bed.