Holiday donations, parenting, and the Solstice, not quite in that order

Good Morning Internets,

I need to run some errands right now, but I’ll be back to edit this post with a short list of stuff to donate to this year - things near and dear philosophical and familial. Stay tuned.

I’m back! I’m so sorry that took forever. It’s been a little crazy - my dear friend G had her baby and Seamus peaked his three month streak of increasingly oppositional behavior which rubbed me into little crumbly bits like a psychotic bitchy Magic Eraser (TM), and I decided to make a lot of gifts for the kiddo - which led into some made gifts for Patrick, and for all the grandparents. Plus I’m trying to start working again, because unless we buckle that belt a bit more tightly, we are going to start falling into the drain of expenses we’ve been circling while on our little raft of monthly income. We know we can tighten it, and we’re lucky we can, but the actions needed are time consuming, a month of weekends of physical work that we haven’t had on hand to spend.

And we’re thinking about talking about having a second child. ‘Cause we’re so plush with time and energy.

But today is different. Today is the Solstice. Tonight is the longest night of the year, and once we push through that, the sun comes back to us, shyly at first, flashing spare minutes at the edges of the day before capitulating into hours. It’s a very hopeful thing, this return to light. I’m cleaning like mad today and making a lovely soup while my darling boy is at daycare. He halted the long fall quarter of toddler madness last week, just before I was ready to abandon him at the zoo with the howler monkeys. He’s holding hands across streets and staying close by on our walks. He’s accepting alternatives to things he can’t have, and will re-direct when attempting to do something we’d rather he not do. He’s decreased whining and has slept fairly well.

Like I said, a return to the light. We’ll keep working on little crafts - there are painted snowflakes in our windows, and paper tree ornaments are in progress. We’ll tell him how this is a special time, that we mark the year’s end, the winter, the light. We delight in each other and share what we have with others.

Which brings me to my original topic - holiday giving! I’ll confess that I have a few near and dear causes I like to give to when I can, and often make the donations gifts. But our big donation this year was to my cousin Jessica to help with her son’s funeral expenses, so we decided to do the handmade thing and then donate on our own. Our recipients are as follows:

• San Francisco Food Bank - Food banks have more buying power with your dollars than we do, and in addition to supplying familes, many also supply food pantries.
• SFFD Toy Drive - Last year our local heroes gave out 40,000 toys to 25,000 kids, and we know the need will be greater this year. 
• Icehouse Detroit - This looks “frivolous” because it’s a public art installation (and unless you’re Jesse Helms, is art ever frivolous?), but the Icehouse project, co-led by my delightful cousin Greg, is working with the Michigan Land Trust to provide as much benefit to the city as possible. Donations to the project helped a family obtain housing in a forclosed home, and the house being used for the project will be deconstructed, the materials recycled, and the land used for a community garden. Not bad for eleven grand.

The Solstice started a few minutes ago according to the atomic clock. I’m off to welcome it.