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D has been in town for only one day out of the last ten, which I hope explains my silence the last two weeks. When D’s gone I lose my morning writing time and my weekend teaching prep time, but I also lose sleep. Usually, we alternate getting up with Zoë, but when D’s out of town, I’m up by 5 am every day. After two weeks of this, I’m so tired I could puke.

But even with this—the tiredness and the lack of work time—I don’t feel crazy the way I did last year when he was on the road. At least Zoë sleeps through the night now and still naps regularly (knock on wood), so I’m able to get some work done during the day.

While D was gone, Stella and I practiced her reading—she read one whole page of Diamond Castle Barbie the other day! And we “chatted” every night in bed before she fell asleep. She’s been asking about evolution and God and souls—the big questions that surprise me and that I hope I answer without too much bumbling. Zoë has begun to love books, as well. She picks up Bear On A Bike—her favorite—and plops down in my lap a dozen times a day. The dear.

My mind has been buzzing with writing of the non-Barbie and non-Bear variety, as well. I’m loving my new Loft class, American’s Writing Across Cultures, which is helping me stretch my memory back to the work and research I did in Costa Rica in the 1990s. I’m also still immersed in my online Mother Words class, which is going very well. I was worried that teaching online would be difficult for me because I’m someone who feeds off the energy in a classroom, and I thought I would miss sharing that physical space, but it turns out I don’t. My students are so smart and thoughtful and are such careful readers that I have found myself both energized by them and in a nearly constant state of appreciation for their hard work and talent. They’re amazing!

D won't be traveling for a while now, so I can safely say that I’m back, as well.